..much profanity follows.
So,I'm watchin' the news.
I know,I know,..Lord he'p me,I was too lazy to change the channel.
In any case,..Young Ashley of the blond persuasion informs me that a new crop of freshmen are crowding the hallowed halls of our local State College,in an effort to purchase this semesters required reading!
Average cost: $800.00..
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???
Eight hundred fucking dollars for books?..For a FUCKING semester??..
Here's where my ignorance of the educational system knows no bounds.
I never went through the whole formal rigmarole of attending classes and such after the 10th grade,so I don't have a real grasp of what it takes to provide quality reading material to THE FUCKING FUTURE MINDS of our nation.
I mean,..I mean...HOLY FLYING FUCK!..It's 600-1200 sheets of goddamm RECYCLED paper,individually wrapped in FUCKING CARDBOARD binders!..Right?
You know,..books.
Books that should be available at your local library,..for free.
Books that should be available at cost,just to make sure everyone gets reimbursed for the effort put into their manufacture..
OH!,..and we get to educate our children as kind of an ADDED FUCKING BONUS!!
(deep breath)..
The good news is,the students might well recover 50% of the initial cost by re-selling these FUCKING RARE AND ELUSIVE BASTIONS OF KNOWLEDGE back to the issuing entity,at the end of the term.
I'm guessin' the average lifetime reimbursement for a FUCKING BOOK!,..amounts to somewhere in the neighborhood of A BAZILLION FUCKING DOLLARS!!..
Did I mention that they are books?..
If Gutenberg were alive today,he'd turn over in his motherfucking grave.
Granted,there is no real substitute for the printed word.
Turning the dog-eared pages of a well read tome,and gleaning those bits of inspiration from the hastily scribbled notes in the yellowed margins is,..well,..priceless.
..even I understand that.
And I also understand this!!..
I have the entire Bible on CD,along with commentary,and references.
..It cost me $3.98,..plucked from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.
My point is,..my fucking point is,..that it might behoove us to put all these precious bits of esoterica on,..I don't know,..FUCKING CD'S!!
That way,the eager and thirsty minds of they that might very well set the course of the next FUCKING GENERATION,might have easier access to the tools they'll need to guide us into the future..
Maybe they could spend the initial eight hundred smacks on a typical laptop,and throw another FORTY FUCKING DOLLARS at the software it takes to navigate the precarious seas of modern academia.
A blank CD costs about a buck.
It takes some fifteen minutes to copy a gig of information.
I didn't graduate from high school,..but I can do the math.
Labels: Drunken blogging..Is it slow and stupid in here, or is it just me?
Make chex payable to §£ïñg 11:37 PM
21 Bootleggers
21 Comments:
The price of Sling drinking, smoking, swearing and drunk blogging with the Bible CD playing in the background....priceless.
Good one sage! I remember paying $120 for a textbook over 10 years ago in college. My understanding is that it is getting out of hand because of the used textbook market. Authors who write these books recieve zero $$ on the resold books. & the way that publishers deal with the issue is by raising the price of new books...which indirectly raises the profit margin of the used book. Very bad cycle...
Yup, university books are insanely expensive...mine used to cost me $1000.00 per semester..and the more intense your studies, the more $$$. Here's the deal... the professors at the colleges write most of the books, therefore, when you take one of their courses, naturally you have to buy their book. It always costs 100-200 smakeroos. Hopefully you can buy used. Most of us keep the darn door-stops because we always have to refer back to them later on. Then later, the ones you know you won't ever want to see again, we sell back, but only get pennies on the dollar. Like foreign exchange rate ...worthless. So, hold your knickers on sport...that's why it's a good thing to tip well for college students working their way through college.
Buy used.. right. The deal is they put out a new damned edition every year so you have no other choice but to buy new. What a racket!
Many professors supplement their salaries by producing their own books and requiring the students to buy them at highly inflated prices. Then they revise them periodically so the students can't sell them since they are supposedly outdated. And there is nothing students can do about it.
Don't even get me started on the teaching "load" the professors have which gives them time to write the books at taxpayer expense.
gee...I think I'd prefer to be uneducated. No wonder so many kids dont go to college...i think colleges and universities should be free..but then what do i know...i know that i love it when sling goes redneck on us...hahaha
I was taking an internet course a year or two ago from one of the local colleges. The text book - with accompanying CD (so why bother with the text book??) was 175.00 CAD so around 120.00 USD. When I saw what I got for the price I paid my language was a little less refined than yours.
i have 2 angels in university. not only are the books outrageously overepriced, most of them are just big fucking paperbacks!!
Sage- wow..It's like you were sitting next to me the whole time!
Lost- Too bad we can't recycle people the same way.
CS- Now see,..there's an explanation even I can understand.
