Tag: school

astrowhat:

I often wonder how many more scientists we’d have if we congratulated kids for working hard rather than praising them for being smart. We need to get rid of the myth that science is only accessible to an intellectual elite.

and not just scientists, more people in general doing what they’re interested in and becoming good at it, because they’re taught that you get good at something by working at it, instead of being taught that having to work at something means you’re not “a natural” and you should therefore just give up

I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.

Stanley Kubrick (via quotemadness)

deadmomjokes:

cheapfilling:

college is catered towards the able bodied and able minded. school applauds people who can stay up all night, skip meals, and work endlessly. that kind of extreme contribution is expected. why are disabled people being squeezed out of academic institutions? why should I feel inferior because of some arbitrary and ridiculous standard?

It’s really awful, because even in schools that are ‘easy’ to get accommodations with, the accommodations when you think about them, are things that you probably shouldn’t be forced to ask for. Like being able to take a break in your exam (which is 3-5 hrs long). Or being allowed to have food or drink in exams or class. Or being allowed to be a little late to some classes/leave early without penalty. These are things you literally have to get documentation just to have, let alone something like extra exam time for dyslexic people, or someone who has poor motor cognition and can’t write quickly. Extended deadlines for assignments are still held to an arbitrary ‘within reason’ standard, which may mean you still are expected to stretch yourself beyond what’s healthy to get the teacher’s assignments done. The whole accommodation-getting process is ridiculous, too. You have to prove that you’re ‘abnormal’ and have a doctor sign off on it, which I found horribly humiliating. Then you have to take the paperwork to the school’s office, and they can decide whether they think you deserve the help you need based on what they think your disability requires. (For example, I felt that leniency with absences would be helpful for me when my anxiety and depression were causing me to miss classes. But they decided that would probably just give me excuses to ‘skip,’ so how about extended deadlines instead? Because extended deadlines will totally take care of the fact that my grade is going to be docked if I miss one more class, and there are some days I physically cannot haul my body out of my apartment. Shall I bring witnesses from among the people who saw me collapse and go full hyperventilation under that tree while I was trying to force myself to class in the middle of a full-meltdown panic attack?)

I mean, the accommodations process and what you get out of it are better than nothing, but it just seems so wrong to me how we’re forced to jump through hoops to make the college environment bearable for us, when the unhealthy extremes shouldn’t be the norm anyway.

Hello, this may sound silly but i’m currently enrolled to attend Art Center next year but, upon consideration (also the fact i have no money that i’ve had to push my acceptance by a YEAR) and your own information, i’m thinking of dropping the school altogether and going to a cheaper option (LCAD being a better option in my option) so i was wondering if i’m being rash in this idea? I know ArtCenter has a lot of name recognition, internship, and career help, but is that worth going into dept for?

ghostbri:

i get a lot of asks from people who ask me if they should go to art school and my answer is always just “hell no no”, so i think i will make this my master Don’t Go to Art School post.

ok here’s the bottom line: just don’t go to art school. don’t go!! don’t go to any accredited art school!! unless you have a full ride scholarship or close to it, don’t go!! literally every working professional i have met since graduating a year ago has agreed with me. we love to get together and bitch about how art school is a waste of time and money.

an education at art center will cost you about $200,000 in tuition alone. lcad isn’t much better and runs about $120,000. during my time at art center, i had a scholarship and help from my parents and i still owe $30,000 in student loans.

and honestly art center didn’t help me get the job i have today. literally all it did for me was introduce me to talented and friendly people who are willing to extend a hand to help each other out in the field. but making friends shouldn’t have to cost you $200,000 lmaooooooo.

here’s my super simple guide to getting a job in animation:

1. move to L.A. this is non-negotiable. all the studios are here. i’ve had uber drivers that have studio hookups and i’ve been offered jobs just sitting in a cafe in burbank and drawing. just existing in the epicenter of animation is an advantage.

2. welcome to L.A! it’s really hot here but i hope you enjoy it. now that you’re here, let’s not go to art school.

3. here are some much cheaper options:

http://2d.cgmasteracademy.com/

http://conceptdesignacad.com/

https://animationguild.org/about-the-guild/education/

https://www.schoolism.com/school.php

https://www.facebook.com/WillB.Weston?fref=ts (one of my old teachers from art center teaches a ton of workshops and classes all around town

and if you absolutely insist on going to some kind of 4 year college-like thing, try http://laafa.org/. it is about a quarter of the cost of art center, which is still pretty steep imo, but is just as good.

4. i’m even going to give you a cheat guide on what you should study (all of this you can find online for free btw!! just google it!! damn just try pinterest even!! or buy a book!!), based on what i studied at art center. design, composition, perspective, anatomy, color theory, costume design, light logic, visual storytelling, character design, character acting, storyboarding, prop design, background design, environment painting, style development. there ya go that’s all you need to know.

