[lbo-talk] Re: College students support war?

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sat Apr 5 10:54:44 PST 2003


Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>


> Not so today, unlike in the sixties:
>
> ***** More Students Work More Hours
>
> College students facing a long-term erosion in financial aid are
> working longer hours at the expense of their education, notes a
> recent study.

This began as far back as the middle '70s, and for my last 20 years of teaching was one of the most frustrating aspects of the job. Many students worked so many hours at "part-time" jobs that it was sometimes difficult even to schedule a conference. Sneers at present-day students that ignore this fact are piggish.

It hadn't occurred to me before, but I wonder how much of the (allegedly) great increase in student drinking is linked to this feature of their lives. Too much merely mechanical studying (to get through) and deadening work (to survive) kills capacity for any but equally deadening "recreation." Cf. the way gin (or what was then called gin) swept the london slums in the early 18th century.

Carrol



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