The only cost you should pay for your formal education is your time and your effort.
If I finish my pre-decision checklist and then decide to get an MFA (and maybe a PhD), I would definitely use my terminal degree to get a job as a college professor.
And then I would break sh*t.
As a professor, I certainly wouldn’t have the power to change the whole university, but I would definitely run my classroom my way.
I’d make all of my lecture materials and such available for free online. I’d encourage all students to sit in on my class(es) all semester without registering so they can take their time getting the work done before properly registering and getting official credit for that work. I would grade my students on their ability to lean into their strengths and find workarounds for their weaknesses.
I would provide the workaround of grading students where they actually do well in a course; homework, tests, or class participation. They would choose two as their strengths (where they are graded) and one as their bravery (where they can earn extra credit as needed or desired).
Every student would be given every opportunity to fail, to prove me and my methods wrong, to learn something real.
Also published on Medium.