Obama says he made 'off-the-cuff remarks' during the speech in Wisconsin. Obama apologizes to art history prof

In a handwritten note, President Barack Obama offered an apology to a professor who took offense at his jab at art history majors during a speech outside of Milwaukee last month.

After hearing his remark at a General Electric plant that “folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree,” University of Texas at Austin Professor Ann Collins Johns sent a message to the president via the White House website stressing that art history students learn to think, read and write critically and the inclusiveness of the field, according to art blog Hyperallergic.


To Johns’s surprise, she received a letter from the White House with an apology scrawled in the president’s looping handwriting.

( Earlier on POLITICO: Obama orders review of job-training programs)

“Let me apologize for my off-the-cuff remarks. 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,” Obama wrote, according to a copy of the letter published on the blog.

He added, “So please pass on my apology for the glib remark to the entire department, and understand that I was trying to encourage young people who may not be predisposed to a four year college experience to be open to technical training that can lead them to an honorable career.”

Johns sent the message despite the president’s immediate clarification that he thinks there is “nothing wrong with art history degree” and didn’t want to receive “a bunch of emails from everybody.”

“I love art history,” Obama said after making the comment about art history majors. “I don’t want to get a bunch of emails from everybody. I’m just saying, you can make a really good living and have a great career without getting a four-year college education, as long as you get the skills and training that you need.”