On Education
An interesting article in the Washington Post this morning about whether or not a college education is worth the money. The article is written in a somewhat leading manner - after citing several examples of drop-outs who made it big (Bill Gates, Michael Dell, the CEO of DreamWorks, to name a few), you get to the end, and the conclusion is "Probably not."
Exceptions for doctors and engineers and such, however.
This made me think. The best thing I got from my college experience wasn't what I learned: it's who I met. Nothing - and I do mean nothing - I learned in college has ever become useful to me in the working world. Not that I'm part of the working world anymore, mind - the only lasting degree I earned was my MRS degree, which is absolutely not what I went to college to earn.
But the other degrees I earned: one in photography, one in technical theatre. I never really used either of them. The photography I learned was the old-fashioned black-and-white film kind, and who uses film anymore? Digital SLR cameras don't even work in quite the same way. I have little control over f-stop on my Nikon and while I get control shutter speed, it's buried in a series of menus. With film photography, it's how you take the picture, and less on processing (although that's important, too). With digital, it's how you process the picture, although it helps to have a good photo to start. I don't know a lot of about digital processing, and the technology just wasn't there when I was in school. My degree? Kind of useless.
The technical theatre degree? It might have been useful, if circumstances had been different. I focused on lighting, and I loved it. Stick me on a scaffolding amongst the spots and fresnels and gels and gobos and I was happy as a clam. But after graduation, we moved to Boston, and Boston's theatre world is mired in unions, and the only way you can get into a union is to have worked in theatre. The only way to work in theatre is to be in a union - or know someone already there. None of my contacts in D.C. knew anyone in Boston, so I ran into a great smacking catch-22 and that ended any hope I had of working with my beloved lights in Boston.
Costume shops, however, aren't regulated by the union. And so I fell back on what my mom had taught me when I was nine, how to sew, and everything I learned about costume-making I learned on the job. My theatrical degree? Next to useless.
Now, my boss at the costume shop in Boston told me that she always believed it didn't matter what your degree was in - the fact that you had one shows that you have sticking power. And there's something to that, certainly. After all, the boss in question had graduated from Harvard as a poli-sci major (or whatever they're called at Harvard, which has different ways of phrasing things, because they're Harvard), and here she was operating her own costume shop business. I doubt she was using her poli-sci degree too much in that career.
And sure, there's something to that theory. Certainly no one's really looked at the titles of my degrees and gone, "Well, you studied lights and photography, you can't possibly do this position." World's full of people who studied one thing and went on to do another.
But I do question whether or not it was prudent for me to get not only myself but my parents into debt for degrees that never really earned back what they cost to achieve.
I wonder what would have happened if I'd skipped college entirely, gone off to Hollywood to try to break into film or television, or to New York to try to be a writer? Okay, I wouldn't have met Bill and I wouldn't have Andrew, and goodness knows I like having them both around so I'm not saying I'd give them up but....
But. If Andrew comes up in 18 years and says, "Mom, Dad, I don't want to go to college. It's just not for me." I don't think I'd immediately go into a hissy fit. I'd want to know he has a plan, a goal, and is not intending to sit in his room playing video games all day.
Sure, a college degree might show that you're able to stick out what you set off to achieve. But it's not the only way to show a prospective employer that you have staying power. I mean, in a way - my college degrees could very well tell a prospective employer the opposite. "Hi, I majored in photography and technical theatre, and I never used either of them, instead ignoring them in pursuit of other activities. Don't you want to hire me?"
Yeah, that sounds good. Assuming I ever enter the workforce again, I'll be sure to put that on my cover letter.
Exceptions for doctors and engineers and such, however.
This made me think. The best thing I got from my college experience wasn't what I learned: it's who I met. Nothing - and I do mean nothing - I learned in college has ever become useful to me in the working world. Not that I'm part of the working world anymore, mind - the only lasting degree I earned was my MRS degree, which is absolutely not what I went to college to earn.
But the other degrees I earned: one in photography, one in technical theatre. I never really used either of them. The photography I learned was the old-fashioned black-and-white film kind, and who uses film anymore? Digital SLR cameras don't even work in quite the same way. I have little control over f-stop on my Nikon and while I get control shutter speed, it's buried in a series of menus. With film photography, it's how you take the picture, and less on processing (although that's important, too). With digital, it's how you process the picture, although it helps to have a good photo to start. I don't know a lot of about digital processing, and the technology just wasn't there when I was in school. My degree? Kind of useless.
The technical theatre degree? It might have been useful, if circumstances had been different. I focused on lighting, and I loved it. Stick me on a scaffolding amongst the spots and fresnels and gels and gobos and I was happy as a clam. But after graduation, we moved to Boston, and Boston's theatre world is mired in unions, and the only way you can get into a union is to have worked in theatre. The only way to work in theatre is to be in a union - or know someone already there. None of my contacts in D.C. knew anyone in Boston, so I ran into a great smacking catch-22 and that ended any hope I had of working with my beloved lights in Boston.
Costume shops, however, aren't regulated by the union. And so I fell back on what my mom had taught me when I was nine, how to sew, and everything I learned about costume-making I learned on the job. My theatrical degree? Next to useless.
Now, my boss at the costume shop in Boston told me that she always believed it didn't matter what your degree was in - the fact that you had one shows that you have sticking power. And there's something to that, certainly. After all, the boss in question had graduated from Harvard as a poli-sci major (or whatever they're called at Harvard, which has different ways of phrasing things, because they're Harvard), and here she was operating her own costume shop business. I doubt she was using her poli-sci degree too much in that career.
And sure, there's something to that theory. Certainly no one's really looked at the titles of my degrees and gone, "Well, you studied lights and photography, you can't possibly do this position." World's full of people who studied one thing and went on to do another.
But I do question whether or not it was prudent for me to get not only myself but my parents into debt for degrees that never really earned back what they cost to achieve.
I wonder what would have happened if I'd skipped college entirely, gone off to Hollywood to try to break into film or television, or to New York to try to be a writer? Okay, I wouldn't have met Bill and I wouldn't have Andrew, and goodness knows I like having them both around so I'm not saying I'd give them up but....
But. If Andrew comes up in 18 years and says, "Mom, Dad, I don't want to go to college. It's just not for me." I don't think I'd immediately go into a hissy fit. I'd want to know he has a plan, a goal, and is not intending to sit in his room playing video games all day.
Sure, a college degree might show that you're able to stick out what you set off to achieve. But it's not the only way to show a prospective employer that you have staying power. I mean, in a way - my college degrees could very well tell a prospective employer the opposite. "Hi, I majored in photography and technical theatre, and I never used either of them, instead ignoring them in pursuit of other activities. Don't you want to hire me?"
Yeah, that sounds good. Assuming I ever enter the workforce again, I'll be sure to put that on my cover letter.