The most valuable things I learned were in my philosophy classes. The importance of these things overshadows what I learned about making art by miles.
my art classes might as well be philosophy classes! lol.
As far as I could tell, the professors were there to give you conceptual guidance, that's all. They might advise on how to hold a pencil or what colour harmony is, but you can't expect skill to be handed to you, that's the part you have to work for.
(It's all about the homework.)
well, it seems to me that there a number of technical things that could be taught as well. for instance, take my concentration, photography.
i could be learning the zone system, fine manipulation of chemistry and exposure, lighting technique, composition, photoshop, etc. of course, you learn by doing. i'm not expecting skills to be handed to me... just, you know, covered in class.
some basic stuff is covered, sure. how to operate the camera. the relationship of aperture to depth of field, basically how to operate a darkroom. but there's so much more technical information that i could never learn in a million years putzing around in my bathroom under a safelight.
all the concentration seems to be on how you bullshit some kind of meaning into things, and what you say about the concept, not on the actual work itself.
that said, my photo professor really likes my "anti-conceptual" stances, as a concept. *shrug*