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!
When I was in the seventh grade, our class undertook a project to improve a salmon stream that flowed past our school’s football field. For what seemed like countless spring afternoons we hauled wheelbarrows of gravel to improve the salmon laddering system that would allow the fish to complete their journey home to their birthplace…. Read more »
Occasionally during my high school years a bulletin would go out to teachers proclaiming a ?pep rally? that all students were to attend. Usually this occurred on a Friday afternoon right before a big basketball game. A mild cheer would erupt amongst us students, in many cases because it meant we could skip out and… Read more »
Be it at kindergarten or college, October 31 is one of the most anticipated dates on the calendar. From spending a whole school day eating candy and making arts and crafts, to an evening out trick-or-treating, toilet-papering houses, egging automobiles or partying, Halloween has something every student can be excited about. As an institution endorsed… Read more »
In my early years of elementary school we would periodically troop down to a classroom full of “big kids” in order to meet with our “big buddies.” Ostensibly, they were to provide guidance to us young whippersnappers. I of course learned when I became a big buddy myself that being in Grade 6 rather than… Read more »
It happens in one of any number of classes: Math, French, English, or Art. A student pipes up: “Aww, when am I ever gonna use this?” Then a debate spins into galactic proportions, as students and their teacher discuss the relative merits of the material being taught. Of course, perceptions are not the same as reality… Read more »
September 1 marks the 70th anniversary of Hitler’s invasion of Poland and thus the start of World War II. Looking back at the tragedy and horror of this time, it is easy to forget that the people in the involved countries still lived their lives throughout the ordeal. Life goes on, though bullets scream past…. Read more »
Colonial Education and the Introduction of ?The Word? Imagine yourself living on a beach. When you were young your parents and elders taught you to swim and fish. Then one day some missionaries arrived. They made you sit indoors at a desk and told you that they had turned your oral language into a written… Read more »
An exchanged glance, a hand brushing a hand, a slip of paper exchanged deftly and discreetly . . . Up until a decade or so ago the paper note was state-of-the-art technology for expressing secret longings and desires. Imagine if a teacher in today’s text-messaging world intercepted one such note, and found it to contain… Read more »
In all cultures and times, education systems enforce a degree of uniformity on pupils. During lunch hour, however, students are freer to express the outside culture of which they are a part. By comparing the lunchtime experience of Canadian and Japanese schoolchildren, basic cultural differences appear. Sometimes lunch seems like only a mirage on the… Read more »
Education has existed for as long as people have been raised by their elders. The idea of formal schooling goes back thousands of years, yet school as a mandatory part of growing up is a recent phenomenon. For instance, many of us know of or can remember a relative who attended few or no classes… Read more »