job

EduLinks – 26 August 2011

“If our ideas seem smaller nowadays, it’s not because we are dumber than our forebears but because we just don’t care as much about ideas as they did. In effect, we are living in an increasingly post-idea world — a world in which big, thought-provoking ideas that can’t instantly be monetized are of so little intrinsic value that fewer people are generating them and fewer outlets are disseminating them, the Internet notwithstanding. Bold ideas are almost passé.

[…]

“The post-idea world has been a long time coming, and many factors have contributed to it. There is the retreat in universities from the real world, and an encouragement of and reward for the narrowest specialization rather than for daring — for tending potted plants rather than planting forests.”

To work or not to work?

I was reading an essay entitled “Students’ perceptions of the effects of term-time paid employment” and it got me wondering how university life in the UK has changed in recent years with a greater number of students now undertaking part-time work of around 15 hours per week.

I didn’t take a job when I was at uni.  It meant I had to budget hard and consider purchases carefully at every step, but it left me with the time to do whatever I wanted.  It was never my intention to work and I did everything to keep out of the employment game throughout my degree.

That said, I did get paid to be a Senior Student on campus.  In the process, the uni paid for about 75% of my accommodation, so I guess you could call that a type of employment.

It pays the bills... (£20, photo by woodsy)

The essay got me thinking, to what extent is someone better or worse off if they have a job, comapred to one who doesn’t?

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