Heh...I run into kids at school all the time who don't really know why
they're there. Someone in my photography class the other night told me
she was majoring in sociology with a minor in art and when I asked her
what she intended to do with it she told me she wasn't sure, but she
hoped she could find something to do that helped people live together
more peacefully and at the time time kept a love for art and creativity
alive in them at a cultural level. I felt dizzy for a second and
started to turn it into a conversation, but decided to go back into the
darkroom and get some work done instead. I hope she finds her niche,
but my bet is that she'll end up as a substitute English teacher at a
school where she has to wear Kevlar. It's a shame that career
counseling is such a fringe area of children's education. They all
graduate from high school thinking there are unlimited opportunities
waiting for them and most of them can't begin to decide what field
deserves their unique talents.
Then there are the returning students who think a few semesters back at
the books will finally put them on top. I got a call tonight from
someone who's taking a photo class with me. She's a mother of three
with several jobs and she latched onto me after a couple of class
meetings because I could tell her what the knobs did on her new SLR
when she got confused. She's always leaving her camera laying around
and yesterday while she was in the darkroom someone took off with it.
She called me to see if I'd loan her my equipment. I politely declined
and told her that April's department has teams that scour the local
pawn shops looking for stolen merchandise. She'd never considered that
and set about digging out her serial numbers. She's convinced that in a
couple of semesters she's going to be doing magazine work. Her still
life stuff really is pretty good, but I hate to see people set
themselves up for disappointment. I try to be pleasantly surprised if
everything I do doesn't turn into a catastrophe. ;-)
-Rob
On Sunday, February 9, 2003, at 12:28 AM, Jim L'Hommedieu wrote:
I once asked a young lady who had just enrolled in college, what she
was
looking for in education. She said she wanted to earn a better living.
"Oh," I asked, "what are you going to be studying?"
She announced proudly, "I'm going to learn to read auras."
The eyes nearly popped out of my head. As Joni Mitchell said,
"Breathtaking
ignorance."
Lama
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