Re: book sharing (was: Re: Pedagogy)

[Brian Whatcott <betwys1@SBCGLOBAL.NET>]

At 12:35 PM 5/6/2004, Michael D. Edmiston, you wrote:
//
>  The largest source of waste cardboard on campus, by far
> (like a factor of 100), is pizza boxes from the dorms.  But everyone in
> our dorms is required to be on our meal plan.  Every time a student
> orders pizza for supper, that wastes about four dollars they already
> spent on food service, and it costs an additional $6 to $10 dollars for
> the pizza.  If a student does this once a week, how many weeks does it
> take to spend the price of a textbook?
>
> Worse, when I make a fast-food trip at supper time to the "golden
> arches" or someplace similar, I always see students there.  That not
> only has food costs but also transportation costs because our fast food
> places are not within walking distance of the college.
>
> Worse yet, almost every time I go to a restaurant on Friday or Saturday
> night I run into students at places where the average cost per meal
> (including everything) is about $20.  How many Friday-night restaurant
> trips does it take to equal a textbook?
///
> Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.


Michael is persuasive when he mentions that students spend discretionary
funds on 'luxuries' like meals out.

He is not so persuasive that these same students are largely those who
skip buying text books.  (I expect he has seen and can recall egregious
examples of the kind, naturally.)

If Michael happens on the local MacDonald's well into the evening,
 he may well see me there: eating a 64 cent ice-cream to counteract the
effects of a gym work out. And it is true: given a choice of new or used,
give me the discount dog-eared book: the value still inheres.


Brian Whatcott    Altus OK    Eureka!