Who murdered the arts degree?

[lvmpid]

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/who-murdered-the-arts-degree/

Didn't think this would actually happen, cant say I rely on the source of this article. Thoughts?

[ninwa]

Inb4 shitstorm: if you come in here for the sole purpose of trolling (because maccas jokes are SOOOO FUNNAYYYY and not unoriginal at all!!!!), I will ban you.

[paulsterio]

[dcc]

People who do Arts degrees in Australia need a thick skin. We all know the jokes about how having one means looking forward to a career in McDonalds, but when did they start? Why did it become so unfashionable, and even considered indulgent, to spend three years learning for learning’s sake.

I have to question whether the learning is productive thought; I live with two arts students who study poetry, and as far as I can tell,
learning is just writing down random shit on a piece of paper every 4 weeks. 

[ninwa]

As someone who intends to do a Diploma in Arts next year, I think the jokes are somewhat justified because most people don't actually know what you end up working in when you've finished an arts degree, it's just the fact that they're not familiar with the pathways an Arts degree can open up that leads them to bag it.

So you're saying the jokes are justified because people are willfully ignorant?

[EvangelionZeta]

People who do Arts degrees in Australia need a thick skin. We all know the jokes about how having one means looking forward to a career in McDonalds, but when did they start? Why did it become so unfashionable, and even considered indulgent, to spend three years learning for learning’s sake.

I have to question whether the learning is productive thought; I live with two arts students who study poetry, and as far as I can tell,
learning is just writing down random shit on a piece of paper every 4 weeks. 

As in writing poetry or analysing it?  Because either way, they're probably not doing very well...:p

[paulsterio]

No, I'm just saying, it's understandable because they don't understand, they don't have anything against people in Arts

[ninwa]

People are ignorant about the arts degree and yet make jokes about it as if they knew anything about it. Willful ignorance is never okay. It's one thing to be stupid and quite another to be stupid and take pride in that stupidity.

I'm not sure whether these idiots have something against arts students, or they are just so insecure in their own choice of pathway that they feel the need to tear someone else's life choices down to make themselves feel better.

Either way it is not "understandable" or excusable in the slightest, and I will not put up with it.

[paulsterio]

People are ignorant about the arts degree and yet make jokes about it as if they knew anything about it. Willful ignorance is never okay. It's one thing to be stupid and quite another to be stupid and take pride in that stupidity.

I'm not sure whether these idiots have something against arts students, or they are just so insecure in their own choice of pathway that they feel the need to tear someone else's life choices down to make themselves feel better.

Either way it is not "understandable" or excusable in the slightest, and I will not put up with it.

I think it's not their fault they're ignorant, I know some friends that, when I tell them I want to add a DipArts - they would just say, why would you do that and waste your time...etc. But I think that's not really their fault they think that, I also don't think they have anything against me personally nor are they insecure about their own choice of pathway.

It's just that:

1) They've probably been brought up in a household which doesn't value Arts - like I wouldn't tell my parents that I intend to add Arts to my degree otherwise they'd be like WTF...what a waste of money. I reckon this is one of the reasons why students these days end up being misinformed about Arts.

2) Most degrees have a very clear cut profession associated with it, for example if you do Engineering, you become an engineer, if you do Commerce, you become a financial analyst, an accountant, or whatever else, if you do Medicine, you become a doctor...etc. With arts, this is not so clear - the truth is, there will be people out there who will ask - why would you want to study (for example) Literature - what does that lead into - in terms of a career?

I don't think that it's acceptable that they're throwing around jokes about Arts, but I don't think it's fair that we just jump on them so harshly

[Water]

Philosophers (Arts) by mid-career, their income level is precisely $81,600 dollars in a recent data that was released. Just saying. Not so useless after all



PS: Great way to waste SWOTVAC period away. 

