Even erudite flies get smashed now and then for sounding too ‘school smart’. As one of many AU students not immersed in an academic social sphere, Jason’s ‘Fly on the Wall’ column seeks to aid and abet the success of others in his cohort. We won’t always be understood when we speak of what we are learning in school but we can rest assured that our education still has value.
His lighthearted approach to sociological philosophy stems from conducting field research at bush parties and working his day job reforesting the mountains of BC. Born in the city of Vancouver and raised on a farm in the Fraser Valley and an orchard in the Okanagan, he attained a diploma in Horticulture in the Creston Valley and then returned to school as a Sociology major. Today’s he’s an AU Master’s of Integrated Studies student who spends his spare time enjoying nature walks, snorkeling and reading whatever philosophical and sociological tracts capture his fancy.
Jason is fascinated with the micro-sociological thoughts and interactions that frame and demarcate our experience of daily life as well as the philosophical realm considering essential questions about what it is to be a human. It’s dense brush but Jason seeks answers where murkiness holds sway.
A Few Theoretical Influences: Louis Althusser, Isaac Asimov, Jean Baudrillard, Simone de Beauvoir, Aime Cesaire, Carol Clover, John Cummings, Kurt Cobain, Jacques Derrida, Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Erving Goffman, Antonio Gramsci, Martin Heidegger, Thomas Hobbes, Agnes Martin, Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, Max Weber
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 »
Ever pissed and missed? Well, who hasn’t? On this score, at least, reality is gender neutral. And as crude and off-colour as this theme is, bear with me and we’ll reveal something sublime about the human condition. To have faith in our goals requires a knowledge of our skills based on past improvements. For most… Read more »
A spectre haunts Valentine’s Day or V-Day: the spectre of fate. Cupid, with much cupidity, seems to decide whether our love is destined for joy or misery, ascendancy or decline. No day of the year encompasses the potential for ecstatic heights or dour doldrums more than February 14th. Relationships are made or broken by what… Read more »
From the mouths of babes enlightened realizations arise. This we know if we’re graced with the presence of youngsters in our life. Consider this exchange between two of my nieces: Niece 1: “Is it tomorrow or today?” Niece 2: “It’s today.” Niece 1: “Oh yeah, it’s always today!” There we have it; today is always… Read more »