Summary+Q2

Comments:
Highlights; Response question 2

__May 29th __ - starting consumer education and critical analysis as early as the elementary years are necessary steps in order to combat these imbalances. Marketing campaigns are often geared towards children, so giving children the tools to critique this information as early on as possible is of utmost importance.

~ Laura Quinn Graham Connects to Wrights’ chapter on consumerism (resourse) [|http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ContemporaryAmericanSociety/Chapter%207%20--%20consumerism%20--%20Norton%20August.pdf]

__May 30__ Where our stuff comes from; (resource) [] I think that one of the major problems is that corporations do not contribute to communities the way that they might. If the cost for electricity, gas and water in every Canadian household takes up 1/3 of the family disposable income, people will probably quickly change their behaviours from consumption to conservation. However, every time when the electricity and gas prices go up, there is a public uproar and demand for government and politicians to intervene. Although increasig electricity and gas prices seems to be the local and domestic issues, the low prices on products and natural resources we have enjoyed for decades have had global implications as we consumed more than our fair share of the world's nature resources and contributed to inequities between the "have" and "havenot" countries! Without environmental conscience, our perspectives on what is culturally appropriate will never align with what is good for the earth and for those around us. Such judgmental and hurtful comments should be called out and questioned on the spot - something I wish I had done. Exactly – education needs to go beyond transmissive education bent on creating the next workforce to include critical thinking skill generation at its core to enable students to interrogate issues relating to social justice, globalization, and environmental degradation. There has been a tremendous amount of thought and energy in transforming our currently educational system into one that will embrace 21 century skills, unfortunately, much of the dialogue still focusses on preparing students for the future information economy (ie. Job training). When the products are considered cheap and affordable, people will likely to buy more than what they really need. Affordablity is seen as a measurement for our quality of living. There are many factors that influence consumer’s behaviours. The mass media and advertisement create a culture of consumerism and influenced people’s behaviours by sometimes false persuasions and propagation. The government uses public and monetary policies to encourage and nurture business and industrial development. As individuals, when we accept the consumerism as a way of life and as part of our culture, few would question or even thought of the impacts of our behaviours on a global scale.

Kirsten Trustham: June 1, 2012 3:59:13 PM A liberal arts education will help you build the skills required to be successful in life and in work. You will learn how to think critically, how to analyze and synthesize complex concepts, how to write effectively, how to collaborate with colleagues, how to conduct research… It goes on like this for a while. With the push for job-targeted practical education, I often fear the loss of the liberal arts. We need great thinkers and great doers.

Cheryl Babin: June 1, 2012 5:09:29 PM Harvard College website: On a liberal arts education: "This kind of learning is not only one of the enrichments of existence; it is one of the achievements of civilization. It heightens students' awareness of the human and natural worlds they inhabit. It makes them more reflective about their beliefs and choices, more self-conscious and critical of their presuppositions and motivations, more creative in their problem-solving, more perceptive of the world around them, and more able to inform themselves about the issues that arise in their lives, personally, professionally, and socially."

**Additional Resources from the readings:**
http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/

[|http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ContemporaryAmericanSociety/Chapter%207%20--%20consumerism%20--%20Norton%20August.pdf]

Berry, retrieved from []

NCREL & Metiri Group, 2010. Retrieved from http://newtech.coe.uh.edu

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