Apparently there is a lot more money to be made in TEACHING writing to other people than there is in the actual writing of things. Because my facebook sidebar and email inbox are always chockablock with creative writing courses, seminars, workshops and self-published (irony much?) books on tips for finishing your novel, etc.
It sort of bothers me because it falls into the 20th Century trap of Validation By Degree. We don’t do apprenticeships anymore; craftsmanship and skill attained through disciplined and mentored practice have ceded the high ground. Now all you need to do is take a class or a series of classes, get a diploma and then–by golly! You are a hairdresser or an auto mechanic or even an actual writer.
Classroom instruction has its merits, to be sure. Without it I’d be huntandpecking this blog entry and the grammar wouldn’t be so fine. I’d probably also be unable to tell you who the combatants were in the War of 1812 and who served as the Third President Of The United States. But actual craft is not a booklearned thing. Not even for a writer. Craftsmanship is born from practice and persistence and the polishing of past failures. That’s what I find so incredibly jarring about all these “get a loan and learn to write a novel from us!” schemes. They aren’t really honing craftsmanship. They’re just paying some stranger to indulge them in a dream.
Because that’s the other insidious thing about coursework for craft. It gives one the appearance of doing something. We have been conditioned in my generation to accept Going To School as an honourable career path, regardless of outcome. Studenthood has attained an air of nobility and acceptability and with that the conferment of legitimacy. And while studenthood IS worthwhile for some things–would you want a doctor who learned only by trial and error on patients?–it does not complete the craft. Works are called that because they are that. The product of your effort. For instance, my husband is taking his second course in stained glass making. He can go to the classes once a week and know in his head the general theory of how one does a copper foil or lead glass project. But it’s only by spending hours in his studio grinding away and soldering the cracks that he can come away with an actual work of art.
So forgive me, good people of Winghill Writing School, but you aren’t going to get folks’ novels written for them. But I do thank you for jumping onto the Student Loan Bubble.
*And on that note, may I just point out that I’ve been squawking about the Student Loan Bubble years before all these fine experts got around to it??
Just Another Pretty Farce 
Yeah, edjumacation is a bit of scam at times, I find. I just read how Steve Jobs, who didn’t study, would have been a prime example of how not to be a manager at schools that teach management, for instance. As for this loan bubble, I think the time really has come where universities, monopolies or not, will no longer be able to raise their prices with impunity. Students have begun asking what for. They’ll stop paying/being customers.
I know someone who just graduated a major university with a degree in journalism and creative writing. This person has the $100,000 in debt to prove that they’re a certified writer.
The thing is, this person’s writing reads like they fell asleep in their classes and spent all the money on anything but tuition. They can. Not. Write. To their credit, they’ve gotten a lot of experience lately and they’re trying to improve (sorry for the awkwardness that comes from dropping all these pronouns), but it’s scary that someone can become indebted for a degree that doesn’t actually teach them anything. A degree doesn’t mean you’re good at something. _Practice_ does.
Kudos to your hubby for the stained glass practice. Can’t wait to see some of his stuff someday.
Ooh, where’s he taking stained glass?
There’s a studio over on Fatherland in East Nashville. Stained Glass Supplies is the name, I think. They have classes on weeknights and Saturday mornings. One class takes 8 weeks, and when you are in a class they let you work in the studio space whenever they’re open.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
Cool! My mom took a stained glass class when I was a kid, but I’ve never tried it.
The apprenticeships tend to occur at the graduate level: general liberal arts degree BA–>specific to subject MA–>specific discipline w/in subject PhD. In most MFA programs, which have no higher degree, students apprentice with an adviser while taking classes with other professors. I don’t know if this funneling method is good for anybody, or not, since it entails many years of schooling and loads of money, which is why I’m not extending beyond my BA. But those higher degrees do require apprenticeships.