April 04, 2004
A work of art or a harbinger of violence?
(SF Gate) A student is expelled and his teacher fired over a story he wrote for her class detailing the grisly adventures of a serial killer. Reminds me tangentially of this adventure involving horror author Gary Braunbeck and his nephew's elementary school.
The thing that disturbs me most about the story in the main link is that the teacher was essentially fired because she assigned a novel by David Foster Wallace to a college-level course. Is the administration at Academy of Art implying that college students lack the capacity to separate fiction from reality? What do you all think? Any similar experiences? God forbid their students ever see the last page of The Grapes of Wrath.
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(main link via del.icio.us)
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There's a comment about it on Neil Gaiman's Journal.
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"The (school's) system is based on corporate greed," [said Alan Kaufman, who teaches modern art and popular culture at the school]. "It doesn't even give the bare minimum to students in terms of psychiatric counseling or social services. It just treats kids like credit cards, like clients, basically. There is no artistic vision." Clients would probably have more rights than these students. Clients are usually treated as being in the right even if they're head-up-the-ass wrong. Looking at Sandspider's link, thank goodness the Academy of Art University has published their list of Bad Things Not To Be Tolerated. Now the scary open-minded students will stay away in droves and the school can focus on their new market, the Artistically Squeamish. "Hi, I just graduated with a degree in Sad Clown Art." A good friend of mine taught web design at one of those business/techie/arts amalgamations. Every term the administration pressured him to pass students with no discernable skills so they could meet their budget. Isn't that how most places are now? For the record, I graduated from a private advertising/design school that encouraged us to think bad thoughts in the name of creativity. They also used the "grow up or get out" teaching method. By the end of the first quarter, 3/4 of my classmates had either dropped out or were encouraged to find a different career path.
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My minor was in Sad Clown Art; my major was in underwater basketweaving. It's a lucrative market.
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There was a similar story a few years ago in my neck of the woods. It was right after Columbine so everyone was in a tizzy over it.
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This is so incredibly stupid that words fail me. An art school trying to censor what their students should and should not read? For a writing class? shinything: I think the 3/4 dropout sounds about right. Lots of people think they are artistic (much like the way many people think they can become movie actors) and chances are, only a tenth to a quarter have enough talent to warrant that belief. An art school should have a high dropout rate. I think.
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Alnedra, that makes sense. It's probably also how hard you're willing to work. Especially in those early stages when everyone is producing crap. ;) Forksclovetofu: good thing you didn't get into painting by numbers. That bubble burst a long time ago.