Scholarship

A discussion I had this morning led me to revisit a relentlessly bothersome notion. While well-read by any, even every metric, I have no formal degree more advanced than my B.Sci. As an educator and professional, that causes endless difficulties when looking for work. Being a better teacher than plenty of people with teaching degrees grates on me when I see them in front of a lecture hall. Knowing there are JWU alumni (with degrees identical to mine) that I wouldn't have let graduate seventh grade has always been infuriating too.

Still, those horrors don't make my own development any less valuable or impactful, just less likely to make me a suitable living. In a great many circles, I'm the X-Factor. The one possessed of the broadest knowledge base and most comprehensive universal perspective, and an asset to scholars and researchers more aggressively specialized than I- the provider of missing links.

A former classmate with her PhD in Japanese History: "I wonder where Yamamoto Yae got that Spencer carbine of hers in the middle of a war that made shipping hard?"

Me: "Probably Civil War surplus. Maybe through Russel and Co.- American trading company based in Hong Kong. I think maybe they had another office in Yokohama?"

Her: "...*the LOUDEST gasp*"

It's the random little things that can open the door for a tidal wave of expanded knowledge. The butterfly effect in scholarship is very real, which is why cross-discipline communication is so incredibly important. Perspective grows more complete as information connects, not merely as it accumulates.