I did not attend a “Mickey Mouse” university

Apr 14, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
It is amusing reading about Guyana and self-styled US universities. Our circle of friends in London refers to unknown US universities and their degrees as “Mickey Mouse” universities and “Jack in the Box” degrees. I got so angry one day when a US ”Professor” (in the UK “lecturer”) put me down once too often, that I was forced to let him know that just as he was presumably competent in his field, I was in mine. In the mid-1950s, for a year, after a full day’s work of typing, I trained at evening classes for an academic year as a personal secretary, and subsequently worked as such, mainly in Government. By 1986, I had gone as far as I could, ending up as “Superintendent of Typists”, which involved the testing of secretaries for employment with what is now a worldwide telecommunications giant. I did not have a ‘Jack in the Box’ degree from a “Mickey Mouse” university.
I had proved my worth through my hard work, professional reputation, and a demonstrable love of secretarial work. Being a personal/private secretary in London involves much more than just typing. One had to anticipate the boss’s every move, which every serious P.S. should be capable of doing after a while. In my day, personal secretarial work was regarded as a ‘profession’, reflected by one’s training and performance in the job. Experience counted heavily. As a B.G. civil servant, the Cambridge School Cert. necessary, I was able to hold my own among peers, and worked without constantly diving into a dictionary, which resulted in greater production at the end of the day. Incidentally, I have read about past “pollution problems in foreign parts” with outfits interested in Guyana’s waters. Let our people beware.
Geralda Dennison

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