As a society and as individuals we often turn to credentialed experts for guidance when in unfamiliar territory. When seeking new information on any topic ranging from latest hairstyles, to what computer to purchase, to how to replace car headlights, to how to invest money, there are many ways to learn. We can take classes, read books, watch documentaries, read magazine and newspaper articles, study history, watch the nightly news, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, listen to our friends, and seek the advice of credentialed experts. Regardless of how we find information, when it comes time to make a decision and take action, it is important that we as individuals take responsibility for our decisions and actions.
A credentialed expert is commonly viewed as a person who has earned a degree in a particular subject area and has related work experience. To many people credentialed equals a degree, i.e. doctorate, and expert means someone who has put in time and effort, i.e. experience. Therefore, a credentialed expert by this definition is a person with a degree and experience. But according to Google:
Credentialed – “having qualifications or documentation indicating one’s suitability for something”
Expert – “a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area”
It may be surprising that to be credentialed a degree is not necessarily required, qualifications are what’s important, and to be an expert it is not experience that is important, but comprehensive or authoritative knowledge.
To most people working in the education field, a person with a PhD giving a lecture on Different Ways in Which Children Learn would be a credentialed expert, even if that person had no children of their own and spent little time in a classroom. Conversely, a parent who had 15 years of experience homeschooling his/her children would not be accepted as a credentialed expert by this community because the parent does not hold an education degree and was not employed by an institution. Regardless, both of these individuals could give a credible lecture on Different Ways in Which Children Learn. They both have qualifications and comprehensive knowledge. They both learned how to learn, learned how to teach others, learned how to find educational resources, and learned how to evaluate different curriculum; yet one is commonly considered a credentialed expert whereas the other is not.
A person is considered an authority when members of the community of the person’s field of study agree that the individual is an authority. To the education community, that typically means holding an upper-level college degree. In the case of the PhD, the majority of the teaching community accepts the qualifications and will therefore accept guidance from this individual, whereas in the case of the homeschool parent, the majority of the teaching community does not accept the qualifications and would therefore not consider the guidance.
Contrast this with experts in other fields. In a technical line of work, a credentialed expert often has that title because their work history and knowledge gained proves that they know what they are talking about. Again, the members of their chosen field determine whether or not they are a credentialed expert. Is a business degree required for a person to start a business? Is it necessary to graduate from engineering school to create a useful computer software program? There are many instances where a degree is not necessary or even an option to be recognized as a credentialed expert. After all, neither Bill Gates nor Steve Jobs completed college.
Credentialed experts of any kind offer professional OPINIONS based on their personal database of information, which may or may not be reliable for a given situation. Recipients of information must decide whether or not to follow the guidance and whether to implement their ideas.
When credentialed experts use their position to push political ideology, they are no longer making decisions based on their knowledge and experience, but are instead using their credibility and status to push other objectives. Dr. Anthony Fauci is an excellent example of this type of problematic credentialed expert. We have seen Dr. Fauci tell us that masks work, but privately tell his friends that they don’t.
In the past, we have seen Dr. Fauci tell us that natural immunity is the best defense from future infection, yet nowadays he insists that everyone needs endless COVID shots and boosters. In the case of Dr. Fauci, he used his position as a credentialed expert to push a political agenda.
Another problem happens when people stop evaluating information for themselves and become conditioned to blindly listen to credentialed experts. Two examples come to mind with this type of problematic credentialed expert. The first is the implementation of COVID-19 vaccines by the medical community. Most doctors recommended their patients take the jab despite the fact it was experimental and over 99% of the population was likely to recover from an infection. Secondly, many people within the medical community itself also blindly followed the recommendations from the credentialed experts higher up the chain from themselves. Vaccines were deemed the only solution to the pandemic, alternative medical options were considered heresy, and the notions of healthy diet and exercise were afterthoughts. In this example, everyone from the person who received the jab, to their doctor, to the doctor’s employer, to the state medical boards, to the CDC seemed to blindly follow guidance from someone more credentialed. Out of fear, they all deferred their decision-making power to an authority with supposedly more and better knowledge than themselves. Sadly, we are now only beginning to understand the true ramifications to those who received jabs.
In a similar fashion to the chain of credentialed experts involved with recommending Covid vaccines, six members of the Grand Haven Board of Education made similar decisions with implementation of Covid policies. Instead of evaluating information for themselves, they were conditioned to blindly follow guidance from credentialed experts from the state and county health departments as well as from the Michigan Department of Education. They never considered the validity of parents as credentialed experts and blindly implemented the guidance from the credentialed experts that they believed.
We must put trust in ourselves as individuals. We have the ability to reason. It is perfectly acceptable to listen to advice from credentialed experts, but we must take responsibility for ourselves and the decisions we make.
It’s time for new GHAPS administration.