Teachable Moment Myth

Love those "students are teaching us a lesson" articles.

Let's hit one of those up courtesy of Rabble.

Before I begin, I'm not hostile to the movement. I try and accept each for what they are. However, if you want more of my tax dollars, you're gonna have to do better than what I've been hearing.

Here at rabble.ca, we've been hard at work to break through the wall of mainstream media that - either by ignoring or cynically attacking - has largely kept the rest of Canada in the dark about the historic social movement taking place in Quebec.

This falls in the "they're demonizing our kids" category.

I don't think outlets like Rabble are reporting anything we don't already observe or hear on the radio. What I read in this article is what's being reported so I'm not sure what the angle here is but student leaders get a lot of press time. Some even grace the cover of magazines - even if they're late with the rent close to eviction.

The coverage has been intense with all sides being represented. Actually, that's not true. The people footing the bill - taxpayers - have been voiced out completely. No real discussion on the FINANCING of education has taken place largely because, and let's be blunt, we're ignorant and choose not to.

The movement is taking its toll on people in ways Rabble wouldn't dare discuss because it believes it sees the "big picture." More on this later.

Quebec is a social and economic disaster and shouldn't be a model for any province. I discuss this post about this in the next few days.

All across Canada and beyond, we need fair and in-depth coverage of the Quebec student strike. Not just so we can show solidarity with their efforts, but so we can learn from their creative and determined movement.

Determined yes, but it helps to have the unions back you up financially. Creative? If you include violence, blocking Metros, using pots and pans to bang around in the streets at late hours, preventing taxpayers from going to work and using coercion against other students who don't share their view, then yeah, sure it's "creative." But I ask: How does one define "creative?"

Quebec's students are teaching, or re-teaching, an important lesson to all of us.
In Canada, and here in British Columbia, decades of neo-liberalism have rolled back our public services. Even more damaging, perhaps, has been the way these years have rolled back our public imagination.

Let me see if I get this straight. Public services equals more imagination? If this is what he's arguing then he can not be helped.

A smaller government doesn't mean the end of imagination any more that cutting spending will lead to social decadence.

I consider myself imaginative. Perhaps more than it is considered "healthy." I just wrote a TV script. It even garnered some interest. All while carrying loads of debt. Does that count?

But in Quebec, the student movement is pointing right at the heart of the matter. Faced with a 75 per cent tuition increase, they have fought back - hard. Holding out on strike for well over three months now, they have displayed remarkable unity and creativity.

See, now that's not right. He makes it sound worse than it is. 75% increase sounds ominous. It appeals to you emotions. Until one realizes it's 75% over seven years. That works out to $325 per year. That works out to .92 cents per day. Per day! You mean to tell me a human being is incapable of matching that output in labour? Shit, I make that just for breathing or blogging.

Right. It's the principle of it all!

The unity is a mirage. Another person I know has been putting in over time as a riot police.

From his own perspective,  the cops really do not want trouble. He further claims the students are  provocative and is seeing a lot of the same faces recycled. Why be provocative at all if you're in the right?

What's that saying, many sides to a story or something? From where I sit, the students and articles like this one are less interested in truth and more out to force their own version of it.

In addition to putting up a fight for their own right to an accessible education, they have appealed to the wider society, calling for a ‘social strike' against Quebec's Charest government. As in B.C., Quebec's government is Liberal by name, but in reality is a coalition that represents right-wing corporate interests.

It costs roughly $47 000 to $50 000 to run a university program. Quebec students pay about $7800 to $8 000 of that amount. The taxpayer is on the hook for the rest of it - including the Federal government who kicks in a small portion.

That's the COST of running a university. I know this makes sense because it's the same issue in daycare. $7 a day care COSTS taxpayers $50 a day. You're better off with the money in your pocket and deciding how to spend it. The economic and rational benefit is beyond logical.

Alas, if the majority of Quebecers think otherwise, so be it. At least be forthwright with the true costs.

What corporate interest is he talking about exactly? I want to know EXACTLY how being fiscally responsible remotely figures to be a part of a neo-liberal agenda.

Even if it went to 25%, Quebec still gets a good deal out of it. I plan to talk about the dangers of making university education "free" to all in a short while.

It's hard to read this with a straight face. QUEBEC PAYS THE LOWEST TUITION ON THE CONTINENT. The taxpayer pays for 85% of the bill!  Remove the transfer payments Quebec gets from Alberta and then let's see how ugly the books really are.

Charest is no natural born leader (he could have had his moment and chose to back off ridiculously accepting Beauchamp's resignation), but in fairness he did campaign that tuition were going up. He got elected. Isn't that how democracy is supposed to work?

"Earlier this month, the Charest government announced it had a tentative ‘deal' with the students. But when this ‘offer', which did not in fact do anything to cut the proposed tuition increase, was discussed democratically by the student unions, it was overwhelmingly rejected."

Democratically? Excuse me, people voted for Charest. They didn't vote for a student association and its leaders. Besides, I went to University, student elections and the way they're conducted are a joke. What's the percentage of students who actually vote? Low I bet. Very low.

Faced with this collective defiance by the students, the Charest government has turned to some incredibly draconian legislation. Rushed through in an all-night session of the National Assembly, Loi 78 puts onerous restrictions on the right to assemble and threatens students who continue the strike with heavy fines.

As I discussed in a past post, Law 78 is a reactionary law. But what triggered it was the smoke bomb laucnhed into a Metro by a few punks directly putting lives in danger.

Opponents of Quebec's student strike often bring up the history of Paris in 1968 as a sort of 'bogeyman' of wild, radical students.

Let's not concede the spirit of '68 to their ahistorical scaremongering. Paris 1968 was part of a worldwide uprising that dared to dream of a better world.

The bold actions of the young French students sparked a general strike across the country that nearly toppled the government of Charles de Gaulle. The example reverberated on campuses around the world.

Blah, blah, blah. Who cares?

Yes, let's use France as an example. One of the sickest countries in Europe with a tax code the size of Saskatchewan.

It's ok to challenge authority. It's healthy. In this case, however, I don't think they're radical. Just misguided. .

But he does point out, unwittingly, something I've observed: It's mostly the French side protesting. The old Anglo bastions of education like McGill and I believe English CEGEP's remain open. This points towards a very important and unique scenario worth further discussion.

Sigh, the trade and vocational occupations are so under rated and appreciated.


Quebec's student strike, and the utopian energies and slogans it has unleashed, should not be sneered at or cynically dismissed by anyone concerned about changing the dismal state of politics in Canada and British Columbia.

The global financial crisis, and the inspiration provided by the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, has weakened TINA but it's proving a stubborn acronym and doctrine to kill off. Here in North America, the Quebec student strike is the most important challenge to TINA we've seen in a long time.

So let us all take a moment and show some solidarity. It's the right thing to do, and we might just learn some things that we can apply in the rest of Canada too.

Still waiting on how all this is "creative."

Utopia is an impractical notion and it certainly isn't applicable here even if it were.

Utopian, huh? I know of a lot families and their children reduced to tears because they can't go to class as all entrances are blocked off by other students and thugs. What about them? Can we spill a tear or two for them?

I don't appreciate being lectured. No one is against freedom of assembly, what people are against is having this impede their personal lives. The second, and I mean the second, property is damaged and coercive action is used IT'S INVALID.

Stuff like this makes you realize just how much we rely on the state for so much.