When US president Barack Obama said that ¡°folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree¡±, he was bound to provoke a response from within the academy.

Some of the strongest social media reactions to the remarks, which were made during a January speech at the General Electric plant in Wisconsin, were collated in the In The Air blog in a post entitled ¡°¡±.

¡°Goodbye art and music programs in the schools. What a?philistine,¡± reads one comment from Patricia (the blog removed people¡¯s last names to protect their identity). ¡°If there were no arts in schools there would be no Emmy Grammy or Oscar nominees No clothing designers no Fashion Week, and Obama is a Jazz fan¡± adds Catherine in another post on a social network.

Giving a more measured response was Ann Collins Johns, Regents¡¯ outstanding teaching professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who specialises in late medieval and early Renaissance Italian art.

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She used a to take issue with the president¡¯s comments, and her remarks clearly caught Mr Obama¡¯s eye. He?sent her a letter in response.

¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that my email was not so much one of outrage at his statement, but rather a ¡®look at what we do well¡¯ statement,¡± Professor Johns said, . ¡°I emphasized that we challenge students to think, read, and write critically. I also stressed how inclusive our discipline is these days (even though my own specialty is medieval and Renaissance Italy).¡±

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The blog also reproduces Mr Obama¡¯s handwritten note in full. ¡°Ann ¨C Let me apologize for my off-the-cuff remarks,¡± he writes. ¡°I was making a point about the jobs market, not the value of art history.

¡°As it so happens, art history was one of my favorite subjects in high school, and it has helped me take in a great deal of joy in my life that I might otherwise have missed.¡±

He asks Professor Johns to pass on the apology to the rest of her department, describing his own remarks as ¡°glib¡± and adding that he was trying to encourage young people who may not be predisposed to a four-year college experience to be ¡°open to technical training¡±.

On her Facebook profile, Professor Johns said that she did not expect that ¡°THE MAN HIMSELF would write me an apology¡±.?¡°Now I¡¯m totally guilty about wasting his time,¡± she said.

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However, that she was pleased to have taken the time to put her point across.

¡°I felt it was important for him to know that art history is no?longer just the purview of ¡®the girls with pearls¡¯ (as we called it when I was an undergrad), a long time ago,¡± she said.

Send links to topical, insightful and quirky online comment by and about academics to chris.parr@tsleducation.com