This morning while driving to work I heard a snippet of an interview on NPR with a middle-aged African-American man whose education had been cut short when he was a teenager due to poverty. He talked of a life spent in hard manual labor. Now, his goal was to learn to read well enough to get his GED (high school equivalency diploma) and then on to college.
I wish him well. I don't want to rain on his or anyone's parade, but what I'd like to know, based on my own recent experiences with higher education, is what is he looking for? What does he expect college to do for him that he hasn't already achieved on his own? Is he simply looking for the satisfaction of achievement, to say "I did this", to be the first in his family to get a college degree? Then it won't matter much what he studies and he won't be disappointed. But, if he is going to college expecting that it will somehow magically turn his life around, I'd have to say at his age, not likely. He's lost too much ground education-wise.
I don't doubt that he would be a very motivated student, given his background and determination. In fact, he might be in for a rude awakening once he sets foot inside that classroom. He might be baffled by the apathy and lack of motivation among many of his fellow students. What he has struggled so hard to achieve, they take for granted, never once stopping to consider that things might be otherwise. They take it as a matter of course that they are entitled to be in that classroom, and therefore it's no big deal--especially if someone else is paying the bills.
A while back the local news had a story about a party that got out of hand near the state university. Cops had to be called, and there was tear gas and a lot of protesting about how unfair it was, that these students were just letting off steam (which included, among other things, trying to tip over an ice cream vendor's truck). I am sorry, but I have zero sympathy for students who behave this way. I'd say it's pretty safe to say that very few of those involved were working or non-traditional students. We simply don't have the time, money or energy for such hijinks. My professor kept referring to students going out and partying--"Now I know you are all going to go out to Beer Fest this weekend and get drunk instead of working on your assignment." And I would say under my breath, "Not all of us, professor, not all of us. SOME of us have to work." I wonder what the man on the radio, the one with such big dreams, would say to that? Or maybe he, like the rest of us nontraditionals, will just shake his head and go about appreciating what we do have.
I just hope he doesn't get his expectations too high. Today I got a call from the Student Success Center that my appointment with my counselor (my regular one) has been postponed for some reason or another and that it may take two weeks to get back in with her. This isn't the first time this has happened. One time I went up to the SSC only to find out that not only had the appointment been cancelled, I was supposed to be seeing someone else because I am in the "advanced program" and my counselor doesn't do the advanced program, this other person does. This is midway through the semester and the first I've heard of this. I told them, look, we are running out of time here. End of April, I am gone, program or no program. I wasn't exactly joking when I designed my graduation invitations to feature the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Because as Oz told the Scarecrow, "there are plenty of people out there who have no more brains than you but there is one thing they have that you don't--a diploma." (Which by the way I am still waiting to receive). Everything I've done to get me to this point, I've done on my own pretty much, and as I learned last week in my interview/test, that piece of paper isn't going to do anything but make a nice decoration. It really doesn't change anything but it makes people happy. I am just glad that I am not a student with "special needs" that is really counting on school to make a difference. As Dorothy and her friends learned, the only thing the Wizard could give them is validation--the rest they achieved on their own.
So I am thinking of telling the school, thanks but no thanks, I don't really see the point of continuing this success counseling. Basically, all its done is to confirm what I already know, that the direction of my life is pretty much set. So just take one day at a time and enjoy what I have. And now it's off for auditions.
I wish him well. I don't want to rain on his or anyone's parade, but what I'd like to know, based on my own recent experiences with higher education, is what is he looking for? What does he expect college to do for him that he hasn't already achieved on his own? Is he simply looking for the satisfaction of achievement, to say "I did this", to be the first in his family to get a college degree? Then it won't matter much what he studies and he won't be disappointed. But, if he is going to college expecting that it will somehow magically turn his life around, I'd have to say at his age, not likely. He's lost too much ground education-wise.
I don't doubt that he would be a very motivated student, given his background and determination. In fact, he might be in for a rude awakening once he sets foot inside that classroom. He might be baffled by the apathy and lack of motivation among many of his fellow students. What he has struggled so hard to achieve, they take for granted, never once stopping to consider that things might be otherwise. They take it as a matter of course that they are entitled to be in that classroom, and therefore it's no big deal--especially if someone else is paying the bills.
A while back the local news had a story about a party that got out of hand near the state university. Cops had to be called, and there was tear gas and a lot of protesting about how unfair it was, that these students were just letting off steam (which included, among other things, trying to tip over an ice cream vendor's truck). I am sorry, but I have zero sympathy for students who behave this way. I'd say it's pretty safe to say that very few of those involved were working or non-traditional students. We simply don't have the time, money or energy for such hijinks. My professor kept referring to students going out and partying--"Now I know you are all going to go out to Beer Fest this weekend and get drunk instead of working on your assignment." And I would say under my breath, "Not all of us, professor, not all of us. SOME of us have to work." I wonder what the man on the radio, the one with such big dreams, would say to that? Or maybe he, like the rest of us nontraditionals, will just shake his head and go about appreciating what we do have.
I just hope he doesn't get his expectations too high. Today I got a call from the Student Success Center that my appointment with my counselor (my regular one) has been postponed for some reason or another and that it may take two weeks to get back in with her. This isn't the first time this has happened. One time I went up to the SSC only to find out that not only had the appointment been cancelled, I was supposed to be seeing someone else because I am in the "advanced program" and my counselor doesn't do the advanced program, this other person does. This is midway through the semester and the first I've heard of this. I told them, look, we are running out of time here. End of April, I am gone, program or no program. I wasn't exactly joking when I designed my graduation invitations to feature the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Because as Oz told the Scarecrow, "there are plenty of people out there who have no more brains than you but there is one thing they have that you don't--a diploma." (Which by the way I am still waiting to receive). Everything I've done to get me to this point, I've done on my own pretty much, and as I learned last week in my interview/test, that piece of paper isn't going to do anything but make a nice decoration. It really doesn't change anything but it makes people happy. I am just glad that I am not a student with "special needs" that is really counting on school to make a difference. As Dorothy and her friends learned, the only thing the Wizard could give them is validation--the rest they achieved on their own.
So I am thinking of telling the school, thanks but no thanks, I don't really see the point of continuing this success counseling. Basically, all its done is to confirm what I already know, that the direction of my life is pretty much set. So just take one day at a time and enjoy what I have. And now it's off for auditions.
