[SML] Colleges and the arts

[Kristi R-C]

 This presumes the only reason to go to college is to get career training and that’s simply not the case. 
Being able to research and report on that research, being educated well enough to be able to debate someone on a topic without it becoming a personal vendetta, and being able to possess enough knowledge to go on to those career preparations which require advanced study (e.g. social worker, law, medicine, and college teaching, to name a few. We can add MBA, and even MFA to that list) are all valid reasons to go to college. I’d argue being able to know what’s real and what’s BS on social media is a great reason to go, too. 
So is “I have no idea what I want to do with my life and need a little more time to figure that out.” 
My undergrad is in vocal performance. I went back to get teacher certification K-12 choral/general music, which then led to a masters in theater focusing on technical pedagogy, but I’d argue my IATSE local did a better job of career training than anything I paid for. Problem is, damn few IA locals have anything nearing a “real” apprenticeship program and even those don’t have universal standards for what’s needed. (Never fear... looks like that’s coming sooner than I expected.) 
And when I look back, darn few of the folks who were music ed majors in college stuck with that career to retirement. Many moved into business, went to law school, or went to another school for more training. One is an OBGYN nurse, another in cardiac ICU and another in a cancer hospice. One is development officer for a private school. A couple are a librarians (also needs a Master’s degree!). One runs an advertising agency. Several are lawyers or computer programmers/scientists. One manages the local music store. A couple got MDs. One runs a foundation for animal rescue. Many of us are caring for elderly parents or kids. And music can be a part of all of these professions, as well as an avocation. 
So... let’s look at some of the careers folks on this page have...
What college or school can I go to learn arena rigging? Or any entertainment rigging for that matter?How about making bespoke wigs for theater? Managing a hemp house? Stage managing for corporate events? Calling spotlight cues? (June Abernathy and I are available to teach this to your kids.)Or mixing with a Digco board well enough to tour a Broadway Show? Ooh! Or desigining a sound system for one! How about designing an integrated sound/video/lighting system for a mega church?Or running a small business serving a niche industry where your relationships are more important than your marketing materials?
I dare say every person on this group has had some post-HS education and almost all of us have had a combination of formal and informal instruction, the latter often provided on the job by someone who’s a master of that specific skillset. And formal instruction is often from manufacturers teaching us how to run their gear. 
The catch is... most of y’all are men, and if your race is the majority in your country, the simple fact is, it’s been far easier for you to get those doors open than it has been for women and people who are not of the major race. 
So college here is part of the great “American Dream” - where anyone is supposed to be able to “pull themselves up by their boot straps” get and education and get out of (or avoid) poverty. And education is not just technical skills to do a job. Communications, psychology, advanced mastery of the three Rs, how to lead a team - those are just as vital and a good school will ensure their students have a working knowledge of all of those. So we need to keep 2/4 year colleges and universities and technical colleges and trade schools and the rest as they all help in that “pursuit of happiness” we’re supposed to be able to have. 
As for payment - yeah.  That’s a different matter...
My undergrad’s current tuition etc  (comprehensive fee) is around $265,000 for four years, 1% of 1400 students pay the full thing. Everyone’s getting scholarships, grants, or taking out loans. Yet, when I graduated (in four years, as almost all their current students do... the average nationwide is six!) I only owed $6K in loans on $44K of comprehensive fee. I couldn’t get financial aid to get my teaching license beacuse I already had a Bachelors so that was all loans. And no one told me that I could work at a college to get tuition remission for a Masters until I was already 24 credits in, so that was mostly pay-as-I-go until I went back to complete it and took out loans. 
It’s possible to get other support for your undergrad. 
My nephew worked at McDonalds and got tuition subsidies there. He was able to transfer to a different store when he transferred schools and maintained his shift leader position.
Another went into the military. Eight years later he came out intending to go to college, but instead did a plumbing apprenticeship. He’s now making six figures as a plumber, but wants to go to college to become a mechanical engineer and design plumbing systems. Thanks to his military service and employer benefits, it’ll be close to free. 
We even have a cheese company here that’s offering $56K to their employees to help them get a degree while they are working. 
The fact remains that the kid who was undecided then found out they love chemistry and so became a pharmacist, or the one who was inspired to learn more about music and became a music therapist, or even the one who majored in art history and is now running a gallery, teaching students to mimic the great masters or working at auction houses - all of them have a place in an educated society. 
All jobs are skilled jobs. Ya want your burgers cooked properly, your airport bathrooms clean, and your grocery store shelves stocked - all jobs have value and all courses of study may be just the thing that person needs to be a better person and thus be a better neighbor, co-worker and fellow citizen for all of us regardless of how they earn a living.  
There are people in college today who are learning things that will prepare them for careers that don’t even exist now. The learning how to learn at the highest level - that’s the reason to go to college. 
Having the government decide what I can and can’t learn is the absolute anthesis of what the USA and any other democratic society stands for.  Racial-majority men may have never had someone forbid you to do something because of your race or gender, but those of us who have can tell you how crappy and unfair that is. Access to education is key to freedom, and the return on investment is one on of the best from any opportunity. 
I far prefer my taxes pay for arts history than another bomb or nuclear widget. ROI. 
Kristi R-C


    On Sunday, September 24, 2023, 09:29:09 PM CDT, Joe via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:  
 
 
On Sunday, September 24, 2023 Bill Sapsis via Stagecraft<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

>Would now be a good time to start talking about Vo-Techprograms for technical theatre?

I think there have been a number of forces putting pressureon making an education something that is worth the investment.
Regarding shutting down arts programs, The "CarTalk" radio show on PBS often made fun of the "Art HistoryMajors".  They considered it the epitomeof a degree for which you can't find a job in the field. Likewise in theater,the joke is "You are an actress? What restaurant do you workat?".  So the arts majors have longbeen taking criticism regarding it being a viable career. 
And there is sometruth to the jokes. There are many more people who want to be in the art fields,than there are job openings for them. Sports is another example, since only 1.4% of college football players end up as pros. But intheater, the students involved with the theater department are theater majors. Whereas,in sports, it is expected that you are earning a degree in another field.  Business management is a very popular subjectfor athletes, though some take easy, junk, degrees.
For years now, the rising costs of college education, beyondthe cost of inflation, has also been putting pressure on making the degree earnits investment.

The efforts by Biden to use federal money to pay collegedebts has brought the tuition topic to the forefront. The issue of buyingvotes, and capitalism vs. socialism is a major part of that.  So, there is certainly a political component.
But, I think the main issue is if an arts major expectsto earn enough money when they graduate, to make it worth the money that isinvested.  If they expect to have toultimately pay for it themselves, they are more likely to choose somethingother than an arts major.   
Reducing the cost of a theater major, through the Vo-Tech system, is one solution. Another approach for keeping the status quo, is if art departments get thegovernment to subsidize them. But that requires that they do things the governmentwants them to do. And in general, I don't like that idea.  Let the democrats fund their own arts institutions without my own tax money. I actually don't like the idea, even if the government were to get more inline with my own views.

-Joe
  ____________________________________________________________
For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
Stagecraft mailing list
Stagecraft at theatrical.net
http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://theatrical.net/pipermail/stagecraft_theatrical.net/attachments/20230925/7a6d4036/attachment.html>