It was announced last week that Brooklyn has approved $2MM for a new high school dedicated to advertising and media education. Set to open in September 2008, the new school is designed to “foster a relationship between minority youth and the ad industry, allowing students to explore careers in advertising and media while helping to promote diversity in the industry.” Whose tail is wagging whom?
NYC’s Marketing-Focused High School Could Struggle to Cover the Basics When the Basics Keep Changing
By Simon Dumenco
Can you teach “Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks”?Last week’s announcement that a New York high school that focuses on “advertising and media studies” is set to open as soon as September 2008 has me thinking that maybe we need to update the old saying that so cruelly disparages educators:
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach. In regard to Ad High, it’s more along the lines of, those who can’t figure out what the hell is happening to their profession hope that maybe, just maybe, something of it, somehow, is still clear enough that it can actually be taught.When I consider the media lifestyle of the average high-school student — which involves the ever-increasing rejection of professionally produced, ad-supported media in favor of à-la-carte/DIY/social-networking content, along with exceedingly elastic notions of authorship and intellectual-property rights — it occurs to me that maybe a bunch of teens should band together and open an ad/media school themselves. For adults. Let the kids teach the grown-ups exactly how they’re exploding our business models. I bet plenty of 40-something and 50-something industry vets would pony up serious cash for tuition.
Rick Boyko, head of VCU’s AdCenter, will advise creation of ‘Ad High.’
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