Lesson: Bullshit Jobs

Saturdays are my lesson creation days. When I sit down in front of my computer to create a lesson, I have no idea what the topic will be. I let serendipity be my guide. This time I stumbled upon bullshit jobs. A university professor named David Graeber wrote and published an essay stating that many of the jobs these days are pointless and unnecessary. I’ve done something different and centred all of the articles around that essay.  There’s the essay itself, an interview with the author, another article written by the author, and something arguing that there are no bullshit jobs at all. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether Graeber is correct or not. It may be depressing to think that your job is bullshit, but I’m sure all jobs have pointless tasks. I hope you find this topic enjoyable, and I would love to hear your opinions about it.


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Example Article

Each conversation topic is based on a theme. In order to help students acquire a basic understanding of that topic, four media articles are provided for them to read. I will never test you on the articles, but I strongly suggest you book lessons far enough in advance to give yourself enough time to properly prepare. The better prepared you are, the more benefit you will receive from our conversations.

Below is an example article for this conversation topic.