17 May 1983
Poverty and student life
The poverty of the student life was originally an essential part of being a student, and a source of distinction, if not pride, for students. The student, as he [or very rarely she] joined the academic world, say a monastery or ancient university or college, assumed poverty as a symbol of having renounced the world, and of being in pursuit of higher aims than the accumulation of material wealth. Eventually, the concepts of “student” and “poverty” were firmly associated with each other in the popular mind – though, originally, the poverty was understood to be simply an assumed state – it was understood that the student had chosen of his own free will to lead the life of a poor man; later, however, this part of the equation was forgotten – ideas are easier to forget than appearances. The former conception was therefore replaced by the picture of the student as just another poor man – and what does a poor man want the most, if not wealth? Thus originated the picture of the student as a man who had temporarily abandoned the pursuit of wealth, in order to get ready to pursue much greater wealth…
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18 comments:
I loved this post! I must admit i am one of those students who is fed up of my pauper status and can't wait to start earning! It's a bitch having to live on bread and peanut butter everyday!
......i loved working those night shifts.......it was calming.
I'm sick of students complaining that school costs too much. You are in college, you are supposed to be poor, you will make it back if you get a degree, and YOU DONT HAVE TO BE HERE IF YOU DONT WANT TO.
great post.
p.s. i pay for my own college, and yes, it is a private school.
Federal aid is where we disagree. If you want to graduate from college, you should be willing to pay for it yourself. No one else should have to bare the price for the "risk" you are taking.
Risk is in quotations because on average, a college degree is worth 1 million dollars. There aren’t many other investments that have as high of a rate of return.
If someone really has problems with pay for school, all they have to do is got to community college for the first 2 years, then a state school for the last 2. In Arizona I think that would cost around $10,000 for 4 years with books, but excluding room and board. If you were really poor, you could stay with your parents to save money.
The point is, if you want to go to a private college, yes it is very hard, but beggars can't be choosers. If college means that much to someone, they should be willing to go to a state school...you can't really complain.
We don't need more aid, we need more people willing to work and take out loans rather than blaming the government for our perceived problems.
Living in rich countries at least gives you the privilege of pursuing your education and keep your dreams alive to become rich in future.Just think about those students form those countries who wants to study but because of the lack of student loan system can pursue their higher education,just have to depend on parents which is some times very sad and heart breaking.
as a fully employed person with my povo undergrad days 7 years behind me now....i reminisce fondly on the days when life was so much simpler and i didn't worry about money because i didn't have much/any. the more you earn, the more you spend and get in debt...
Yeah! How come when I was totally broke I still managed to go out 5 nights a week minimum, travel o/s and always look cool? These days I work my butt off and have to budget weeks in advance for a big night out. It really sucks.
It was only that I turned 28 yrs. old, married, and employed that I have come to appreciate student life. I would start to think then life was much better when you didn't have to worry about earning money, paying bills, and putting up with a tasky life.
It is exhilerating to unexpectedly come upon such well written blog.
I liked this one about the poverty of students which used to be a mark of distinction even in my own student days, but it seems the styles have changed now. Now a student story which appeals to people is how a couple of students met in Stanford and founded Google (and quit studies!).
Loved this journal entry.
I feel really lucky to be able to quit my well paying design job and go back to uni to study fine art full time.
I have decided to study for four more years to become a poor starving artist, rather than make myself sick with stress designing ads for softdrink. :-)
As a recent graduate I can relate to this entry. I spent close to five years of my life in college, and lived in McDonalds or Wendy's 'cuz of that dollar menu they have. And to this day, I hate McDonalds & Wendy's, but dang it, I love those dollar menus!
Your entry makes me think about how education has, like most of our modern life, essentially become a materialistic pursuit. We don't go to college for the pure enjoyment of expanding our intellectual capacity. We go to college because middle class ethics teach us that it's going to get us a good job. Perhaps we've lost the spark of independent investigation of truth
Interesting. I returned to school full time 8 years ago and was very glad to get back to work and earn money (real money) again! ;-)
Wow, you already had a blog in 1983? dude, you were way ahead of your time.
But seriously, there have always been the rich parents that pay for everything that Junior could possibly need, I think that the transition of something to monetary nothing is very valuable in creating a better and stronger character, look at W. Bush, that is a man that has never had a single day of hard labor in his life, and he is ( sadly yet humurously ) running a country, I guess dady really has a lot of money if he could afford junior the presidency.
I was a student in England back in the 80's. All of our fees were paid and we recieved a grant!
How it's changed here, now most graduates are deep in debt.
This makes it much harder to study subjects which are not income oriented.
There is to consider, my good Al, the old phenomena of the Ivy League and similar, where the very rich students learn not to be disturbed by their own instruction in the holy duty of the power, so that their increasing culture not blunt their holy arrogance. Secondly the new phenomenon of the real poor students due to the spread of loans for studenz that allows every guy to degree but keep them in slavery for 20 years of later time,uhi uhi uhi
Nice Site dear Noam's friend
Kaamelan hagh baa shoma hast aaghaaye Eslami. This was an interesting post, thank you!
So true. I'm less ashamed of my (chosen) poverty now, after reading your post. Thanks!
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