The original question is somewhat of a false dilemma. The student does not have to decide between learning and activism for the rest of the year but for the next hour. Picking up the examples from above, reducing energy consumption is a form of activism—though with the possible added benefit of having more disposable income—and will also inform any later attempts to reduce energy consumption on a large scale, e.g. by seeing how low the convenience threshold for the end user is. Similarly, in the case of road accidents part-time employment as an EMT will inform any later management policy.
So we see that not only do we have to optimise a mix of activism and learning (or more generally work and learning as the whole argument applies similarly there) but we do have to consider that the exact same task might be both learning and activism.
The original question is somewhat of a false dilemma. The student does not have to decide between learning and activism for the rest of the year but for the next hour. Picking up the examples from above, reducing energy consumption is a form of activism—though with the possible added benefit of having more disposable income—and will also inform any later attempts to reduce energy consumption on a large scale, e.g. by seeing how low the convenience threshold for the end user is. Similarly, in the case of road accidents part-time employment as an EMT will inform any later management policy.
So we see that not only do we have to optimise a mix of activism and learning (or more generally work and learning as the whole argument applies similarly there) but we do have to consider that the exact same task might be both learning and activism.