A Degree Poem by Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)

What value
a degree?

A degree is only
worth
what the market
can pay.

Paid from gross national product
a country produces.*
All education is down time... though
a necessary economic luxury.

There is also
credential inflation.**
Redundant technologies
new research techniques
undermining this value.

This is a degrees
financial value.


A degree
is a recognized
level of ignorance.

A measured graded
accounting of markers;
approved component knowledge,
research skills and diction.

Graduate, Honours, Masters, Ph.d.,
in a limited specialized area.

A degree may also
have an egotistical value
be necessary for a career
or needed self esteem.

This is a degrees
intrinsic value.***


If a degree is
necessary to you
it is worth something
essentially valuable

if not a degree
is nothing
but wasted
unfocused effort.

The value of a degree
unspecified unidentified
an approximate amount
expressing time in relation

to specific numbers
qualities opportunities
a phenomenon key
awaiting recipient action.


* In the 1990’s in any developed country at least one third of the population was involved in education annually. This percentage included all students from preschool through to universities, all apprenticeships and technological training or up skilling, research, development and associated dependent industries, and all personal teaching these skills. The cost of all this on going education had to be paid for from the gross national product a country produced.
** This equates to more degrees equals inferior jobs and salaries. An example is the United Kingdom in the 1970’s when 4% of the population obtained a degree compared to the 1990’s when 30% did.
*** Inherent; belonging to the nature of a thing; essential; real.
Copyright © Terence George Craddock