Enough already! Why can learning institutions keep sticking it to students? There should be legislation that requires learning institutions to get all contracts in place before they accept student tuition fees. A student deserves the peace of mind knowing that when they pay for the year’s tuition, they get uninterrupted learning. They get what they paid for. No staff striking, no lost education. Why is it legal to do anything less?! —Co-bitched by Pissed Pupil and Livid Learner
This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2013.
No doubt for much the same reason that when public sector trade unions go on strike, we don’t get a tax rebate for all of the time that we were deprived of services which we pay through the nose for.
Maybe you should transfer to a real university, OB. 😉
Oh yeah, I said it. 😛
THE COMMODIFICATION OF EDUCATION
“A student deserves the peace of mind knowing that when they pay for the year’s tuition, they get uninterrupted learning. They get what they paid for.”
(Pissed Pupil and Livid Learner)
While this bitch does not provide any details which might explain the actions of the particular “learning institution” – one supposes that it doesn’t do these things just to be nasty – that is not my primary focus. My primary focus is the subtext of the bitch, i.e., that education is just another commodity, just another load of coconuts that, having been paid for, must be delivered on time and as per contract specifications. It’s called “the commodification of education.”
The operative concept is that the customers should “get what they paid for.” But what, exactly, does Pissed and Livid mean by that “what”? In other words, what does Pissed and Livid understand by “education”? Does he mean that education, to be education, must consist of that “uninterrupted learning” to which he refers? But surely he can’t mean just that. He must understand that education doesn’t cease to be “education” if it is interrupted in the same way, say, as the shipment of coconuts was interrupted wouldn’t cease thereby to be coconuts. Even Pissed and Livid must mean something more than that. But what? The load of coconuts analogy serves to gives us a glimpse into Pissed and Livid’s “mind.”
For Pissed and Livid the world in general and education in particular reduces to the “cash nexus,” a place which he can comprehend only in terms of the interaction of buyers and sellers. Nothing more for Pissed and Livid has any meaning, least of all education. That is because, for Pissed and Livid, education is something that he passively consumes much in the way that he consumes that load of coconuts. He wants that “uninterrupted” flow of “learning” to pour continuously into his passively waiting gob. That is because, in addition to education, Pissed and Livid doesn’t understand what learning is either.
But it doesn’t matter. Pissed and Livid is clearly a crass pragmatic materialist – a skin-surface hedonist – who is attending that “learning institution” so he can make more money in order to consume more coconuts.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Well. Formal post-secondary education HAS to be a commodity. Profs gotta eat too.
pretty kitty; You stuck up conceited fool. I do night classes at a local college and I work full time. Let me guess, mommy and daddy paid your bills, your attitude gives it away. Stop being such a high and mighty bitch and every third post you make might not be about how your single and have been for a long long time.
Oh yeah, I said it. 😛
Perhaps getting a sense of humour might be beneficial, Sonic. My post was a JOKE. Those who go to other universities regularly rag on each other. One of my good friends went to StFX and we regularly poke fun at each other and how each others’ university sucks.
Jesus.
Also: I paid 100% of my bills and tuition myself. My parents were unable to help me when I went to school, so I worked, took out some loans and went to school full time. So you can go fuck yourself.
But I suppose the fact that you work and take night classes makes you a hero and everyone who didn’t go that route a conceited bitch.
Oh and you probably didn’t pick up on the fact that they’re talking about StFx, Sonic.
Also: try reading my post about community college before you jump to stupid assumptions and make yourself look like a fool.
Your friends went to a university, you went to a university. You regularly poke fun at each other, then say “Maybe you should transfer to a real university, OB. ;)” Yup, your conceited sarcasm.
“But I suppose the fact that you work and take night classes makes you a hero and everyone who didn’t go that route a conceited bitch.”
This makes no sense. Your a conceited bitch because of your attitude, not because of what I do in life.
Sonic, it no different than the Navy ragging on the Army, the Army ragging on the Navy, and everyone ragging on the Air Force.
Fuckin’ Zoomies! 😉
Bro Tim; I like it, the inter-element banter is a great example. But there’s always one that truly believes it. Maybe I misread it and maybe jumped to conclusions, I doubt that though…… I do apoligize for the bitch remark, that was completely uncalled for.
Well, if this helps you figure out if you misread anything and jumped to conclusions: a) bro tim’s right; b) I think StFx is a great school — family went there, my best friend taught there, a friend of mine who’s a smarty pants went there… but I went to Acadia (which I also think is a great school) and it’s customary for Acadia people and StFx people to rag on each other. One common topic of ridicule is how ‘ugly’ the x-ring is. 😉
Same deal with Dal and SMU.
