I think your comments are right on the money and I enjoyed reading them.
Non Hoop Jumper

Catherine Fitts
Assistant Curator
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew White <[log in to unmask]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.museum-l
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 1998 10:27 PM
Subject: Re: AAM, accreditation, etc. (long rebuttal)


>I'd like to buck the crowd a little and speak *against* the idea of an
>officially sanctioned accreditation sponsored by AAM.  I think it is an
>idea that has some merit, but I also see some problems with actual
>implementation, and besides, I hate to see anything be unanimous.
>
>  It may look from the outside that these plans work well for Doctor's,
>Lawyer's, Teachers, and Architects, but one thing we must remember is
>that if a museum professional is less than adequate at their job no one
>will die, no innocent people will go to jail, no building's will fall,
>and no one's children will be doomed to illiteracy.  A bad exhibit, a
>poorly planned event, a botched application grant just doesn't compare
>and will never create the sense of immediacy that an incompetent in these
>other professions will create.
>
>Will it create higher salaries for "accredited professionals?"  Maybe.
>But one need look no further than the growth of Physicians Assistants,
>paralegals, teacher's aides and adjunct faculty to see how many large
>institutions are hiring less credentialed people and shoving more work on
>to less qualified people.  I myself was told point blank by more than one
>person that I was LESS marketable as a school teacher with a Master's
>Degree in hand because any school system would have to pay me a higher
>starting salary than someone with only a bachelor's.  More bang for the
>buck as it were.   Let's for a minute assume that there was an AAM
>requirement for a certain percentage of employees at a given institution
>to be certified in order to be accredited as was put forth on this list.
>What would a museum on the low side of that threshold who desires
>accreditation do?  Given all the hand-wringing on this list on the topic
>I would say they would fire a couple of uncertified employees (or not
>replace ones that leave) and accomplish more of their work with
>contractors, consultants, and other non-employee help thereby raising
>their percentage while accomplishing the same amount of work and not
>having to pay for professional development which many small museums
>cannot afford.
>
>It is also apparent that many of the most regulated professions (whether
>by professional organizations or by guilds or unions) are arguably the
>least diverse in terms of minorities or philosophical outlook.  Under the
>disguise of keeping standards high people who are not part of the
>official network, people who have not graduated from the right school, or
>people who do not know or agree with prevailing belief can be kept out.
>The most egregious example of this is the Hollywood guild system which
>can keep talented professionals out of high paying jobs for decades
>because they have not worked the right number of hours for the right
>companies or they cannot convince current members to nominate them.
>Subsequently, for all of their liberal, progressive image, there are few
>industries harder for minorities and women to break into than the motion
>picture industry.  And then there is the perennial accusation that law
>schools and medical schools are keeping the supply of doctors and lawyers
>artificially low to keep salaries and their power within the profession
>and industry high.
>
>Can't happen here you say?  Of course it can.
>
>It may sound like a good idea to all of the people on this list, but we
>are a fairly homogeneous group of people. All interests are not
>represented.  A certification program might (I repeat, might) raise some
>salaries, but the result would be more reliance on non-employee labor,
>more bureaucratic paper work for institutions and individuals, more
>financial burdens on small museums and any museum who wishes
>accreditation by the AAM (an already prohibitively expensive procedure
>for many institutions) and the closing off of any avenue into the
>profession other than the one's approved of by the certification
>committee.  I love this profession precisely because it is full of people
>from so many different backgrounds with so many different experiences who
>are judged by the quality of their work not which course they took or
>what school they went to.  A perfect system?  Of course not.  But will
>putting letters after your name make you a better exhibit designer, a
>better educator, a better grant writer or marketer? No.  Will it make you
>more ethical or adhere to professional standards? Of course not (Has it
>worked that way for doctor's, lawyer's, or accountants?).  All it will
>mean is that you have jumped through the approved set of hoops, and as
>valuable as those hoops may be, having a staff full of hoop jumpers will
>not make any museum better at what they do.
>
>Matthew White
>Director of Education
>B&O Railroad Museum
>[log in to unmask]
>