{"id":1840,"date":"2016-01-26T10:58:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T15:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2023-07-18T21:10:01","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T01:10:01","slug":"the-professors-credentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2016\/the-professors-credentials\/","title":{"rendered":"The Professor’s Credentials"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I\u2019m trying to learn how to de-emphasize credentials as I learn to model the servanthood of Jesus.  I know that much of my propensity is to emphasize academic and financial and institutional credentials; and that comes from my own deep insecurities.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Credentialing can be a barrier between professors and between professors and students. The business world emphasizes credentials, and the professions of law and medicine emphasize credentials, but in the academic world, we really emphasize credentials.<\/p>

  • We put them before our name; we put them after our name.<\/li>
  • We calibrate; we quantify performance; we rank people all the time.<\/li>
  • We look up and down at people according to performance-based credentials or titles.<\/li><\/ul><\/p>

    One of the cool traditions at my university goes back to the founder, Thomas Jefferson. He wanted all the faculty, which at that time were all male, to only use the title \u201cMr.\u201d before their name, and not \u201cProfessor\u201d or \u201cDr.\u201d That tradition today is largely ignored, but I sometimes ask my students not to use my title.<\/p>

    When I think about the apostle Paul, with all of the credentials he had from \u201cGamaliel University\u201d and his great scholarly ability, the credential that he most often cites is right up front in his letters: \u201cI\u2019m Paul. I\u2019m a servant of Jesus Christ.\u201d And in some translations, it\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m a bondservant, or a slave, of Jesus Christ\u201d. That\u2019s my credential.<\/p>

    If I could fully capture, or as economists like to say, internalize, Paul\u2019s insight about credentials, I would make another big step forward in seeing teaching as foot washing. And maybe some of you would as well. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Kenneth Elzinga<\/b>
    University of Virginia<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I\u2019m trying to learn how to de-emphasize credentials as I learn to model the servanthood of Jesus.\u00a0 I know that much of my propensity is to emphasize academic and financial and institutional credentials; and that comes from my own deep insecurities. Credentialing can be a barrier between professors and between professors and students. The business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50274,"featured_media":275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2436],"tags":[2801,2800,2447],"class_list":["post-1840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-challenges","tag-credentials","tag-kenneth-elzinga","tag-paul"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Professor's Credentials - Faculty Commons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2016\/the-professors-credentials\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Professor's Credentials - Faculty Commons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m trying to learn how to de-emphasize credentials as I learn to model the servanthood of Jesus.\u00a0 I know that much of my propensity is to emphasize academic and financial and institutional credentials; and that comes from my own deep insecurities. 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