Re: Matthew A. White's proposal of learning on the job:
 
I recently posted a message on the Archives list about current education
practices in archival education.  In that message I suggested that the
"leave it for graduate school" approach to archival training squeezed
into a two-year programme, left much to be learned.  Here, as I had
proposed in that message, I feel very strongly that both archival and
museum studies should begin in the very first year of college and
continue through graduate school.  There is quite a bit of information
and hands-on education that could occur during that six-year period that
would not be possible in the present system.
 
I don't know all the historic reasons such education is offered largely
at the graduate level, but I would be willing to venture that it is from
an elitist root.  Be that as it may, the present circumstances would
appear to demand a re-thinking for the rationale behind a largely
graduate only education in archival and museum topics.
 
It is important to understand that we are in a changing world of museum
philosophies and practices.  Just the place of electronic technologies
and community interaction are enough to easily fill a two-year programme,
but add to that all the "missed" education and, indeed, there can be
those who would like more from their education; and institutions that
demand more of recent graduates.
 
A partial, biased, and ignorant opinion expressed by:
 
Dave Wells