Is Tuition Really THAT Unreasonable in Ontario?

E-mail from the student federation at my university:

In May of this year, student representatives from across the country voted to call a national day of action in 2012 to demonstrate Canada-wide support for a national vision for higher education. This means on February 1, 2012 students from Victoria to St. John's will be taking to the streets to demand reductions in tuition fees, greater investment in college and university education and measures to alleviate student debt.

Is tuition really THAT bad? I did some calculations and on a bad year, it'll be 8k a year including textbooks. Minimum wage (10.25) for 20 hours a week, for the rest of the year will earn someone roughly 9000 dollars after tax returns and all that crap for students. Now, you factor in that minimum wage isn't even mandatory - there are plenty of student jobs that pay 12/hour at the very least. That comes to around $11000 dollars after tax returns. So that gives students more than enough spending money. If they want even more spending money, they can find plenty of jobs that'll pay 15/hour. Or they could even find a higher-paying job, work less, and still afford this "insane tuition" (which, by the way, is 10000 - ~50000 a year in the United States).

On top of all this, it seems like people forget that OSAP is a privilege; not something that we're entitled to. If you can't work and focus on school at the same time, then the government's nice enough to give you an interest-free until you graduate. I'd even go so far as saying that being able to go to a university in another city isn't something that we're entitled to get a loan for.

WTF gives? Are students just whiny little babies, or am I missing something here?

No Idea(')s Original

Do you ever wish that you grew up before the intellectual revolution? I always read books & thoughts that are widely-studied today, & can't help but think "I could've thought of that & written it down on paper."

With that in mind, it follows that being classified a genius isn't always a matter of capability - it's mostly a matter of order. The first one to think of something gets to coin it.

For example, did you know that someone came up with a similar theory about natural selection first? Darwin even read it - he was just the first to get his work published (that, and he an explanation for evolution as a mechanism).

I'm not saying that these geniuses aren't respectable, and I'm sure as hell not calling myself a genius...but sometimes I wonder how my life would've turned out if I was born a couple of centuries ago.

Imagine being in a time where you could come up with stuff, publish it, & call them YOUR ideas. Anyone after that (even if they never heard, read, or were influenced by your work) would be plagiarizing. & even if they weren't blamed for that, their work would hold substantially less merit.

It's only now that I finally understand the saying: "no ideas are original"

Or if you have one that is, you have to go to school for 8 years, become an understudy to someone who has a doctorate, take time off doing research. And only then will your work hold some value.

But at the same time, I can't complain that there's so much knowledge or information available. I suppose it's a love-hate relationship.

But then again, maybe it's a good thing - nowadays, for something to get acknowledged...it really does have to be something else. I'm just tired of coming up with ideas & solid arguments, only to figure out someone published it hundreds of years before I even could.

I'm growing weary of having to say "I could've thought of that." If only I was born when slavery existed, women were treated as subordinates to men, humans had no rights, the world was in chaos, and philosophy wasn't so extensively developed.

If only.

Peace,

- knowledge


p.s. oh yeah...I think Thursday drops are back. Please subscribe if you haven't.

Incompetent Teachers

As I write this, I should be studying for a midterm that I have. BUT...I figure, why bother? I have a test that I know close to nothing about.

I have a professor that still moves the mouse over to the "x" button to minimize a youtube window. She also uses Microsoft Word for her lectures(I'm not sure she even knows what the powerpoint icon looks like). She literally reads her lecture notes verbatim from the projector, except she adds "Umm..."s in between sentences (how is that even possible?) She also actually presses the button to scroll down...through pages of size 22 font.

A student once asked her about the central concept of an idea that she was teaching...and she didn't know the answer.

One class, I gave up trying to understand what the fuck she was trying to say...so I checked to see what ratemyprofessor.com had to say about her:
"Who knows whats going on in that head of hers. Not her, thats for sure, and as a result, not me either."

Which leads me to my main point: if you're not qualified to teach, then don't. My class of 60 took the course hoping that it would be interesting, but she really doesn't do the subject any justice. I can understand sulking through a mandatory course...but an elective? A course which I chose?

I'm sure that this happens to a lot of students. From the stories I hear, I really don't even have it that bad. But I refuse to get shafted from a proper education which I rightfully paid for. The last time I checked, University wasn't a charity for people who can't teach.

I don't give a shit if she has 5 kids to feed, is putting her niece from (insert foreign country here) through education, and might be the only breadwinner of the family...if you can't teach, then don't.

Students don't shell out thousands a year (or in this case, hundreds for a course) only to get gipped. Much like reading the newspaper: before I took this course, I was un-informed...now that I'm taking it, I'm mis-informed. Tell me how that's right?

I've got a simple formula for society to follow: do your job as efficiently as possible, and make sure you're qualified for it. If people followed this, the world would honestly be a better place. Not only would it be better, it'd be less problematic. A less problematic world = a happy world. Can you imagine a world where neurosurgeons don't exactly quite know what they're doing? Or a world where engineers aren't sure if the building might collapse at any given moment? How about a world where a population's severely mis-informed? Do I really need to start busting out definitions of what "teach" means?

If I wanted to pay hard-earned money to teach myself from wikipedia, I would've done that, except it'd be for free. My teacher's getting the boot, and I'm going to make sure that I do everything in my power to make it happen - or at least get her into some workshops. Times are changing, professor - get with them, or get the fuck out.

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I'm posting this AFTER my test, but I decided to leave the tenses as they are.

If you know what I'm talking about, or agree with what I'm saying...post it in your status or something.

Peace,

- knowledge