Dear Ellen, There are several criteria necessary for a group of practitioners to be considered a profession. One of them is standardization of education. As a group, LC's, who study recommended material, pass a rigorous test and then continue their education, legitimize the group as a whole. There is a lot written about professionalism and it might be a good idea to take a look. Ruth Vishniavsky, RDH, MS [log in to unmask] <<So, can anyone here perhaps give me a good reason to recertify?>> ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html