5. lock yourself in a studio apartment for 4 years and practice all the above everyday.

6. study the work of artists working in the field that you admire. do what they do, then put your own heart into it. make work relevant to the industry today. know what your goal is. like literally, having access to soooo much artwork from working professionals on a daily basis is almost like cheating.

7.
http://centerstagegallery.com/csg/csg-sketch-group/ and http://www.thedrawingclub.com/ go here and draw when you have free time. make friends with other artists. join a plein air painting club, or do a workshop, or ask for a mentorship. talk to people in the field!! make friends!!

8. make really good work and put it online. everywhere. share it!! have a website! contact recruiters! contact studios you like and ask them when they have internships open!

9. go to CTN every year and bring your portfolio. sign up for portfolio reviews. bring cards with you. ask the recruiters about internships.

10. congrats u now have a pretty good chance of getting a career in animation and u didn’t spend $200,000 for it.

i may sound bitter and jaded about art school (and maybe i am……..a little…….) but honestly i’m way more excited because after a year of working in the industry and meeting people who either didn’t go to art school or went to shitty no-name schools, i am super passionate about the fact that we live in a day and age where anyone who’s willing to put the work in and discipline themselves can develop the skills to become a professional artist without going to school. art is for everyone!! not just people who can afford school! art is fun! and great! and i want everyone who is passionate about it to succeed and not let the obstacle of $$$$$ stonewall them out of a career they’ll love!

don’t go to art school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xanthocomically:

callstheadventurescience:

brown-madonna:

i feel like STEM isn’t immediately looked upon more intrinsically valuable unless the major you choose has immediate capitalistic benefit, which tends to be technology or engineering. not saying at all that STEM folks face the same social barriers/stigma that art or humanities people face, bc that’s not true! but as an astronomy person the one thing i always get asked by folks (even scientists sometimes!) is “so…what can you ~do~ with an astrophysics major?” there is definitely a recognition of rigor that is very unfortunately missing when someone majoring in classics or gender studies is asked that question, which is a whole other problem. but i feel like the lesson here is maybe not to continually base the intrinsic worth of an education entirely on its capitalistic use. idk.

THIS.

This is really insightful, and I think it raises a lot of issues concerning how STEM and the institution of capital s Science is viewed by the general public and by those who do not study STEM subjects (and how those who do study them view their work in relation to the larger body of human knowledge).
I’m reading a book now (The War on Science by Shawn Otto) about the current state of the relationship between science and politics (especially in the West) and some of the intro chapters talk about exactly this. In particular, I’m reminded of its discussion on how Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, may have been partially right in his assessment of the U.S. and science.
In Democracy in America, Tocqueville has an entire chapter titled “Why the Americans are More Addicted to Practical than to Theoretical Science,” where he argues that the infant United States, in valuing the application of science and the returns that can be made on investment in such applications, instead of valuing pure (as in non-applied) research driven by curiosity, is headed down a dangerous path. Namely, that the nation, were it to proceed as such, could be “absorbed in productive industry; the greater part of its scientific processes” would be “preserved” but science, the process, would fail to exist.
Shawn Otto, building off of this and others, posits that by turning our backs on basic research–by not accepting as an answer to the above question of “what can you do with that major?” that “you can learn more about the world around us, that’s what you can do”–a country will have built a system of interrogating science and demanding from it “financially quantifiable projections before an investment is made.” This is indeed dangerous thinking if the spirit of discovery and curiosity is to exist and support the health of a democracy.
Otto ultimately argues that Tocqueville’s assessment has only stood partially to the test of time as history has played out, but the lesson still stands.

So more to your point, the over-emphasis on the monetary value of the applications that proceed from a person’s chosen vocation, or even those which proceed from entire fields of study, is disingenuous to the supposed spirit of science, and is also downright irresponsible and dangerous. And it’s perpetuated from the level of our highest institutions and grant funding agencies. The application of new science and technologies is important to human existence, don’t get me wrong. But when I feel that I can’t even write a grant without feeling like I have to justify how my proposed study will benefit the United States & humanity outside of just expanding the frontier of knowledge, or when the governmental institutions that do support basic research are being systematically defunded…then I think Tocqueville’s assessment hits closer to home.

The obsession with valuing scientific fields based on their potential to yield monetarily valuable applications hurts science and it hurts other important fields of learning, such as the arts and humanities. And as Otto and others argue, it ends up hurting our entire political process.

this is discourse I am here for! (And thanks for the incidental book recs, I’ve been having pretty significant burn out-related existential conflicts about academia and capital-S science, and I think this post plus that Why I Left Academia blog post that’s been going around will be really helpful as I try to sort through my thoughts and piece back together some sort of worldview)