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<\/a>I agree with Michael Barone<\/strong>, in his defense of the \u201cpampered Puppeteer\u201d<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\nConservative bloggers and commenters have been making fun of [Joe] Therrien, who quit his job as a drama teacher in New York City public schools to get a Master of Fine Arts in puppetry at the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s saddled with $35,000 in student loans and unable to find a puppetry job. So he\u2019s substitute teaching at half his former pay and is a member of Occupy Wall Street\u2019s Puppetry Guild. [\u2026]<\/p>\n
What he probably doesn\u2019t realize is that jobs in fields like puppetry aren\u2019t generated by government but are the product of bounteous market capitalism, which enables people to buy luxury goods like puppet show tickets and subsidize puppet theaters through philanthropy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I agree with everything he says, and I don\u2019t understand why people denigrate anyone for wanting to pursue and master an art; we need art<\/strong><\/a> or life becomes bleak, lonely and surprisingly empty<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n
But what Barone misses is this:<\/strong> Art \u2014 with the exception of architecture or any sort of material design which also engages science \u2014 should not require<\/em> a degree before someone is employable. Our nation has become so credential-happy that students have put themselves into terrible debt because they\u2019ve been suckered into thinking they cannot be a real musician, or a real dancer, or a real sculptor or singer, until they have been jury-certified and then degreed. It is frankly driving me nuts that one of my sons, who \u2014 having abandoned opera plans to try to make a living as a singer\/songwriter \u2014 is still in college, wasting money on a degree he no longer wants nor cares about, simply because he\u2019s put so much time and money into the institution that he can\u2019t see not getting a degree out of it. Education itself is always valuable, but the degree<\/em> is pointless. If he can\u2019t make it as a musician, he\u2019s going to open a club and promote bands; one way or another, he is never going to need his degree.<\/p>\n
And he never wanted to go to college. He is in school right now because his father and I bought into the must-have-degree mentality, and he began with a generous enough scholarship to make it worth doing, but if he\u2019d had his druthers, he\u2019d have gotten a job, worked on his music, and rolled the dice.<\/p>\n
We should have let him.<\/strong> Instead we fell into the college trap \u2014 got starry-eyed over beautiful campuses and prestigious connections he never cared about. When, after two years, he said he wanted to drop out, we held the line: \u201cNo-you-must-have-a-degree; the-degree-is-life!\u201d<\/p>\n
After the third year, this kid \u2014 who has been itchy to \u201cstart his own life\u201d since he was six years old \u2014 begged again: \u201cget me out of here! This is a waste and I don\u2019t want to do it; a music degree is stupid!\u201d<\/p>\n
And we said, \u201cno degree is stupid!<\/strong> Change to liberal arts! It is better than no degree and it will give you a breadth of exposure to topics and ideas! You must have a degree or you will never get a job!\u201d<\/p>\n
So, he grudgingly changed to liberal arts, which required more school time.<\/p>\n
This September, I told him; \u201cyou were right. Forget school;<\/strong> you\u2019re a great musician and you write great stuff. Go for it \u2014 forget school and pursue your art, before school sucks the drive out of you. The world doesn\u2019t need another liberal arts degree.\u201d<\/p>\n
But by then he had watched his brother get an entry-level job he would never have been considered for without a degree (and it\u2019s a good entry level job, that believe me we\u2019re all grateful for) and the message was received: must have degree; there are no job possibilities without a degree.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spent all of this money; I\u2019ve wasted all this time,\u201d my younger son said, \u201cI might as well finish up the degree, even if it never matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
I suppose he\u2019s right. But I feel like a sucker,<\/strong> and that we\u2019ve all been suckered. Artists do not need degrees; they need apprenticeships. Writers do not need degrees; they need to learn their craft by writing and reading and thinking and writing some more. Journalists do not need degrees \u2014 indeed some of the best of them never had one<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 they need to learn how to glean information and report it clearly, cleanly and curiously. Musicians and dancers and sports announcers, admen and marketers and computer scientists should not need degrees; their natural abilities, their drive and their demonstrated competency should be enough to legitimize them, without the damned degree, from the damned colleges and the damned meritocracy that demands the validation of over-enrolled colleges often staffed by over-indulged and way-too-comfortable cliques.<\/p>\n
Even lawyers, truth be told, should not need degrees, but mentors who will teach them how to think, how to argue, how to study and research and reason \u2014 all the things they used to teach in high school before sending a kid out into the world to make his fortune by his wits and his own ambition.<\/p>\n
All the things they used to teach us<\/strong> before primary education became about social engineering<\/strong><\/a>, with fundamentals bringing up the rear, and the installation of a mindset that says if-you-fail-the-government-will-bail-you-out.<\/p>\n