Sunday Night With John: You Down With MPP, Yeah You Know Me

Done! Finished! End of the line! End of the Road! Friday at noon it was all over. My graduate school journey was put in the rearview mirror. My research and the defense of my research was the final rung on the ladder to reach the mountaintop. It’s official. I have letters behind my name--  John Paul Derryberry MPP (Master of Public Policy). What the heck is Public Policy? I’m so glad you asked. Here is your answer in two forms:

Option One: The technical, detailed answer (feel free to skip you if want a non-technical answer), “The MPP program places a focus on the systematic analysis of issues related to public policy and the decision processes associated with them. This includes training in the role of economic and political factors in public decision-making and policy formulation; microeconomic analysis of policy options and issues; resource allocation and decision modeling; cost/benefit analysis; statistical methods; and various applications to specific public policy topics.”

Option Two: The jargon-free answer, “I learned why people in the public arena do what they do.”

So why did a guy who said, “I will never go to grad school,” end up going to grad school and picking public policy?  To say that I feel having letters behind your name in the helping field is a little overrated is an understatement in my view. Mother Teresa wasn’t Mother Teresa MSW or anything. But, I'm pretty sure she helped a lot of people. Most of the best social justice warriors I know do not have letters behind their name. Hell, one of my favorite working moments ever was when a psychology major in grad school gave me a lecture about how to really help youth with depression. She then quit school a week later after a kid looked at her and said, “Come at me with the textbook bullshit again and I’ll punch you in the face. I’m not my file.”

But I long to have greater impact, to have innovative and better ideas, methods and outcomes flood into the caregiver world, and to promote the people who push the boundaries of the caregiver role into a better place.  Did that take going back to school? Yes it did. But I did not want to learn how better to intervene to assist people, that’s an avenue many have taken.  I wanted to put the at-risk youth system to the test. Was the system I work in actually producing good outcomes? Was I right that we need new ideas, new programs, and new people leading the charge? Or, was I wrong? Was the system working just fine and it was I who needed to change my view?  

Well, my research over the past two-and-a-half years has showed me that some of my ideas were 100% correct. The system is screwed up. Other parts blew my ideas out of the water as I did not even understand the depth of the problem. This is what knowledge does for you whether you obtain it in a classroom or the real world. It opens your eyes to new views, the correct views, and what shape future views should take. So, if Front-line-John ever met Grad-school-John he might throw up at the fact he sold out. But it’s the exact opposite. The letters behind my name only strengthen what I wanted to accomplish when I was a front-line punk. I've learned that all that matters is doing whatever it takes to reach successful outcomes or whoever has the best ideas should be promoted regardless of the letters behind their names.

I had this blog written well before this Friday but due unforeseen circumstances I was not able to defend my research yet. For the first time ever in my education I had everything turned in on time but my professors ran into snag. So I'm still an hour away from having my MPP, I finish up next week.