To close:
I haven't said anything that hasn't been said by a few other people on this thread, so I really don't understand the doctor's particularly vitriolic reaction to my comments, vis a vis his reactions to the other people's comments.
I don't like to psycho-analyze people, so I won't even attempt to offer an "explanation" for this I'd say rather uncharacteristic behaviour, which( the explanation) is something I'm not qualified to do.
My late mother got her B. Ed(which was her only degree) when I was about 12 or 13 years old. When we went to her graduation and I got to see this sea of really learned people, being a bright kid at school(the type that are top of the class for six years in a row), I welled with desire to be like them(Aside: In Kenyan public Universities, a typical graduation congregation will consist an average of 3000 - 4000 graduands, so you can imagine all those mortar boards and gowns and what have you). My mother wore the typical black gowns worn by Bachelors graduates, and the degrees were conferred by no less than the President of the Republic of Kenya. The faculty dean would call out the names(surnames only, they were too many to call out in full), the President (who until last year was the Chancellor of all public universities), would do his conferment statement, the graduands would curtsey/bow and that was about it.
The Ph D graduands, on the other hand, wore ornate rich red velvet gowns with very different mortar boards, and their names were read out in full, they walked to the dais, knelt down and had the Chancellor personally confer them their Doctorates and he would give them their degree certificates on the spot( all the other graduands would pick up their certificates later from the University).
After the ceremony, one of my mom's friends said to me to work hard at school and be like my mom so I can get to wear a gown like her's. I told the friend that I wanted to get to wear the red gowns(the ones worn by PhD's). And he wished me well.
I respect knowledge.
And an education is one hell of a way to acquire knowledge.
And when I joined the University of Nairobi, Iwanted to go all the way. But a combination of factors including the facilities, the quality of instruction, money(if I had the money, I'd have opted for a well reputed american, british or german physics programm, and may be things would be different-it is telling that not a single African educated in african institutions has ever won, for instance, a nobel), I quit. Because it wasn't what I hoped it would be.
And there you have it.
Now I'll go and see what the word asanine means.