Thanks for this series. This is one of those topics that the culture wars have turned people into such unsympathetic a-holes about. Even on the left few seem to be able to resist the punchline of say, an philosophy MA with crippling debt and few prospects. (I'm lucky I got my overpriced arts degree in the 90s when things weren't nearly as bleak.)
Once again, a thoughtful essay on an important issue. I left a private, liberal arts college, in part, because of student loans which were minuscule compared to college today, and went to the Coast Guard Academy. My academy and subsequent service experience was a rough ride to say the least. At the Academy, I met quite a few cadets motivated by college costs. Student loans as a tax on the poor is valid and hope college becomes more affordable for the many rather than the few. Both of our daughters have student loans unfortunately although I am delighted neither opted for the military. I look forward to the fourth part of this piece. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this essay. I saw myself and my family all over it. As one of 10 kids from a working class family I feel fortunate to have ‘made it out’ but the student loans - which were minuscule in comparison to today’s - haunted me for decades. Luckily my parents were of the mind that being a singer was as worthy a calling as doctor. Their support, though not financial, helped me push through and build a life in the arts.
Michelle, I am so grateful for your insightful examination of this topic. I find myself gulping down your posts, reassuring myself that I’ll go back later for closer reading. I definitely can see sharing excerpts of them with my students at PSU.
As I often do when I read your posts, I reflect on the difference in perspective that race throws into the mix. In this case I’m asking myself how it is that my father, the youngest of 12, son of a sharecropper, got himself to college, an engineering degree, and a boost to the middle class. So that his son could attend a music conservatory, and his grandson, an Ivy League college. There was luck of course. And the reality of working his way through school. But that’s a hell of a lot of cultural capital and privilege to build up in two generations. The question I find myself asking in your story, is: where is the generational aspiration? To be honest, this was so instilled in me from a young age,-The inevitability that I would exceed the accomplishments of my parents-that I am constantly perplexed to encounter peers who were not expected to do the same. Who were not told that the past barriers were behind them & of course, of course they would move beyond the accomplishments of their parents. I don’t think this expectation is solely the province of generational wealth. And based on my father, it is clearly not confined to families with privilege.
Hearing your story I’m all the more admiring of all that you’ve done, but also trying to factor my own reality of generational uplift into the poor Artist narrative. Your story resonates as that of rural working class. And although I’m no expert, seems to me to reflect an aspect of whiteness-isolation-that might be at variance with the experience of that of ethnic communities infused with ideals (mythical or otherwise) of uplift. As a Black artist I can and do look to those cultural communities of practice, the elders who open doors, pull our coats, raise us up. If I had been, say, trying to play classical music, I would’ve had a different experience. But as I often tell my students, choosing the path of being a New York Jazz musician in the 1980s seemed like the closest thing to job security that my Black 24-year-old self could imagine. So how to explain the fact that I was all ready to take out loans to get my masters degree at University of Miami, but when I arrived, the head of the program called me in and asked if it was true that I had just graduated from Eastman. Upon saying yes, he told me that their previously hired GTA had bailed ,and since I went to Eastman, I must be qualified to take that gig. So voila, free grad school. So, luck? Right place right time? Or just another example of privilege accruing to those who already have it?
Since, as a University professor in the arts, I am still in the business of creating multiple pathways for young artists to realize their potential, and keep their art in their lives for their entire lives. And since student loans are the devil! I’m Interested to hear anything you have to say about new models, new ways of thinking or organizing resources that will let our kids soar far above what was possible for us.
My great grandfather had been a professor in Germany before he immigrated to the US in 1894 to become a rancher in Texas. His family, and thus my father, always placed a high value on education. My grandfather kept a stack of books by his bedside table which he was generally too tired to open at the end of a long day in the fields. My father was lucky enough to get a congressional appointment to the Naval Academy and he pressed me with everything he had to go to college, despite my desperate desire to dance. He and I “compromised” that I would get a degree (while majoring in dance). I was so lucky to have parents who were able to pay. And my education, as it turns out, was invaluable in so many ways. As a dance “professor” I earned a good salary. Would I have become an “artist” without the job that gave me leeway to create? I struggled some on the way to a job that gave me support, but never as much as so many others who chose a similar path. I think I would have stuck with it, though. There is something about a life in the creative arts that is so rewarding—. Now that I am retired, I think about how lucky I was and wish the same for others who are just managing to come into college. This is an important piece, Michelle. Thanks for sharing your story and congratulations on your successes and those of your son. The world NEEDS artists of all kinds.
