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!
In spring we dust off our outdoor selves and, hopefully, gain new perspective on ourselves. Everything appears differently in the bold light of the season and this illustrates the subjective nature of the act of seeing itself. Take photo albums, for instance. When I look at family picture books, aged and oxidised by the loving… Read more »
Imagine back, way back, to 4500 BCE at a humble hunting and gathering settlement in Western Ukraine. That’s where the earliest paintings of decorated eggs were discovered (Baring & Cashford, 61). What joy these ancient people must have felt at the advent of spring! 6,600 years later their painted treasures convey a delicate brilliance familiar… Read more »
Nudge nudge…poke! Spring peaks its snout out from between piles of snow that can only dream of a future as glaciers. Wherever we came from, and wherever we go, it helps to take a look at the big wide picture. Thousands of years ago an endless winter covered almost every available patch of land across… Read more »
It’s an old cliché that we’re hard-wired to be social animals. Like cows dipping their heads to nosh on some clover, all the while furtively murmuring gossip about whose calves nibbled at whose udders unbeknownst to the other’s Mothers, we humans thrive on gabbing in groups. Who are we going to low conspiratorially to now?… Read more »
“It is dangerous to read newspapers” wrote Margaret Atwood in the late 60s. What she meant was clear: the establishment couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth or even to veer away from doing the wrong thing. During the Vietnam war the contradictions of the world were inescapable for a generation whose access to this… Read more »
Judge not lest ye be judged. It’s an aphorism as old as time, humming a song as old as rhyme. Yet negative judgements of others flow to the surface of our mind as natural as ducks taking to water. Avoiding toxic thoughts of superiority isn’t merely a matter of consciously and calmly pressing some mental… Read more »
Ever feel disenchanted and doubtful about your self-image as a successful student? Strive though we might, successes at our studies don’t guarantee a standing ovation from those in our lives or even a satisfied sense of accomplishment. Sorry, kids. Everyone around us has their own stuff going on and, unlike at a brick and mortar… Read more »
Can you recall where you were five years ago on this day, at this minute, down to this second? There’d have to have been some special circumstances on hand to remember more than foggy, grainy, flecks of reality five years hence or to recall details mired in the penumbral twilight of time gone down the… Read more »
Bleak, stark, lifeless, pallid: winter landscapes aren’t the most inviting climes for a study break. A few paces from our door reveal only colourless dead space populated by shadows and chills. Oh sure, snowmen are always a possibility. But a corncob pipe and a button nose are no replacement for the magical appearance of an… Read more »
The saying goes: the devil makes work for idle hands. And yet, in the next breath, there’s an aphorism stating that hard work is its own reward. So maybe those who toil are doing so because the devil made them do it! Did we merely enroll at AU to further some masochistic need to affix… Read more »