And everyone rags on MSVU.
pretty kitty; While a convenient story, I do doubt it. Given the recent publicity over the troubles with NSCC campuses not offering advertised courses I find it a far stretch to buy into your story of University rivalries. I have also seen your attitude come out many times and that may give my mind a pre designated opinion of what your intentions truly are. I could have also just been being sarcastic this whole thread as you usually claim to be, its not a far stretch.
*shakes head* you little troll.
If I’m the Troll, then your the reverse Troll. You need both to do what we just did, and both sides would also be at fault. But I have noticed another pattern with you pretty kitty, everyones a Troll if they don’t like what you say. Your a Troll, I’m a Troll, we’re all Trolls, welcome to the internet.
nah, I can recognize an actual troll. There’s really only one dedicated troll on here and you ain’t it. You have troll tendencies, but sometimes you do write decent shit.
And people can dislike what I say on here all they want. It’s a bitch board where opinions, including unpopular ones, can surface. *shrug* That includes disagreeing with people who disagree with you, or disagreeing with the way someone took one of your posts. Honestly, though, you can take whatever post I write the way you want. No frosting off my cupcake.
because university is a business. Your education means jack all. Its all about the profit margins. They have such a good system in place of where you are bombarded with “you have to go to college to maybe get ahead and make a future.” They can charge whatever they want
pretty kitty; “That includes disagreeing with people who disagree with you, or disagreeing with the way someone took one of your posts.”
Nothing on this thread makes me a Troll based on what you just wrote. I didn’t agree with what you said, thats it, thats all. We had a “debate” of sorts as adults usually do, and I’d say the misinformation/difference of opinions got sorted out. I clicked “Like” on everything, its my thing, like drinking lots of milk.
she also forgot to mention that when she went to university, the profs there were on strike for over a month.
School’s there to teach you how to teach yourself.
They can’t do that without material for you to learn so that’s why there are subjects but ultimately, it’s up to you to make sure you know the material.
If you’re just learning the material and not how you can best teach yourself material, you’re in for a hell of a surprise once you walk across that stage and are thrust into…
dun dun dun….
the REAL world.
Ahhh spring break, white juan and strike. Fond memories of Feb 2004.
yep… the year the good times died.
It will always be the same. there will be winners, them. and losers you, I and any other studen, past, present and future.
And here I thought EVERYBODY ragged on NSCAD.
Everyone but the hipsters that attend…
I mean, look at all the creativity and finesse they put in some of these posters.
http://older.unews.ca/images/uploads/NSCAD…
You can only see that devotion, time, and effort from a school of arts.
RSVP
: Pretty Kitty (02/12, 10:07AM)
“Well. Formal post-secondary education HAS to be a commodity. Profs gotta eat too.”
It appears that PK shares Pissed and Livid’s conception of education, that is, that education is little more than a load of coconuts to be delivered promptly when paid for according to contract specifications. This is a breath-taking assertion from one who claims to have gone to university.
But wait. Perhaps not. Perhaps it all depends on what she has taken at university as a major for her degree. What degree would that have been? Perhaps she has taken something closely related to the “studies” of the one-dimensional bean-counters in the Commerce Faculty. From that blinkered, constricted perspective, education is indeed just like anything else. In standard fashion, PK confounds education with training. The first relates to the disinterested cultivation of the mind, the second is aimed at getting a (better) job.
For PK then, acquiring an education is just like getting a load of coconuts, the sole purpose of which is to get a job and the sole purpose of that, of course, is to get more money to consume more coconuts. In that case PK admirably reflects that mentality – the pragmatic, acquisitive materialism of the skin-surface hedonist.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Jesus fucking christ you people need to get a life. Pretty Kitty if your ‘joke’ is able to inspire so much venom maybe you should reconsider your overinflated sense of comedic skills.
Just joking!
Montrealman……you seem to deduct a great deal from so very little. You are providing subtexts and statements that are reflections of YOUR attitude and trying to sell them as a definitive truths……Tisk tisk.
Maybe Pupil, Learner, and the Pretty Kitty are hedonistically consumed with just simple mind-deep knowledge introduced through the scholastic environment.
It would seem you derive your pleasure from unsubstantiated verbal diarrhea…….as always.
Having said that……will you click me as “Friend”.
Also…..timely deliverance is a basic cornerstone of law in this society. There is nothing wrong with the OB’s expectation for it.
If your done with those coconuts………
Question: What is a recent philosophy Ph.D.’s usual question in his or her first job?
Answer: “Would you like french fries with that, sir?”
By the way. My wife works at a university. The stuff she tells me what students do, it’s no wonder why your tuition is extreme.
Heh heh NSCAD.
Now Serving Coffee And Donuts.
