Trading Education For Profit

<p> This will be extremely dangerous to the intellectual life of our country. Take for example Marshall McLuhan. We might think of him as the flippant commentator on TV, tossing off aphorisms like "The medium is the message." But the fact is, his seemingly simple statements on the media were based on <i>decades</i> of research that was based on scholarship by academics in many fields. Under this new GATTS system, Marshall McLuhan would be impossible. We wouldn't even be able to understand the technological age in which we live! </p> <p>---<br>If you don't like these ideas, I've got others. --Marshall McLuhan

The General Agreement on Trade in Services appears to feel the same way about education as most Canadians feel. The fact is that few, very few, people go to University just for academic enlightenment. Most of the people I met there would have been much better off going to a community college in the first place - they were only at University because they were biased in favour of it from the public education system and other media. The greatest mass of education does work like a commodity in that it's required to keep our society humming along, 'big' thinkers would likely rise to the top regardless of what the masses do.

This is simply another so-called trade agreement that will do us no good, and could well hurt our education industry.

Ralph Nader spoke to a group earlier this year regarding the dangers of privatization of universities, and we should be very careful that we don't lose control over our higher education policies.

As far as I'm concerned, all these trade agreements are not in our best interest, so let's find someone with the guts to block them, and cancel them if warranted.

This is our country, dammit, and I don't like outsiders telling us how to run our business.

Find out who signed this agreement and fire them. Now !!


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"Arrogance in Politics is unacceptable"
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca

First of all, get an ID for this site (its free) so we know who we are talking to.

While it may be true that the ultimate purpose of going to university is to become employable for the majority of people, exposure to "big thinkers" of the past thru literature is what has until the recent past differentiated a university degree from a tech school diploma. Without this, everyone may as well be just going to these technical schools, with a decrease in expected wages to boot. I have little respect for people who go to university with only dollar signs in their eyes and no thought to broaden their mind in ways not associated with increasing earning potential.

As well, most people do not go to private universities in Canada, so it is not a matter of choosing between public and private. Also, the private degree granting schools I have checked out (DeVry Institute) cost 6 or 7 times that of public education.

Looking at higher education with a view to only increasing income potential just serves the corporate globalization agenda of getting people to only think about earning more and more money, as if that was the be all and end all of life.

Absolutely, Hoopoe! I see that too. I have a couple of courses under my belt now at Brock, and I can also say, from talking to so many students, that they only care about one thing: Joining that cut throat corporate- globalization thing. It`s also like a Beverly Hills 90210 atmosphere, all fashion and image and fluff. When i took my first course two years ago, I thought I`d run into more of a socially conscious crowd, given that these people are supposedly 'educated' and 'enlightened.' Nope! It seems the activist mindset has fizzled out since the end of the 60`s and 70`s. The irony here too, is, many of those 'activist' baby boomers sold out and are now running the world, effectively destroying social and economic justice!

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Dave Ruston

Anon's post is absolutely insulting. Sorry, you're not the right material go to a university. You should go a community college where you will be made into a cog of society who keeps his head down and takes orders willingly. <p> Anon claims the initial article is elitist, pandering to 'big thinkers'. Don't all Canadians have the ability to become 'big thinkers'? Isn't what we tell kids in Grade 5? Anon is the elitist. For him, only a few Canadians can become 'big thinkers'. The rest will become drones serving the queen. But maybe this is what privatization of education intends. <p> Action-Jackson

"Anon's post is absolutely insulting. Sorry, you're not the right material go to a university. You should go a community college where you will be made into a cog of society who keeps his head down and takes orders willingly."

Whoa! talk about elitist and insulting, look in the mirror!