2 ms·

So yeah, I graduated from a top-tier art school which had very high tuition but I also had considerable grants and scholarships so I was able to pay off my stud

So yeah, I graduated from a top-tier art school which had very high tuition but I also had considerable grants and scholarships so I was able to pay off my student loans in a few years after graduating working a blue-collar job. I experienced four years of group critiques, and really value that as an activity. Unfortunately very few people understand or can appreciate how directly that maps to software development. My two cents, guidance counselors just need to shut the fuck up when it comes to talking with high-school students. There is so little knowledge about what different careers actually entail that I think it is impossible for high-school students to make informed decisions about what they want to focus on. While I think getting a BFA was the right choice for me I also think that the school environment could have been much more beneficial and productive than it was (mostly due to students in other majors being disruptive due to their drinking and partying during the week.)

gen220 7y ago
I really wish we had something comparable to group critiques in my computer science/engineering program. I wholeheartedly agree that it’s an underrated form of education: it allows everyone to benefit from everyone else’s talents and experiences, whereas the traditional lecture format is limited to the talent and the experience of the instructor. I was really jealous of that aspect of my girlfriend’s education. Some companies and incubators (recurse center?) are really good at creating this kind of learning, but I don’t know of many traditional universities experimenting with this approach at either the BS or MS level; which IMO a shame. Also, the skill of receiving and responding constructively to criticism is incredibly underrated, and is something that the good art schools seem to be unusually good at. The way my girlfriend tells it, it was a tortuous time (for many of the reasons you describe), but it was also very formative and it accelerated her growth dramatically.
- itronitron 7y ago
  I think some of the more recent 'design thinking' schools are coming close. A key element in critiques is that everyone has pretty much the same role (they are creating something and getting feedback on it) so no one is trying to game the system for personal career advancement. It could be adapted to CS/E classes where students were creating something new and most Art professors could probably help run them. There is a definite discipline and culture to running good group critiques.

gen220 7y ago

I really wish we had something comparable to group critiques in my computer science/engineering program. I wholeheartedly agree that it’s an underrated form of education: it allows everyone to benefit from everyone else’s talents and experiences, whereas the traditional lecture format is limited to the talent and the experience of the instructor. I was really jealous of that aspect of my girlfriend’s education. Some companies and incubators (recurse center?) are really good at creating this kind of learning, but I don’t know of many traditional universities experimenting with this approach at either the BS or MS level; which IMO a shame. Also, the skill of receiving and responding constructively to criticism is incredibly underrated, and is something that the good art schools seem to be unusually good at. The way my girlfriend tells it, it was a tortuous time (for many of the reasons you describe), but it was also very formative and it accelerated her growth dramatically.

itronitron 7y ago
I think some of the more recent 'design thinking' schools are coming close. A key element in critiques is that everyone has pretty much the same role (they are creating something and getting feedback on it) so no one is trying to game the system for personal career advancement. It could be adapted to CS/E classes where students were creating something new and most Art professors could probably help run them. There is a definite discipline and culture to running good group critiques.