[binders]

@lvmpid, the source for most of the article is the QandA episode at the Sydney writers' festival.
And if anyone's getting cross over the comments after the article, then it's your own fault for
reading them - are they ever worthwhile and troll-free?

[Menang]

Philosophers (Arts) by mid-career, their income level is precisely $81,600 dollars in a recent data that was released. Just saying. Not so useless after all

Ahhh, I can dream, can't I?

As an arts student myself, I continually find myself procrastinating by worrying about silly things like the future.

I don't have a concrete understanding of what's out there in terms of career opportunities for history/art history majors like myself.
I do know that those philosophers (or any academic earning that amount of money) is a really hard position to come by.
While they do earn a lot, there aren't many employment opportunities available that offer well-paying, secure positions in academia.

I have a vague idea that there are opportunities in the commercial sector regarding research, which I'm interested in, but am too lazy to research further, being a 1st year.

[nacho]

As someone who intends to do a Diploma in Arts next year, I think the jokes are somewhat justified because most people don't actually know what you end up working in when you've finished an arts degree, it's just the fact that they're not familiar with the pathways an Arts degree can open up that leads them to bag it.

why'd this get so much hate?
I know it's not what paul said, because what he said was 'jokes are justified because people don't know anything about arts'
but it's pretty clear that he intended to say 'its not surprising people bag arts,  because they are ignorant of what arts entails so they bag it. people are on average ignorant of the arts degree. let us all be friends!'

im assuming butt-sensitive arts students + paul repped downvoted him.
goes a long way to show why people hate arts students

[ninwa]

I think it's not their fault they're ignorant, I know some friends that, when I tell them I want to add a DipArts - they would just say, why would you do that and waste your time...etc. But I think that's not really their fault they think that, I also don't think they have anything against me personally nor are they insecure about their own choice of pathway.

It's just that:

1) They've probably been brought up in a household which doesn't value Arts - like I wouldn't tell my parents that I intend to add Arts to my degree otherwise they'd be like WTF...what a waste of money. I reckon this is one of the reasons why students these days end up being misinformed about Arts.

2) Most degrees have a very clear cut profession associated with it, for example if you do Engineering, you become an engineer, if you do Commerce, you become a financial analyst, an accountant, or whatever else, if you do Medicine, you become a doctor...etc. With arts, this is not so clear - the truth is, there will be people out there who will ask - why would you want to study (for example) Literature - what does that lead into - in terms of a career?

I don't think that it's acceptable that they're throwing around jokes about Arts, but I don't think it's fair that we just jump on them so harshly

It most definitely IS their fault, when they know that they have no idea what an arts degree actually leads to, yet still feel that they have the right to bag it.

The idea that for a degree to be worthwhile it must lead to a "clear cut" profession is laughable (which NO degree does, by the way - yet another bit of narrow-minded stupidity from students who've been at uni for 3 months and think they know everything about education). Disregarding the fact that an arts degree in fact leads to many careers (including Prime Minister of Australia, might I add), why does career determine the value of a degree? For the small-minded people who look down on learning for learning's sake, all I can do is laugh at you and your myopic view of life.

The other bit of ignorance that I hear a lot is that an arts degree is easy. I'd love to see a science major try to HD 4 foreign languages at once (which an incredibly talented friend of mine somehow manages) or attempt to unravel the dense political theories or philosophical works that arts students do every day. I'm not a fan of philosophy myself but I still recognise that it's an incredibly difficult subject.

[EvangelionZeta]

Paulsterio, along with what Nina said, I think it's worth pointing out that making jokes about Arts students is really part of the whole problem to begin with.  Social perceptions of issues are shaped by the discourse surrounding said issue - for instance, research has indicated that the portrayal of "frat parties" and the like in American Pie etc. has had an impact on how these sorts of parties are understood by the public in general, and so forth.  The more people talk about an idea in a certain way, the more prevalent that conception of the idea becomes in society.

And so the more people joke about the Arts, the worse the situation becomes.  That's the simple truth of it all.