An unofficial AU advocate at large, Jason never misses a chance to recount the merits of an Athabasca education. Jason’s studies began alone in front of a rustic rural fireplace in December of 2003 and carried on through various brick and mortar college classrooms yet always with Athabasca as part of his journey. In 2014 he completed his BA in Sociology and in 2022 graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies. To this end, his columns seek to explore edifying moments of learning how to learn within the challenging ideological terrain of that great bugaboo facing students everywhere: the real world!
“Going somewhere?” Intoned as a mocking phrase, maybe when an adult has quietly confiscated a teenager’s car keys only to dangle them perspicaciously at a crucial moment, or when a friend appraises the sudden donning of hat and jacket by an erstwhile interlocutor after an especially barbed rejoinder, the notion of going somewhere carries a… Read more »
At last it is Canadian spring, when finally we burst into action. Pens and paper, laptops and textbooks, they are all thrust to the wayside as we celebrate what there is to do outdoors. But wait, there’s work waiting for us in the yard! If we’re privileged enough to have some outdoors of our own… Read more »
Whatever we put into our bodies goes into the makeup of our being. Years ago I attended a restaurant in Nelson, BC, specializing in delicious garlic dishes. The glory of that mighty plant was on full display and for months after I enjoyed roasting garlic cloves with a little salt and olive oil. Garlic, like… Read more »
Ever wake up feeling like a different creature than you were yesterday? We at AU emerge from the cocoon states of our less educated selves every day; the learning is ongoing and that’s why it’s called continuing education. As we study harder and glean faster, we may see the world anew and feel our essence… Read more »
Language is an indispensable tool for learning and, lest we dig our own academic graves by failing to utilize language to our best advantage, a brief survey of the technology of words as tools is in order. We know that crows and anteaters use tools, and that rock-dwelling mammals like marmots have specific warning calls… Read more »
Did you ever write an AU assignment on a tablet? Me neither! While touch screen keypads might be suitable for kibitzing with family and friends and dolling our faces up with filters ranging from Capuchin Monkey to Octogenarian Granny, nothing beats the tactile nature of a physical keyboard. Traditional keypads contain ample space for flourishes… Read more »
As temperature depends on our local micro-climate, so too do the feelings of our personal life remain irreducible to a series of facts. Nowhere is this clearer than our lives as AU students, which, for the most part, appears to others in the abstract. We might be feeling the heat of a deadline, or the… Read more »
Why, as adults (or in our case adult students), do we at times find it difficult to focus on gleeful and joyous moments? Why does doubt and anxiety creep into our being and how is that negativity exacerbated by our studies? Distance education can inflate our stress to soul-gnawing proportions. So, in true critical thinking… Read more »
“Sure a cold one, eh?” “Warmer now that you’re here! Nothing’s more banal, or adroit, depending upon its users, than a conversation about temperature. But did you know that the gendered pronoun controversy can blow like an Arctic front into the temperature mix? Consider the French term, il fait froid, normally translated as a way… Read more »
The post-punk Marxist band Gang of Four once sang, with plaintive aplomb in the face of the mixed results of industrial job creation, “please send me evenings and weekends”. We at AU might relate to this sentiment; the gift we purchase for our futures selves by furthering our education can arrive with attendant difficulties of… Read more »