Whilst walking through the university, I've just come accross a poster on blue paper, from a group calling itself "Blue Leaf" and claiming to be a voice from the "conservative resistance". In stark contrast to yesterday's national actions by the Canadian Federation of Students, demanding a lowering of tuition fees, Blue Leaf believes that freedom can only come from an elimination of subsidies toward higher education. Unconventional, bold and daring, I'll give them that, but that's all I'm giving them.
In big, bold capital letters at the top it declares that "Education is not a right". I beg to differ.
The history of servitude, slavery and unfree labour in general is replete with examples of debt-slavery, indentured servitude and various forms of apprenticeship which amount, simply, to the exploitation of labour based on the supposed costs of getting the person to work. A perfect example would be the years of indentured servitude which many Europeans were forced into for the expense of bringing them to the New World in the years of colonization. During those years they had few if any rights (though usually more than slaves), death rates were high and abuse was very common. This kind of exploitation continues right on today, just ask anyone at Labourready how much they've had taken off their paycheque for the van ride to the Oakville factories (and the hard hat, boots, and whatever else they're required to have but is not provided by either the factory they're making profits for or the agency which is making off with almost half their wages). And here we come to the issue of the cost of entry into the professional economy. Today becoming a Doctor or Lawyer can cost well over $100 000, and just about any other "real job" (in the terminology of people constantly trying to sell us college and university degrees) requires some sort of expensive education and certification process. As any student knows, the tuition (which has gone up, yet again, in the last year) costs are only the beginning. Start investing in books, living expenses (it's hard enough to make ends meet when you're not in full time school), course materials, computers (because handwritten assignments and old-fashioned book research isn't practical anymore) and other costs can easily put someone tens of thouands into debt in only a few years. Many just keep going, since OSAP doesn't start the threatening calls until you're out. Many others are forced into low-wage work outside of their fields. And a good number (roughly equal to the third in college, or third in university) simply never go in the first place.
An educated society is a rich society. Spending on education multiplies itself many times over as an educated and academically disciplined society grows older, and this is in no way limited to those taking courses that lead to big paycheques. As much as I hate to say it, our society needs more lawyers, or at least more legal knowledge, and the current high prices for buying a house, leaving your spouse or defending yourself from criminal charges are a result. With a six-figure debt you cannot simply go and give legal aid at an inner-city community centre, you have to find work at a corporate office. Worst of all, this kind of specialization (the idea that only a very small percentage of us should be able to understand the law or preform in court) keeps most of us away from the kind of legal knowlege which might help us defend ourselves and our communities from overzealous cops, invading developers or corrupt civic officials. The same can be said for many important forms of information which keep our society running, especially medical, scientific or even philosophical ideas. There are reasons that socieites like Cuba (for all of its faults) do so much better than many of their neighbours - free higher education enriches even the poorest of people.
We need to blur the lines between "students" and "citizens" and open up educational opportunities in sizes more manageable than the "full time job" which is most people's modern experience. Taking one or two classes at a time should be made easier and encouraged, and many courses should be broken down into single seminars or short serieses. With modern technology we can copy and distribute lectures, slideshows and course materials for next to no money and we should, providing anyone who wants access to that information without the corresponding paperwork free access to it. Papers written for assignments could be shared as a group to provide feedback (much more effective than a straight up "grade" out of 100), and left in a central collection to stand as examples to future students. Professional academic papers, should and must be available freely to all - since this kind of material usually only reaches the masses through short and misleading newspaper articles about a select few sensational studies. Everyone deserves free access to medical studies, philosophy papers and historical documentation, and the high price of housing stacks of vollumes is no longer an excuse (and $15/article for a 20 minute glance at something which might be relevant to a 300-word blog post is completely unacceptable). Certification options could then be opened up to those who studied the same materials on their own and were willing to write the necessary exams, and scholarly recognition opened up to those who, whether holding a degree or not, submitted scholarly papers and contributed to the understanding and debate of a topic.
And yes, I understand that University costs money. But education benefits far more than the students, and costs need not be anywhere near as high as they are now. The price of books is a The space exists around Hamilton in churches, theatres, parks, pubs and public school auditoriums to house tens of thousands in nightly lectures, times when most of these spaces are sitting empty anyway. There's also loads of grad students, grads and underemployed PHDs who'd love a shot at extra credit in exchange for teaching less formal classes on topics which they've studied. With the kind of computer equipment that exists in most living rooms these days, it wouldn't be hard to organize this kind of thing, and take note of who's attended what.
The roles of "teacher" and "student" are every bit as restrictive as "judge", "cop", or "leader". Everyone is better off if everyone is better educated, and just imagine what could be accomplished if even a small number of people followed their interests and learned what interested them without the fear of crippling debts or whether or not it would make them "employable". Information is free, infinitely reproducable and liberates people wherever it travels - we as a society have a duty to further it's spread wherever and whenever possible.