>; )
Oh learn to take a joke you Gauloise smoking bohemes.
Now, go weld me something useful. Like a Destroyer
THE FEATHERLESS BI-PED
RSVPs
: Smee (02/12, 8:38PM)
“Montrealman… you seem to deduct (sic) a great deal from so very little.” (Smee)
As is normally the case in certain quarters, Smee simply asserts rather than demonstrates that Montrealman seems to deduce a a great deal from “so very little”. But what, one wonders, is the content of that “very little?” Of course, one realizes that nothing by way of an answer will be forthcoming from Smee so it falls to Montrealman to engage the question.
Far from being “so very little” as Smee supposes, the reduction of the concept of education to a “commodity” is to eviscerate it of any meaningful content. It is comparable to the reduction of the concept of man to that of a “featherless bi-ped.” Yes it is true in a rudimentary, mindless sport of way that man is indeed a featherless bi-ped. Yes, he has no feathers and walks on two legs. But does this exhaust the definition of the concept of man? Would Smee define Shakespeare, for example, as a featherless bi-ped? One hopes not. One would hope that even Smee would see the absurdity of the claim but, of course, one cannot be sure. So, in contrast Smee’s assertion, Montrealman deduces a great deal from – wait for it – a great deal. Does Smee have anything else to add? Let’s see.
Smee asserts, “You are providing subtexts and statements that are reflections of YOUR attitude and trying to sell them as definitive truths. Tisk Tisk.”
There is an old saying that goes like this: “All discourse is self-referential.” In fact, I coined it myself. It means that all assertions reflect one’s own attitudes and beliefs. It is impossible, in other words, to honestly assert “P” where “P” is not a reflection of one’s attitudes and beliefs. Not even Smee can escape this BUT look at what Smee asserts. She asserts that it is not so much my subtexts and statements which are reflections of my attitude which embody definitive truths but rather – wait for it – those of Smee herself. She knows that her subtexts and statements that are reflections of her attitudes are the ones which definitively portray the truth. Of course, Smee gives no grounds to support her claim. For her it is simply self-validating because, well, she said so. She doesn’t see that she has contradicted herself “ex suae orae” (out of her own mouth).
But I won’t go on. I think that’s enough philosophy for Smee this morning. Her head must be buzzing.
: Senor Campana (02/12, 8:56PM)
An excellent joke from Campana, one which indicates of course that he has swallowed the education-commodity equivalence whole without a trace of reflection.
(9:05PM)
As is to be expected, another incoherent statement from Campana. He probably doesn’t see it, but there is no relationship between what his wife “tells him” on the one hand, and “extreme tuition” on the other. No, none.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Oh Royal Mountain Man my head IS buzzing!
Unsubstantiated verbal diarrhea…….as always.
What a stink!
A student deserves to come out of school with an opportunity to have a decent paying job. Riding off the backs of staff who are making just above poverty level wages so you can walk away with your diploma scratching your head and wondering why you can only find a 30K a year job really makes you think… maybe if they won some livable salary increases in their bargaining, the world would be a better place for me to find a decent living?
RSVP
: Smee (02/13, 11:33PM)
Smee darling, you must read my post carefully over again to yourself, in particular the following:
“She knows that her subtext and statements that are the reflections of her attitudes are the ones that definitely portray the truth. Of course, she gives no grounds to support her claims.” (Montrealman, 02/13, 9:52AM)
Try not to move your lips.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Montrealman. Please don’t flatter yourself with your over pompous self-absorbed “knowledge”. BTW My wife would know a whole lot more what goes on in a university than your mailed-in “degree”. I mean “think”. That’s what you do is think, whereas others know.
Always a joy.
Happy Valentines Day. Try to respond without a RSVP or a comment without quotes. I’ll bet you a days pay compared to your monthy salary. Then we’ll call it even.
RSVP
: Senor Campana (02/13, 9:17PM)
“Please don’t flatter yourself with your over pompous self=absorbed ‘knowledge.'”
But Campana, you must give grounds for an assertion like that. As expected, you were unable to do so.
“BTW My wife would know a whole lot more that goes on in a university than your mailed-in ‘degree.'”
See my reply to your previously ungrounded assertion above.
“I mean ‘think.’ That’s what you do is think, whereas others know.”
See my reply to your two previously ungrounded assertions above.
How can one possibly reply without a RSVP or quotes. The first is a matter of etiquette, the second a matter of rational debate, i.e., specifying precisely what the other has claimed before demolishing it. No Campana, sadly we’ll never be able to “call it even.”
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
I know this is an old bitch. However. Montreal Man. The Canadian Mint is phasing out the penny. So what are you going to do with your two cents worth everytime?