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I do believe what I said has to do with education as long as people spend thousands of dollars for on a passive lecture series. Personally today I wouldn't spe

by aik 16y ago

I do believe what I said has to do with education as long as people spend thousands of dollars for on a passive lecture series. Personally today I wouldn't spend a dime on an introductory anthropology lecture course that the OP described. Sounds like a pure waste of time for what can be accomplished elsewhere. No wonder the students are there just to get it over with. We're dealing with semantics here, however I disagree that education is mainly an action you take upon yourself. Ideally it would be, however we are far from that being a reality for the general population. Today one receives an education dictated (partly by you), however mostly by others (schools, universities). The specific action under your control is to learn. Learning can only be done by you (because of your goals), however supplying the means or environment to learning can be the job of someone else (to assist you in your learning process, assist you in your education). > What students need are role models... That's exactly what I was trying to say. I believe the teacher should act as the role model. An anthropologist who could inspire you and generate the curiosity and interest would be the ideal role model for a captivated future anthropology student.

mitjak 16y ago
> I believe the teacher should act as the role model. An anthropologist who could inspire you and generate the curiosity and interest would be the ideal role model for a captivated future anthropology student. That's how I felt about that professor. He's sparked interest in a new to me topic. As for the waste of money, I'm not certain how the university system works outside of Canada, but here at UToronto, after you've picked 3 or more courses, the fees for the term become flat, i.e. you can pick 4 or 7 courses, and the total is the same. I personally think taking 5 purely major related courses at a university with so many potential topics of interest to explore is complete madness, so the flat fee system works quite well, IMO. Even if it ends up costing you more than you'd like, in case of a student loan exceeding $7,000 annually, the Canadian Government forgives anything above that amount, which is great if one is living alone and has to pay rent and bills. Add to that all the possible term grants you can obtain, based on your marks, or in case of me, a low income, and it starts to make more sense to explore things a bit while at university. While a bit off topic, I just wanted to justify taking seemingly unrelated courses for personal and not necessarily career related gain under the current education system.

by aik 16y ago

mitjak 16y ago

> I believe the teacher should act as the role model. An anthropologist who could inspire you and generate the curiosity and interest would be the ideal role model for a captivated future anthropology student. That's how I felt about that professor. He's sparked interest in a new to me topic. As for the waste of money, I'm not certain how the university system works outside of Canada, but here at UToronto, after you've picked 3 or more courses, the fees for the term become flat, i.e. you can pick 4 or 7 courses, and the total is the same. I personally think taking 5 purely major related courses at a university with so many potential topics of interest to explore is complete madness, so the flat fee system works quite well, IMO. Even if it ends up costing you more than you'd like, in case of a student loan exceeding $7,000 annually, the Canadian Government forgives anything above that amount, which is great if one is living alone and has to pay rent and bills. Add to that all the possible term grants you can obtain, based on your marks, or in case of me, a low income, and it starts to make more sense to explore things a bit while at university. While a bit off topic, I just wanted to justify taking seemingly unrelated courses for personal and not necessarily career related gain under the current education system.