In big, bold capital letters at the top it declares that "Education is not a right". I beg to differ.
The history of servitude, slavery and unfree labour in general is replete with examples of debt-slavery, indentured servitude and various forms of apprenticeship which amount, simply, to the exploitation of labour based on the supposed costs of getting the person to work. A perfect example would be the years of indentured servitude which many Europeans were forced into for the expense of bringing them to the New World in the years of colonization. During those years they had few if any rights (though usually more than slaves), death rates were high and abuse was very common. This kind of exploitation continues right on today, just ask anyone at Labourready how much they've had taken off their paycheque for the van ride to the Oakville factories (and the hard hat, boots, and whatever else they're required to have but is not provided by either the factory they're making profits for or the agency which is making off with almost half their wages). And here we come to the issue of the cost of entry into the professional economy. Today becoming a Doctor or Lawyer can cost well over $100 000, and just about any other "real job" (in the terminology of people constantly trying to sell us college and university degrees) requires some sort of expensive education and certification process. As any student knows, the tuition (which has gone up, yet again, in the last year) costs are only the beginning. Start investing in books, living expenses (it's hard enough to make ends meet when you're not in full time school), course materials, computers (because handwritten assignments and old-fashioned book research isn't practical anymore) and other costs can easily put someone tens of thouands into debt in only a few years. Many just keep going, since OSAP doesn't start the threatening calls until you're out. Many others are forced into low-wage work outside of their fields. And a good number (roughly equal to the third in college, or third in university) simply never go in the first place.
An educated society is a rich society. Spending on education multiplies itself many times over as an educated and academically disciplined society grows older, and this is in no way limited to those taking courses that lead to big paycheques. As much as I hate to say it, our society needs more lawyers, or at least more legal knowledge, and the current high prices for buying a house, leaving your spouse or defending yourself from criminal charges are a result. With a six-figure debt you cannot simply go and give legal aid at an inner-city community centre, you have to find work at a corporate office. Worst of all, this kind of specialization (the idea that only a very small percentage of us should be able to understand the law or preform in court) keeps most of us away from the kind of legal knowlege which might help us defend ourselves and our communities from overzealous cops, invading developers or corrupt civic officials. The same can be said for many important forms of information which keep our society running, especially medical, scientific or even philosophical ideas. There are reasons that socieites like Cuba (for all of its faults) do so much better than many of their neighbours - free higher education enriches even the poorest of people.
We need to blur the lines between "students" and "citizens" and open up educational opportunities in sizes more manageable than the "full time job" which is most people's modern experience. Taking one or two classes at a time should be made easier and encouraged, and many courses should be broken down into single seminars or short serieses. With modern technology we can copy and distribute lectures, slideshows and course materials for next to no money and we should, providing anyone who wants access to that information without the corresponding paperwork free access to it. Papers written for assignments could be shared as a group to provide feedback (much more effective than a straight up "grade" out of 100), and left in a central collection to stand as examples to future students. Professional academic papers, should and must be available freely to all - since this kind of material usually only reaches the masses through short and misleading newspaper articles about a select few sensational studies. Everyone deserves free access to medical studies, philosophy papers and historical documentation, and the high price of housing stacks of vollumes is no longer an excuse (and $15/article for a 20 minute glance at something which might be relevant to a 300-word blog post is completely unacceptable). Certification options could then be opened up to those who studied the same materials on their own and were willing to write the necessary exams, and scholarly recognition opened up to those who, whether holding a degree or not, submitted scholarly papers and contributed to the understanding and debate of a topic.
And yes, I understand that University costs money. But education benefits far more than the students, and costs need not be anywhere near as high as they are now. The price of books is a The space exists around Hamilton in churches, theatres, parks, pubs and public school auditoriums to house tens of thousands in nightly lectures, times when most of these spaces are sitting empty anyway. There's also loads of grad students, grads and underemployed PHDs who'd love a shot at extra credit in exchange for teaching less formal classes on topics which they've studied. With the kind of computer equipment that exists in most living rooms these days, it wouldn't be hard to organize this kind of thing, and take note of who's attended what.
The roles of "teacher" and "student" are every bit as restrictive as "judge", "cop", or "leader". Everyone is better off if everyone is better educated, and just imagine what could be accomplished if even a small number of people followed their interests and learned what interested them without the fear of crippling debts or whether or not it would make them "employable". Information is free, infinitely reproducable and liberates people wherever it travels - we as a society have a duty to further it's spread wherever and whenever possible.
posted by Undustrial at 10:18 AM
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