Is 11 Weeks Enough?
- Jessica Beckford
- Apr 22, 2015
- 2 min read
At the Art Institute of Tampa you can enter into a 4 year degree program for interior design. They consist of 11 week per quarter and 4 quarters a year. I’m currently enrolled in this program and am approaching the end of my 4 year term.
A question was brought up in class “is 11 weeks per quarter for 4 years long enough to provide the information we need to know to become a successful interior designer?” that question had my wheels turning because the things we learn are valid information that is needed for future encounters, but on the other hand there’s only so much you can say on a subject.
Then a colleague of mine brought up the idea of co-ed classes, meaning instead of sitting in a class room one a week for 11 weeks, we can go back and forth from classroom to an actual worksite and have something like “on the job training”. I thought that was a brilliant idea for the fact that:
We can get the book information and taught the basics as we are now.
We can take the things learned in class and apply
it immediately to a real life scenario
We can learn about things that school couldn’t or wouldn’t teach us
But doing this, wouldn’t that make being in school a longer process? Well no, some class can be replaced with this co-ed class so we would only be in school for the same amount of time. And those 2 years after you graduate would have already been fulfilled while in school. However if co-ed was to just be added on, on top of existing classes then yes, I do think school would be a longer process. But the 2 years after graduation still wouldn’t be needed. Therefore it’s really a win-win situation.
So all in all, education for interior designers play a huge factor because we must be able to knowledge the problem and find the effective, functional, yet stylish and safe solution for that problem. Without our education and experience it wouldn’t be possible nor would it be fair to society that an uneducated group of individuals are responsible for constructing and redesigning spaces that is used daily by thousands of people. So is 11 weeks enough?
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