Can you learn composition?

Once a month there is a large round table of the composition department at the traditional Prague conservatory. There experienced professors meet with seasoned and young composition students. I gave a talk about the meaning of composition, and about the task of the composer. I also encouraged two female composers among the 25 composition students in attendance to keep fighting and developing themselves. One of the professors asked me why I was not teaching. I told him you can’t learn composition, and you can’t teach it – to which he simply replied: “then I am unemployed”. It was a nice/serious discussion.