Classes not needed

This is my cranky, old man opinion. This holds in general, but with several exceptions -- e.g. a weekend first-aid class.

And I don't think weekend seminars necessarily count -- as those are a way of hooking up with someone more knowledgeable than yourself, to show you ''tricks of the trade'' -- I think that's valid.


Here's my contention: I think formal classes, and degree/certification programs, have their place. But I'm also a bit suspicious of them. For things that people claim to be interested in, I think that someone who is **truly** interested will learn for themselves through experience, plus reading: people are better off just having someone more knowledgeable than themselves to bounce questions off, and to oversee their work -- kind of a mentoring system.


Example #1: Someone claims to want to major in video game design, or be a video game programmer. So she/he passively waits until college, then enrolls in various Comp. Sci. courses. My contention is that if the person was **really** interested, she/he would have already programmed a simple video game in Python by the time she/he was sixteen. (I'm not a true "computer dude", nor video game player -- but I programmed a simple "Downhill Skier" game in Apple Basic when I was about fourteen.) If I owned a video game development company, I would totally prefer someone who programs their own games for the fun of it, versus someone whose only productivity came from coursework and class assignments -- and otherwise couldn't be bothered to program her own game.

Example #2: Going to art school is a great way to surround yourself with knowledgeable people. But someone who wants to be a professional painter (or draw-er, or sculptor) is probably **already** drawing, doodling, or sculpting nearly every free moment of the day. She or he draws a lot because she/he inherently enjoys it -- and therefore should already be danged good by the time she/he is eighteen. Art school should just be for handy tricks of the trade, like whether it's worth buying the most expensive oil paints (or "how cheap can I go?").

Example #3: Spending (literally) $50,000 on tuition for Audio Recording School. Sure, you get access to a pretty nice set of equipment. But you shouldn't be signing up for recording school if you haven't already logged thousands of hours with your 4-track recorder or DAW. And if you have -- well, how about spending that $50k on some nice equipment and starting you **own** recording studio?

Example #4: Music instrument lessons. If someone's truly interested, get them a good reference book, a pile of sheet music, and someone more knowledgeable to check in once a month to make sure she/he isn't developing completely bad form. If the person can't stick it out without weekly "deadlines" from a teacher, then the inherent interest clearly isn't there. If the person can't hear the errors she/he is making (either in pitch or in timing), then she/he doesn't have the ear to play well. By this reasoning, formalized lessons would only be for really little kids, or for people who enjoy the process of playing, despite being tone-deaf.


Auto shop classes, cooking classes, woodworking... If you claim to be a car person, you'd better have torn down an engine by the time you were sixteen; if you say you're into cooking, why aren't you buying every single cooking magazine you can get your hands on, and cooking weird, wild, new stuff every weekend?; what can you learn at a woodworking school that you couldn't learn on your own (with a good mentor or two)?

Also: I think seminars -- where folks get together and hash out ideas are worthwhile. But to have someone give a big ol' lecture, that just repeats the textbook? Maybe the textbook should just have been written better (maybe by the really good lecturer?).


Oh: Except for dangerous stuff. Example: Welding class. Don't want people burning holes in their workshops.


Make sense? Or am I being too harsh?


--GG

(ADDENDUM: See new blog posting.)