It's extortion!
dora- I'm really not against some one making a buck off their intellectual property,I just think our priorities might be a tad ASKEW!
jan- If they're doing this at taxpayer expense,then I want my copy,so I can donate it to some one.
yellerdawg- You know,whenever I get really pissed,and want to go on a huge rant,I think to myself, 'What would Yellowdog G. say?'..
willym- Oh,I bet it sounds even better in Italian!
billy P.- I know this is nothin' new under the sun.
I have to believe there is something that can be done to make it easier for kids to have access.
I just got my righteous indignation up.
I totally agree with your suggestion!
It's just ridiculous that we live in such a "technologically advanced" society, but college students still have to spend thousands of dollars on BOOKS over the course of their schooling. That's outrageous!!
The last time I graduated from college, it was 1980. The last time Steve graduated it was 1976....i got a late start. In any event....we finished paying off our student loans for tuition/books/crap in the early 90's....he went to USC, I went to nobody important college. My daughter who is 45 is starting Cosmetology school Friday....she lost her job with WAMU......after the EDD financially "helps" her she will be in debt 12,000 smackeroos....yup, that the right #.
thank you Sling.. i want to say stuff like that when I need to buy things for my kids, but instead I just say -- this is why we eat noodles and not meat.
You cannot educate for commonsense Sling...you's right. This stuff should be available... regardless of means or college or whatever.
And in this great egalatarian society we live in some kids parents fork out for this because they can even if its an imposition, for the rest of them well they work as cheap labour washing dishes and as kitchen hands, just to pay for this crap, character building, of course but they have less time to study and no doubt too many of the brightest give up not because they are lazy or unwilling, just because they bloody well can't afford it.
Like you Sling my education levels academically were not high, but I thank the University of Life, which I go to every day for its well rounded education, with lots of revision time and plenty of opportunity to figure out my mistakes.
Books should be so cheap if not free than no one is limited because of lack of funding. Look at the size of our major newspapers on the weekends and they cost a dollar or three.
MHP- It turns out that students can purchase 'E-Chapters' online at reduced cost..It's a start I suppose.
I'm thinkin' that textbooks on CD's is still a good idea.
Revisions could be downloaded like updates,that way the student could keep their version current without having to shell out an unholy amount of sheckels for a brand new version.
rosie- I know that a college education is expensive.
I guess I'm just getting tired of watching the cost of everything skyrocket.
Oil for an obvious example.
We'll we can't do much about that I suppose,but here is one area that we can do something about,and the value of educating our kids is incalculabe.
Mouse- See!..now I'm mad again and I'm not even drunk.
I'm pissed about the sacrifices good people have to make in an effort to improve the quality of life for their kids,while an elite few keep rackin' in the bucks..
middle child- Like you,I'm grateful for the experience that just being alive in the world has provided...gotten me through more than a few sticky situations.
..and then I think,if I had gone through college,experienced that atmosphere of heightened interaction with my peers,and been exposed to the influence of singularly brilliant mentors,..well,..
que sera.
I used to tell my students that only things covered in the lecture would be on the tests and they didn't have to buy the text book if they didn't want to. They ave just gotten obscenely expensive.
You're absolutely right. Holy hell, I just paid $230 for The Child's textbooks...and none of 'em were new.
And then I walked away and thought, "Wait a frakking minute...I didn't have to buy textbooks in high school...WTF?"
'Course, I didn't go to a private high school and I guess they have to manage their budget however they can and if getting parents to pick up the cost of books...but still.
CS- 'I used to tell my students that only things covered in the lecture would be on the tests and they didn't have to buy the text book if they didn't want to'...
See!..You're my hero!
Rainey- This just seems like such an easy fix to me.
I mean,instead of the government spending $400.00 on a freakin' hammer,we could channel that money into textbooks.
You do the work,you get the grades,and we'll reward you and ourselves with the basic necessities!
Update- Miss Thing is dual enrolled at the college for one class- A, one, singular class.. Drove her over to get her book yesterday- 98.00!!! For a freaking American history text! PLUS a damn study guide.
You don't want me to get started on what AP classes are costing.. I'm all for starting an eTextbook revolution!
Dora- $98.00 to enlighten our children in American History??..Like it's some kind of precious secret that needs to be kept from the wretched masses??..
We should be issuing a copy to every child at birth!..They can experience the revisions for themselves.
This country is in dire need of another tea party!..or e-book club..Or something.
Yeah. Two kids in college. Sucks ass.
I work in a community college library. Students have actually figured out that it is cheaper to PHOTOCOPY AN ENTIRE BOOK rather than buy the book outright. Ther'es something very wrong with that.
I jsut started taking classes again. Bought my current textbook used from a student who dropped the class.
Oh yeah, I'm sort of back ... trying to get caught up with everyone. while i should be reading my textbook...
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