[TheForge] Really stoopid OT question...

[gblacksmith]

Mark:  Ha!  Good one!  Andy could design his own courses....how about 
"Rimfire Roundup 101"  or "The  Zen of the Anschutz Rifle"

Andy:  Assuming you want to stay creative, how about a Master's in 
Industrial Design?

 Very hard to get a job with an MFA.....teaching positions are rarer than 
Park Ranger jobs.  Most University Art Departments have a pool of "adjunct 
faculty" who are part of an occasional labor pool that has little chance of 
obtaining a tenure track slot.  These employees are required to have an MFA, 
but are relegated to teaching in an economically uncertain environment.  The 
tenured art department staffs regard these people as "feeder fish."

Also, Art Departments are notoriously poorly managed in most institutions,as 
most artists are not people movers/motivators, in my experience.  If you are 
looking for security and a rewarding career, look elsewhere.  My 
observations in this regard are the product of  hosting blacksmithing 
seminars in conjunction with post secondary public institutions and seeing 
my MFA friends trying to cobble together a living while waiting for the holy 
grail of a teaching job.

The PhD in philosophy (Classical) is a real non-starter, employment-wise. 
Far more of these degrees are granted in a given year than there are 
positions, nationwide, to be filled.  The Department heads in these programs 
don't tell prospective students this because if they did, they would have no 
grad students, and no job.  They would then be relegated to writing and 
publishing on their own time and dime. Be advised that PhDs in "philosophy" 
are also granted in the specialties of history, environmental science and 
genetics, among many others.

Decide on what you want to do, then pursue it with thy might.  Overcoming 
the institutional hurdles to full employment in the arts or humanities is a 
discipline in its own right.  You must be absolutely tenacious to get a 
foothold in these positions.

Bon chance!

                                                                             
                Grant



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark A. Pesetsky" <pesetsky at Princeton.EDU>
To: "'Sponsored by ABANA'" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:35 AM
Subject: RE: [TheForge] Really stoopid OT question...




...but I just can't seem to decide.

I've come  very close to deciding to go back to school, but I cannot
decide what to pursue.  My interests are either an MFA or a PhD in
Philosophy.

Any opinions?


I'd love to see ya teach kids...maybe something in the pistol/rifle arena??

Ha

Mark

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