JP - you were throwing around the idea of journalism school.
It just so happens that today, one of my favorite columnists and bloggers, James Lileks (he writes three columns per week for the Minneapolis Star Tribune), has some thoughts on J-school today, here.
Scroll down to the section that begins, "Home, kitchen table, midnight."

Lileks was talking about the subject to some people at a party, saying:

Better to take English classes, learn how to write, then write a lot. It’s not a profession that requires four years of college, let alone a master’s degree.

They looked at me with a certain amount of amused confusion, so I said, apologetically, that was I was actually in the business, and degrees mattered less than clips and skill. J-school taught you how to teach J-school. How to go to think tanks and peer down your nose at the messy scrum of daily papers. Not to say it was a waste of time, heavens no. But journalism per se can be mastered quite quickly, and if it can’t, you don’t have it...

You can hone judgment, but you can’t teach instinct. The first question in any J-school application ought to be “do you want to change the world?” And anyone who answers yes gets kindly turned away. Your job is to describe the way the world changes. Not pretend you’re there to nudge it along towards utopia.

Unless you’re a columnist, of course. But such power is only granted to a select few.

As Instapundit would say, "Read the whole thing"...
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/02/2005 11:38:00 AM