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!
One of my sweet nieces said the darndest thing to her Dad the other day. Having finished her special kiddie-sized bowl of ice cream she blithely asked for some ice cream. Not more ice cream—just ice cream. As if the first bowl had never happened. Her Dad replied with a no and explained that she’d… Read more »
Why are we here? Mars glows red as it traverses a starry abyss with the moon in tow. Sitting outside on an autumn night, amidst Goliath Mulleins, ideas about meaning bubble to the surface of my mind. What feelings guide their trail and where do they lead? Like a zephyr breeze through dried tumbleweeds the… Read more »
Every day holds potential for learning if we look at life that way. Glorious new experiences are only ever a mouse click or a calm stroll or an exchanged glance away. And knowledge is only partly contained in our AU course materials. One can read a text forward and backward and still only know it… Read more »
Huddled as a mass, we across Canada gather at our local cenotaph on November 11th. The experience transcends differences of rural and urban, class and race, gender and belief, because the spectre of war brings us together today as it has throughout our history as a nation. As we give thanks for those whose sacrifice… Read more »
Having a runny nose has a whole new meaning this year. The response script of “quick, run and catch it” has morphed into “eek, go get tested”. Life as living pathology, sigh, that’s reality at the outset of the 20’s. But wait, on Hallowe’en anything goes, right? Our dress can express the social and mental… Read more »
In Latin the word vulgaris refers to something common, but we’re not at AU because we’re average, right? We’re here to transcend our ordinary lives by bettering ourselves through education. With that in mind we can all recall absorbing common ideologies about personal learning styles. It’s a song as old as rhyme: each of us… Read more »
Virtual convocation reminds us that we are always learning from just outside our social realm to the extent that we apply the elixir of critical thought to as many aspects of our life and our labour as possible. Daily life in the 20s is probably going to be replete with metaphors equating virtual reality with… Read more »
To all the 2020 graduands, congrats! And for the rest of us grads, future and past, let’s rest on our virtual laurels for a moment and consider the conquest that’s been. Many of our peers would shudder to attempt distance education. AU is not for the faint of heart or slack of skill. We learn… Read more »
You’ll have to forgive me, the neighbour’s dogs are yipping up a jealous storm as they react to our local coyote pack. The latter are waltzing gleefully past windows and singing songs of merriment as they indulge in fallen fruit that has fermented on the orchard’s floor. Like animals prior to domestication, our AU minds… Read more »
At the cosmic level we were all born yesterday. Homo sapiens are Johnny-come-lately to planet Earth; one day every organism alive today will be as extinct as the dodo. Yet, the time frames, such as the Earth’s 4.6 billion years of existence, are beyond our comprehension. The universe isn’t comparable to your great-grandmother’s sense of… Read more »