Ancestors

Toot

Written by Mim on 2024-11-13 at 10:04

Looks like what remains of my former university - which was the oldest in Wales (and introduced rugby to Wales) but got swallowed up by another establishment in a merger in 2010 - is going to close.

I haven't been back since I left in 1997, but it's still a sad end for a unique and magical place. It was tiny, rural, and in many ways incredibly eccentric, but that was what I loved about it. I suspect all the things that made it so special made it unsuited to modern commercial education.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from crinolinerobot@bytetower.social

Descendants

Written by Mim on 2024-11-13 at 10:07

Anyway, my mood today is a big fuck you to the way studying subjects for the love of them because employers will see your ability to think and learn has been replaced by the need to learn something for a specific job, and to the tuition fees that are killing social mobility, and to the way capitalism wrecks everything passionate and beautiful in the end.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from crinolinerobot@bytetower.social

Written by Kavey (Kavey Eats) on 2024-11-13 at 13:54

@crinolinerobot Yeah I agree. There's so much focus on careers that even one's learning has to be all about career. But where's the work LIFE balance???

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from kavey@kavlak.uk

Written by Mim on 2024-11-13 at 14:43

@kavey And so many vocation-focussed courses are for careers in which there simply isn't that much work - see my own field, journalism. I'm all in favour of people studying it if it's their passion, but it's no guarantee of a job, and in specialist fields being an expert in something else could be more use.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from crinolinerobot@bytetower.social

Written by Mim on 2024-11-13 at 14:45

@kavey I realise that people who didn't go on to do degrees were pushed to do more vocational training, but I'd rather they had more chance to explore what they wanted to learn about and broaden their studies, not that everyone else had to knuckle down and focus on what their future employer might want.

Like the performing arts, scholarship is becoming a privilege of the wealthy.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from crinolinerobot@bytetower.social

Written by Kavey (Kavey Eats) on 2024-11-13 at 16:35

@crinolinerobot It is. Writing has been moving that way too for a long time. When I started blogging (2009) the only people who could afford to "intern" as a way to get into food writing were those with parents willing to fund them for another few years / pay for their accommodation etc. It was not feasible for most. Same with too many industries these days.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from kavey@kavlak.uk

Written by Kavey (Kavey Eats) on 2024-11-13 at 16:36

@crinolinerobot I appreciate that when demand to work in an industry is so high they can take advantage of that but it's exploitative and it slews that entire industry to those with rich parents, which is not diverse or healthy.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from kavey@kavlak.uk

Written by Kavey (Kavey Eats) on 2024-11-13 at 16:37

@crinolinerobot And yes to the ability to learn things in order to broaden your skills and find out what you love and where additional talents may lie. Instead of just being focused on climbing up the ladder. I toppled the ladder over and threw it away. I have no interest in going up.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from kavey@kavlak.uk