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I think the LW has probably shortchanged her Husband in terms of explaining why he's so dead set against a MFA. But reading the letter, I can't but feel like the Husband, and my girlfriend the wife (minus the marriage, and the kids). My girlfriend has in the the past often brought going back to grad school to get a degree such as an MBA. And she probably has described my reaction as "shutting her down". I feel like I share similar attitude with the Husband. While I do have ungraduate degree, I find school on the most part pretty useless. I would want my kids to get an undergrad degree just because I think college is good place to grow up, and fairly or not people have come to expect a college degree as minimum requirement for a job. Even though a MFA and MBAs seem like polar opposites. They're not so different as they are both degrees that are nice but certainly not required for line of work/art. They are only one means to end and not an end on to itself. In reality, I don't think anybody who is actually capable, motivated, and talened needs to formally get a degree. So given that attitude, when my girlfriend has brought up getting a MBA (I work in industry that is populated by MBAs), I usually scoff at the idea not because I don't want her to pursue her dreams, but because I think it's the wrong way to go about it. That it's quite a bit of money and time that would be better spent elsewhere. If I were the LW's Husband and had 3 kids to support and take care of, I'd probably be even more dead set against the idea. As it is now, I just encourage my girlfriend to think of other means to get to her dreams (which is running a non-profit). It just sounds like the LWs husband need to be more positive rather than negative in terms of discussing the matter. I find the calls for divorce rather ridiculous. Do you divorce someone as soon as they disagree with you about how you should pursue somehting?
