Hello all, this is actually gonna be more of a personal pet-peeve rant about the preconceptions surrounding my field of study, but the opportunity to use Clash lyrics as a title was just too good to pass up. This is just going to be something about my personal experience, which I hope is common enough for people to find relatable, but I won't be offended if you don't.
So I'm currently studying a course that falls under the Art, Design and Humanities faculty, from that alone most of you who are, or have been in that position will probably know exactly where this is going. Everyone who is not familiar with the workings of my choice of education pisses me off and I think that's an entirely reasonable reaction!
Perhaps I should elaborate, the thing that annoys me about being an ADH student (Performing Arts specifically) is the constant assumptions and pre-judgements people make on a daily basis, now I don't think anyone on one of these courses has to read any more than this, they will all be intimately familiar with everything I'm about to bring up, but I'm going to bring it up anyway because it annoys me, and, therefore, I feel entitled to annoy you with it.
okay first let's talk about "the talk" you know the one, the talk I and every other ADH student had with at least one of their parents when their choice in course was made, I can't speak for everyone's experience, but mine went something along the lines of "I'm gonna go ahead and apply for uni"
"Studying what?"
"Performing Arts, y'know the thing I studied at BTEC level for 3 years"
(BTECs after all only seem to exist as a qualification to get one onto a university course, because a year of trying to find employment taught me it's good for absolutely nothing else.) and here's the kicker.
"What job is that gonna get you?"
Well, obviously I had a well-prepared answer for that, after all, who hasn't, upon choosing their course, thoroughly researched and attained omnipotent knowledge of all possible career trajectories and chosen one for themselves? I mean it's not as if finding that stuff out is THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF GOING TO UNIVERSITY or anything. of course I'm a sarcastic and snarky bastard by nature so that talk didn't last long, I eventually told them I was probably going to go into teaching just to shut them up (I actually might, but it was never "the thing" I wanted to do. To this day I'm still not sure what "the thing" I want to do is, I doubt I will ever reach that level of certainty.
Anyway that's just the parents, chances are if you're on a course like mine you'll have that talk multiple times a year, with varying degrees of arguing, Odds are even if your choice of education is different from mine, you probably will have had some version of "the talk" which simply stems from not doing law and/or business/accounting, because as everybody knows, the degree you have will guarantee you a six-figure salary from the off or doom you to wander the dread lands of job seeking for eternity with no middle-ground.
The unfortunate reality is that even with a degree it will be difficult to find employment, I'm sure everyone reading this is familiar with the "experience" problem, requiring experience to be hired, but being unable to attain said experience because nowhere will hire you without experience etc. It is difficult to find employment with a degree, but I've already found it impossible without one, having applied for many in the year between college and uni with no success. (admittedly my disability does make me unsuitable for a fair few entry-level jobs and that can't be helped) It's my understanding most places don't care what your degree is in, only that you have one, (obviously, it's ideal that it would match up with the job, I'm not including things like medical professionals there) I do fully intend to use my degree to find work doing the things I studied in one way or another but whatever the case you'll probably have to start at the bottom anyway, this is just how things are.
As it is with relatives, so too is it with strangers. God forbid you ever interact with someone outside of your field of study at university, the amount of times you'll hear the same old questions repeated ad nauseum, either asking or outright assuming you want to go into teaching, or what use your degree is. Or, if you're lucky you'll run into someone devoid enough of tact to say something along the lines of "ooh you can get a degree in anything now can't you?" I've heard that one a lot, and I don't think the people saying it realise how insulting that is.
I know the thinking behind it, of course, the preconception of most people I've encountered is that a degree in Performing Arts equates to "Let's go into a studio for three years of Jazz-hands and Shakespeare, right that's that done, here's a degree, fuck off!" Yes! I know, this preconception is only annoying to me, and those on similar courses, but damn it! I have spent three years at university and the very notion that any degree course would be that simple is more stupid than I can handle.
I've joked about the subjective and abstract nature of the course before, I think everyone has at some point, as an example, I've been taken aback by the absurdity of John Cage's 4 minutes 33 seconds and even now that I understand and better appreciate the thinking behind it, I still wouldn't have wanted to go and see it, I can imagine the unsuspecting audience for that first run would've been quite annoyed. Nevertheless, I've got to the point that I'm sufficiently proud of the knowledge acquired in my time here that such a casual writing-off of my chosen course by someone I could never reasonably expect to know better, not having studied it, annoys me, and I'm not apologizing for that YOU PHILISTINES!
and the writing off of my course and others like it as useless especially irks me, because it really isn't "well you learn nothing useful" people say, yeah I mean I don't suppose there's much call for confidence, creative thinking, analytical skills, obviously strong commitment or being good at working with people now is there?
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