Here in the UK there is a huge amount of pressure to decide on a career at age fifteen. The subjects you study, and the test results on your GCSE’s, determine whether you leave school at sixteen or go on to sixth form, and what you are allowed to study if you remain in school.
Sixth form can loosely be interpreted as the equivalent of a US associate degree, with the attendant choice between vocational and academic work.
My daughter has experienced this rather intensely since her mock exams predicted A star grades in double English: there has been a push to choose university-prep English as her A level course.
Numerous tutors and the intake staff at the sixth form college have been quite strident on the point. The fundamental message is that she must choose her future career now. She is in fact a talented (published) writer, with a verbal acuity that will serve her well in life. Her advisors think the path toward a degree in English is already clear.
They also say she will go to Oxford or Cambridge, whether she likes it or not.
But the child wants to study art and philosophy.
When she announced her intent, the tutors quickly started to hector along the lines of don’t choose now! Wait and see! By which they mean, wait until your inevitable top test scores assure you have to do exactly what we already decided on your behalf.
Art and philosophy are, from a safe middle-class perspective, frivolous.
I feel mildly conflicted only insofar as it seems that she should have the opportunity to coast around some more. In the states she would have three more years to meander before making big choices.
Other than that, I think that art school is better than studying English. What can you do with an art degree? It isn’t clear, but within the ambiguity lies the genius.
My fundamental belief is that people should study what they love, regardless of practical application. When I was sixteen I achieved the highest possible grades and test results in AP literature, composition, and American history.
Two months later I was kicked out of the honors program and ended my secondary education in voc-tech, where I took a certificate in photography. Since I couldn’t be Ralph Eugene Meatyard I wandered off with my art scholarship and studied…. health education and organizational theory.
I did a graduate degree in public administration and worked in government. Now I’m a writer, editor, and publisher. Should I have studied English, just because I had a perfect verbal score on the SAT? No. My choices were extremely wise; I gained life experience and perspective that would not have been possible otherwise.
All of my favorite people are artists, writers, musicians, and mathematicians: people who think and create. None followed a traditional path to arrive at their vocation.
They all work hard – arguably harder than people who chose the path of least resistance.
If my kid wants to study art and philosophy, that is her choice to make. She has excellent role models to show her that the choice is risky and rarely leads to financial security.