? Hi Floyd ? I second that David.?? ?? I often recall?that the?late great hero of American history, a backwoods lawyer named Abe Lincoln was .....basically home schooled & "self directed". ?? Combine that with integrity of character, infused with morals,love and other?virtues & I believe the recipe for being a fine human being? & fully functioning in any endeavor is,....?a definite possibility. ? Regards & respect? ? Dale Erwin ? Well said... David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 ----- >What do letters after my name mean? Are they a sign of perceived self >importance? I suppose for some people they might be. >But I tend to look at them in a different light. >I believe in the value of self directed study. But when I hear someone >describe himself as self-taught, it bothers me. >There are a number of areas in which I have worked at gaining expertise >outside of a formal learning environment. Doing so >is almost always a combination of reading and dialoguing with others who are >interested in the subject matter. I am not >self taught in these areas, even though I have exercised significant >initiative. My teachers are those who have invested >time and effort in writing to pass on their knowledge, and those who share >their time and ideas with me. >I cannot yet put the letters RPT after my name. I hope to be able to do so >in the near future. There are some other letters >I can put after my name, and when and if I choose to do so, they indicate >that I do not consider myself self-sufficient >in knowledge, but that I have valued the input and evaluation of those more >experienced than myself. I have considered it >valuable to learn from them and to submit myself to their standards of >evaluation, rather than simply to my own. >It is obvious that one can operate a successful business without formal >credentials. That fact does not make meaningless >the practice of submitting my work to the evaluation of those more >knowledgable than myself. It is also true that most people cannot tell the >difference between someone who actually knows what he is doing, and someone >who is simply following >a set of step-by-step instructions created by someone else, without knowing >why he is doing what he is doing. >I currently tune using a set of instructions created by Robert Scott. I am >grateful to him for developing the Tunelab >program. It enables me to earn some income to feed my family, even though >my aural skills are not yet su fficient for me >to tune without the visual feedback. But the fact that I can use a tool to >do a job without fully understanding it does not >render real understanding meaningless. >When someone says I do not need anything more than the ability to "get the >job done" in order to earn income in that line >of work, I won't argue. But when someone says that the standard for >obtaining credentials in the field should be lowered >to the extent that I don't need to know why I am doing what I am doing to >hold the credentials, I must complain. If I can't thoroughly evalute a >tuning with my ears alone, I should not be holding credentials. >Right now the RPT designation means something. Sure, there are people that >have passed the tests and quit learning, or >have not demonstrated an ongoing commitment to excellence and customer >service. But these are not the people that >define the value of what it means to be an RPT. Let's keep pursuing a >vision of excellence and of a high level of skill >that is rooted in learning, preparation and understanding. >Floyd Gadd, associate member >Manitoba chapter -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20081220/8b514edf/attachment.html>
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