I wrote this as a response to a facebook post about not attending school and learning on your own but after realizing how long it was I felt this was probably the better place for it. It's a bit TLDR-ish but I think if you read it you'll get a different perspective of things. I started out trying to play devil's advocate and find a reason for people to attend school but found myself stating exactly what the original article was trying to enforce. Although there are probably only a very few that can endure the process of self educating, in today's digital world it is possible that the education system as we knew it will soon fade into the burning embers of history and a new way of learning will emerge from the ashes.
Anyway, enjoy!
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Don't you think self learning is a very specialized thing? Not everyone has the initiative or the drive to learn on their own. You're talking about a very select few who can actually study outside of school and make something of themselves.
Speaking as a college level teacher, I've encountered many students who wouldn't otherwise know what to do or where to begin without a teacher, a class syllabus, or work assignments in front of them. They don't know the first thing about art and they need someone with experience to guide them. So how would they know where to begin? It would take them many more years to learn their craft outside of school whereas in a classroom they would learn much of what they need in a fraction of the time. Apprenticeships date back to the beginning of recorded history where a Master of the arts takes on a fledgling apprentice and they teach them what they know. This normally took many years because it was a daily life experience for them and you had to dedicate your time solely to them for a number of years before even being considered for journeyman-ship. These days, in a three year college program, we call it accelerated learning.
Can you learn what you need to know on your own and make it out there? Definitely. But at the same time not everyone can follow Noah's "$10,000 education" either. Hell, I can barely get some students to buy the textbooks that they need for $40! A lot of students are there mainly due to financial aid which is a bit of a catch-22 if you think about it.
Students can't afford to pay for school on their own so they apply for expensive financial aid. They don't see the immediate effect of spending so much money because the government or some lending institution is paying for it all so they don't feel the pressure to apply themselves while in school to learn what they need (not all of them do this but my in experience a good majority of them do). They fail out or eventually become disenchanted with school because they realize the hard work and dedication that it takes to succeed is far more than what they are willing to sacrifice from their XBOX time so now they're stuck paying back an institutional loan that they can't afford on their current income and so they become trapped.
Is school expensive? Yes it is. Undoubtedly one of the most profitable economic mouse traps of our time and many schools put students through their entire program simply because it's more profitable to keep them there than it is to let them go. But if you apply yourself while you're there and learn the fundamentals all the way to the advanced then there is no reason why you can't land a good paying job or freelance and make enough money to pay back any loans well within a few years.
Is school for everybody? No, it's not. There are a good majority of financial leaders of past and present day who were high school or college dropouts who were very successful at what they do. Forbes lists only 1741 billionaires world wide for 2015. That's 1741 out of 7 billion people, and how many of those learned their craft on their own? I can't say, but I doubt it was a large number of them. Now move those numbers over to the art world and it would probably be very similar. For every one artist that learned on their own there are probably a thousand who can't do that. So that's where schools come in.
Now think about this. Artist goes to school, has expensive loans. Artist gets a good job that pays well, but they're still stuck paying back loans. Artist gains experience through the workplace, experience that they would only be able to get in the workplace (You know how that works - need experience to get the job but can't get the job because you have no experience). So, in hindsight, artist decides it probably would have been better to learn everything on their own so they decide to start "schooling" other artists by creating their own art courses that "students" can take online or in person. Of course Artist needs to charge a fee because Artist has bills that need to be paid. Artist requires supplies and materials for their course, eventually even opening a facility where students can attend. Artist becomes what artist was initially trying to help others avoid.
In our modern times the information that you need is a Google away and it is amazing how many students I've encountered who can't figure that out for themselves. But when I attended school that information wasn't as readily available as it is today. Google was a wee 2 years old at the time and still didn't know everything and YouTube wouldn't be realized until after I graduated. There were no Gumroads or Selz, there weren't any Robotpencil apprenticeships, Noah Bradley's $10,000 education, or Scott Robertson's How to Draw really cool stuff books. So we had no other choice at the time but to attend school. In retrospect however, I have probably learned more about art on my own over the past year than I ever have in four years at school.
Today, the choice of self-education is there but only for those who can discipline themselves enough to make it through, and out of those that do there is still no guarantee of success. It still depends on how much you apply yourself that will determine your future.
This of course is my opinion and is open for debate. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Thanks for reading.
