There's a small island in the Pacific Ocean called Yap, where very large discs carved out of stone represent a form of currency. Some are six or eight feet across and weigh several thousand pounds. You should see the size of the wallets on Yap. Jacob Goldstein and David Kestenbaum documented the story on NPR recently. Hundreds of years ago, they said, explorers from Yap discovered limestone deposits from which they carved out huge discs, lugged them home in bamboo boats and started using them for money. They don't actually carry them around in their wallets but they are exchanged in the abstract. When a buyer uses it for a purchase, everyone knows that the new owner of the currency is the seller but the location of the stone remains unchanged.
Once, some of the islanders were hauling a giant stone "coin" back home when a storm caused it to fall to the bottom of the sea. Everybody on the island agreed that the location of the currency didn't change its value, so even though they can't see it, it still has monetary value that is used in the exchange of goods and services.
There are many forms of currency, and what may seem normal to one society might seem like Voodoo to another. To the islanders on Yap, it might be strange that you and I imbue a piece of plastic with monetary value and use it by swiping it across a small box attached to some wires or the even more Voodoo wireless version. Whether currency is represented by stone or plastic, its value is determined by its demand in the market. When an item is in demand, it holds more value.
If demand determines value and currency is a measure of value, then education could be considered a form of currency. Much like the Yap stone at the bottom of the ocean, you can't see or feel education, yet it has value. How much value education carries is a matter of debate. If you've seen the commercials on television for online college courses – and chances are that you have because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics 2009 American Time Use Survey says you spend an average of 2 hours and 48 minutes per day watching television – then you've no doubt heard that college graduates earn about $1M more in their lifetime compared to non-graduates. Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz confirm this in their book, "The Race Between Education and Technology."
But is our industry typical? Historically, many of our own have climbed the ranks of the live event production industry without the benefit of a college education. Just how big of a carved stone is education to our industry? Does it matter that the educational stone is at the bottom of the ocean? Let's ask ourselves some questions to seek out the answers.
- Is technology in our industry getting more or less complicated?
- Do we rely on technology more or less than we did before?
- Does our current technology require more or less of us than it did in previous times?
- What are the consequences of technological failure, poor design/execution, or operator error?
- Is the world's population growing or shrinking?
- What are the consequences of a more wired world as more people compete for the same jobs?
- Are we using more or less automation, computerization, and networking than we did previously?As a job becomes more complex, does it require more or less education and training?
- Does education and training increase or decrease job safety?
- Which is more expensive, education or ignorance?
I'll let you draw your own conclusions. My hope is that you do not draw the same conclusions as the work force in Australia, where an accredited higher learning institution for the live event production industry called Julius College recently had to close its doors due to low enrollment. According to information released by the college, industry support for "relevant qualification" and "skills assessment" just wasn't there.
As Abraham Lincoln once said, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."
Personally, I will continue to gather those small pebbles of continuing education with the knowledge that they will one day make a large stone.
