A recent radio4 article..some minister discussing the cost of education.The gist: If a student can't afford an education then they should look for courses which will guarantee an income after the course. AAARRGGGHH!!!
Educational institutes as we know are businesses, they will taylor their courses to those that make money and get students-art courses and especially media arts related courses are being chewed up and mauled by increased student targets (international and national) lower funding and critically for this argument, higher student fees. If students who cannot afford courses are vectored towards courses that will generate employment, such as was mentioned apprenticeships, my fear is that this will create a more taylorised and stratified class system-I think most have heard this before. Those less well off will end up doing apprenticeships while the other more well off will enter the more academic and creative 'stuff' [trust funds and old boy networks help]. This is a pattern I'm see in arts education already. I came from an immigrant, council housed, NHS, breadline family and ended up going through further education the year before student loans were introduced.phew, would never have been able to otherwise have completed or even started an arts education.. the other options would have been a welding apprenticeship and the steelworks, all noble but the equivalent of a slow painful death for me at the time. (computer salesman nearly killed me as well!) The art scene that I mix in is largely not trustafarian and wealthy. Bright, intelligent and academic, a healthy mix of social backgrounds We might end up filling Britain's deficit of plumbers and bricklayers-some whose 'hobbies' might be art; some who genuinely contribute, create and evolve 'art'. But implicit taylorisation worries me, as does Sennet, for other reasons Rant over.. C -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Simon Biggs Sent: 19 August 2009 8:20 AM To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] naughty boy Hi Alan I wasn't trying to address that argument - just questioning whether education and work ethic are enough to facilitate a meaningful life. Yes, decent health care is important. A degree of financial security highly deslirable. The US spends more of its GDP on health care (16%) than any other country in the world and yet is the only OECD country not to have some form of universal care. The outcome of that is that average US life expectancy is lower than the OECD average (even lower than the UK's - whose NHS costs 8% of GDP and has taken such a battering in the US media recently). What Obama is trying to do with US health care looks way overdue and only sensible. Those arrayed against him look like selfish big business protecting its bottom line at the expense of the people. Mind you, everyone admires American teeth ;) Best Simon Simon Biggs Research Professor edinburgh college of art [email protected] www.eca.ac.uk www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ [email protected] www.littlepig.org.uk AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk _____ From: Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:15:26 -0400 (EDT) To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <[email protected]> Cc: Theory and Writing <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] naughty boy It's not instrumentalist; it's more fundamental. If you're crazy with stress because of bad health care, little or no income, you just don't function well. If you have students, I assume you're full time - my two courses at SVA won't even pay the bills (adjuncts get next to nothing). I have nightmares over this, migraines, etc. In other words there has to be a modicum of feeling you're not going to lose your apartment or your teeth, you're going to have some sort of stability somewhere. I don't have that - it doesn't sound like 'naughty boy' does either. - Alan On Wed, 19 Aug 2009, Simon Biggs wrote: > I always feel guilty seeking to justify to students why they should persist > with completing their degrees, whether BA, MA or PhD - so I don't. They > often say they want a degree so they can get a decent job and balance that > with their creative practice. They say they see me, with a job and an > artistic career, as a role model. I point out to them I left school at 15 > with no qualifications - to be a hippy. Other than being an artist and > coincidentally securing various positions because of my artistic activities, > including my current one, I have never had what I consider a real job in my > life. I'm just a good for nothing artist - at least in the eyes of the taxi > driver or plumber I often encounter (people with real jobs). It seems that > being good for nothing can be more rewarding than being socially useful. > > I find it a worrying that people judge themselves by whether they are > gainfully employed or not. Everyone has something to contribute. We live in > societies, both poor and wealthy, that historically have tolerated > significant percentages of their populations being what, in todays terms, we > would consider economically inactive. However, economic inactivity does not > mean a lack of productivity. There are so many ways that people can > contribute value to themselves and those around them without getting a job. > I never wanted a job anyway! > > We should not allow an instrumentalist view of life to become paradigmatic, > especially in creative practice. That is the death of the artist. > > Best > > Simon > > > Simon Biggs > Research Professor > edinburgh college of art > [email protected] > www.eca.ac.uk > www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ > > [email protected] > www.littlepig.org.uk > AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk > > > > From: Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> > Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity > <[email protected]> > Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:25:23 -0400 (EDT) > To: Theory and Writing <[email protected]> > Cc: <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] naughty boy > > My degree's in english, which has been useless all > these years; Azure's is in environmental conservation from NYU (mine's > from Brown). She hasn't been able to get work; I teach from time to time, > part-time, and the stress is incredible; I think about suicide, running > away with Azure, etc. etc. > > > Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201 > > > | current internet text file: http://www.alansondheim.org/qf.txt | Alan Sondheim Mail archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ | Webpage (directory) at http://www.alansondheim.org | [email protected], [email protected], tel US 718-813-3285 ! http://www.facebook.com/alan.sondheim _____ _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
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