Lionel Shriver on MFA Programs

I had the same reaction about creative writing classes at any level. Many of the people teaching them can't write interestingly enough to find a volunteer audience. Most of the people doing this are not secret Emily Dickinsons, more like Thomas Wentworth Higginsons.

If anyone who sold novels that got critical attention or had an audience of over 4,000 taught ten students a decade, we'd more than replace our numbers even with a 90% attrition rate. Too many people make more money teaching than writing. There's a guy out there, not in the MFA programs, who does weekend workshops on movie writing that make him more in a weekend than he'd get for a TV script.

The temptation is to flatter the young so you have the course filled, so your income is protected.