> I think you and James are a bit too harsh on these classes. I’ve taken Prof. Bromenschenk’s Master Beekeeping class...
To clarify, EAS offers no "master beekeeper classes". They only have the exam. They have their "short course", with "novice" and "experienced" tracks, but nothing to prepare one for the high-stakes gamble of spending an entire afternoon at EAS both indoors and relatively sober, only to perhaps be found "not worthy" via a test that gets ever-more fiendishly obscure every year. Worse yet, those who fail must applaud those who DID "pass" at the final night's banquet.
I never want to do anything but be enthusiastically supportive of Prof Jerry B. and all of his efforts, in fact, I am still rooting for and waiting for his bee-counter, two decades after I played with a prototype.
I would also never belittle **ANY** type of education, especially ongoing education. (If not for being curious enough about computers beyond learning FORTRAN, I'd likely still be working the day shift at the Idea Factory, adding more numbers to the right of the decimal points on a few constants in quantum chromodynamics in the now-tattered, shabby remnants of Bell Labs, now owned by Nokia, believe it or not.)
The USA state of North Carolina has an excellent and very robust standardized novice-through-master program that other states should copy, or NC should just license the class materials to any bee club who wants to adopt the standards. NC could make some money off it. The NC certifications mean something significant, as one progresses through a sequence of classes and practicals, each with a certification level of its own.
But calling oneself a "master" anything seems antithetical to beekeeping.
If one does not learn humility from the bees, then one has learned nothing.
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