[footfootfoot]

I don't know about poo pooing jobs. There are jobs I would find it difficult to do, but not because they are beneath me. I've already done plenty of jobs that are beneath me. And the problem with TSA is the idea of the necessity of that job, and the fact that the drivers of the economic engine have created an economy where people are put in a position where they have to take such jobs, jobs that defy reason.

What would be wrong with a world where people could "follow their bliss"? In your list of possibly useless classes, Art History, Literature, Archery, I would say perhaps those are some of the only useful classes to take. Not that they would be of interest to some company whose values and morals were shaped by MBAs, but useful to leading a more fulfilling and satisfying or significant life.

Running any business the way an MBA would is like thinking delicious, wholesome cooking is merely serving protein and carbohydrates. It's the idea that if a match is good at lighting a fire, then a flamethrower has to be better.

There's no subtlety.

As far as the value of an education, I suppose it depends on what you are learning. I spent one semester at Syracuse University ($18,000) and while I have to say I had some very good foundation art classes there, I don't think it was worth $18,000. One of the soon to be graduates in the photo program ($36,000 x4) said to me she was looking forward to experimenting with filters to see how they would affect her photos. Another senior was unsure of what a guide number was for his flash. These are both things they should have mastered by the end of their first year, not things that they'd never tried before.

I had already had several years of professional experience as a photographer (self taught) before I ever went to school. School was not able to teach me anything about photography, I switched majors and schools after SU nad went to a state school and finished my degree for less that half of the cost of that first semester.

I learned a few things, but nothing that I couldn't have learned in a book, met a lot of people, but no one I couldn't have met out and about in life. The one thing that school had was access to facilities, but then as a begining photo assistant one of the perks of that job was usually access to the studio during off hours and a film allowance (back in the day) One week in any busy studio had more instruction than an entire semester at a college.

The first studio I worked at I started by sweeping floors, in a little while it was evident that I could be put to better use and was. I realize not every job allows for that type of trajectory, and for the ones that don't I guess school is a requirement.

And in the case of 4 years at SU, $144,000 would pay for a hell of a photo studio and an ass load of film.