The Outcome of Education - Who's Porter Anyway?

'And what model did you use to reach your strategic options?'

I just stood there and posed uncomfortably. I hoped my answer would have been good enough and that my ears weren't bright red. They always go that way when I stand up in a room that is electrified by the hot stares of my classmates, whose faces looked like they would collapse under the weight of their sickeningly sympathetic expressions.

It had better be good. 'We looked at the weaknesses section of our Swot analysis and found blah blah blah' should do it. Now I was praying that my friend would actually say the words. He was the one asked the question after all and if I spoke for him then I'm sure my well fed lecturer would have eaten me alive.

After that ordeal I realised something - that all I have ever done in this module is learn little models like Porter's Five Force Analysis and assume that this is what must be done to analyse a firm. Who the heck is this Porter anyway?

That got me thinking.

I know learning is about receiving and absorbing knowledge (a mixture of information and experiences) but education is ridiculous. If any of the lecturers actually wanted my opinion they wouldn't ask for miles of research or sky-high bibliographies. I wasn't even told why I should trust this 'Porter' whoever he - or she - is. I immediately started to rant on about how it's the bookwriters who assume some kind of superiority and everyone else unquestioningly falls in line behind them to make sure they're not sniped when peeking their head out of the box. Then I realised that even the writers constantly cross-reference eachother like there's some kind of conspiracy to rule our minds. Most writers don't even put anything original on their pages anyway. So it is actually the educational elite who were told by someone or other that what they say would be law.

Oh well, it's just a degree anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I always used to love to learn. I've had a habit of rattling off random know-how for years and loved every second of it because it shows the glorious amount of diversity and creativity God put into His worlds. Its been my thing since I was a baby but university effectively killed my creativity and zeal for getting something new in my head. Now it's just been a race of endurance and the only thing I can say I have learnt was how to pray really really well.

Yet I'm at the end of that race.

Just like that class presentation the heat is on but this time its not the microwave glares of classmates that are getting my blood boiling or giving me a cold sweat. It's the prospect of actually overcoming this last part and getting to graduation. Probably the only thing more scary is what the heck I will do after that. Maybe I could make it my mission to meet 'Porter' and trust in their apparently unquestionable wisdom. If this genderless deity has mind blowing words then surely their answers to my present case of post-uni blues must be dynamite...