Thanks for this series. This is one of those topics that the culture wars have turned people into such unsympathetic a-holes about. Even on the left few seem to be able to resist the punchline of say, an philosophy MA with crippling debt and few prospects. (I'm lucky I got my overpriced arts degree in the 90s when things weren't nearly as bleak.)
Once again, a thoughtful essay on an important issue. I left a private, liberal arts college, in part, because of student loans which were minuscule compared to college today, and went to the Coast Guard Academy. My academy and subsequent service experience was a rough ride to say the least. At the Academy, I met quite a few cadets motivated by college costs. Student loans as a tax on the poor is valid and hope college becomes more affordable for the many rather than the few. Both of our daughters have student loans unfortunately although I am delighted neither opted for the military. I look forward to the fourth part of this piece. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this essay. I saw myself and my family all over it. As one of 10 kids from a working class family I feel fortunate to have ‘made it out’ but the student loans - which were minuscule in comparison to today’s - haunted me for decades. Luckily my parents were of the mind that being a singer was as worthy a calling as doctor. Their support, though not financial, helped me push through and build a life in the arts.
Warning-long comment!
Michelle, I am so grateful for your insightful examination of this topic. I find myself gulping down your posts, reassuring myself that I’ll go back later for closer reading. I definitely can see sharing excerpts of them with my students at PSU.
As I often do when I read your posts, I reflect on the difference in perspective that race throws into the mix. In this case I’m asking myself how it is that my father, the youngest of 12, son of a sharecropper, got himself to college, an engineering degree, and a boost to the middle class. So that his son could attend a music conservatory, and his grandson, an Ivy League college. There was luck of course. And the reality of working his way through school. But that’s a hell of a lot of cultural capital and privilege to build up in two generations. The question I find myself asking in your story, is: where is the generational aspiration? To be honest, this was so instilled in me from a young age,-The inevitability that I would exceed the accomplishments of my parents-that I am constantly perplexed to encounter peers who were not expected to do the same. Who were not told that the past barriers were behind them & of course, of course they would move beyond the accomplishments of their parents. I don’t think this expectation is solely the province of generational wealth. And based on my father, it is clearly not confined to families with privilege.
Hearing your story I’m all the more admiring of all that you’ve done, but also trying to factor my own reality of generational uplift into the poor Artist narrative. Your story resonates as that of rural working class. And although I’m no expert, seems to me to reflect an aspect of whiteness-isolation-that might be at variance with the experience of that of ethnic communities infused with ideals (mythical or otherwise) of uplift. As a Black artist I can and do look to those cultural communities of practice, the elders who open doors, pull our coats, raise us up. If I had been, say, trying to play classical music, I would’ve had a different experience. But as I often tell my students, choosing the path of being a New York Jazz musician in the 1980s seemed like the closest thing to job security that my Black 24-year-old self could imagine. So how to explain the fact that I was all ready to take out loans to get my masters degree at University of Miami, but when I arrived, the head of the program called me in and asked if it was true that I had just graduated from Eastman. Upon saying yes, he told me that their previously hired GTA had bailed ,and since I went to Eastman, I must be qualified to take that gig. So voila, free grad school. So, luck? Right place right time? Or just another example of privilege accruing to those who already have it?
Since, as a University professor in the arts, I am still in the business of creating multiple pathways for young artists to realize their potential, and keep their art in their lives for their entire lives. And since student loans are the devil! I’m Interested to hear anything you have to say about new models, new ways of thinking or organizing resources that will let our kids soar far above what was possible for us.
In gratitude,
Darrell
My great grandfather had been a professor in Germany before he immigrated to the US in 1894 to become a rancher in Texas. His family, and thus my father, always placed a high value on education. My grandfather kept a stack of books by his bedside table which he was generally too tired to open at the end of a long day in the fields. My father was lucky enough to get a congressional appointment to the Naval Academy and he pressed me with everything he had to go to college, despite my desperate desire to dance. He and I “compromised” that I would get a degree (while majoring in dance). I was so lucky to have parents who were able to pay. And my education, as it turns out, was invaluable in so many ways. As a dance “professor” I earned a good salary. Would I have become an “artist” without the job that gave me leeway to create? I struggled some on the way to a job that gave me support, but never as much as so many others who chose a similar path. I think I would have stuck with it, though. There is something about a life in the creative arts that is so rewarding—. Now that I am retired, I think about how lucky I was and wish the same for others who are just managing to come into college. This is an important piece, Michelle. Thanks for sharing your story and congratulations on your successes and those of your son. The world NEEDS artists of all kinds.