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Friday, May 01, 2015

EARNING A Ph. D.

My dad - Saint Gianfranco - always told me that the importance of a Ph. D. is only in the title itself ("piece of paper" he named it) because someone is either born with it or it doesn't matter how much or for how long studies are done, a Ph. D. will never be earned. Of course I was born with my Ph. D. already, so it didn't really matter in what subject I received it, it only mattered for the opportunities I could have opened for my work career and since - even if forever in love with advanced analysis in math - I chose international economics, as the "piece of paper" framed in 1989, hanging on the wall of every studio I ever had, shows.
Aside from the fact that I know of several Ph. D. professionals who surely weren't born with it and use this title just as a crown on their heads, I'm now thinking that there's another title that gives almost equal earning opportunities to a Ph. D. and doesn't require the many years of studies at expensive schools.
That's the conservatorship, that barely requires a high school diploma and can be transferred from a parent to his/her child like a heritage, no backbreaking years of studies in surely expensive universities far from home.
I'm therefore sorry that my children won't inherit my title, but since my Ph. D. gave to me the opportunity to live and work across the continents, I'm going to be very proud when they both will have earned their own "piece of paper" that I can already see they both have.
I'm actually dreaming that they will eventually go to some university in my mother country (Italy) where education is still not test-based like it's been here for way too long (or you don't receive your Ph. D. just because you learned how to answer right to several A or B questionnaires, the subjects you studied became part of your way of thinking, of yourself and you can talk about them in front of an audience like you talk about what you just had for breakfast).
Even if I can't see nor talk with my treasures close to what I'd consider to be sufficient for a true dad, I can already say what their Ph. D. is going to be in and they can count on my support here too.



  1.  http://www.geteducated.com/career-center/detail/what-is-a-doctorate-degree
  2. http://gradschool.about.com/od/admissionsadvice/g/phddef.htm
  3. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Ph.D.+degree
  4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorate

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