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julietsierra -> RE: adults who return back to school! (2/6/2007 1:47:46 PM)
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I was a returning student when I received my degree. I'd tried one university but regardless whether the classes were day or night classes, the people attending were in the 18 - 24 age range and the environment reflected it. Lots of note passing, date making and in general, sitting back and simply accepting what the teacher had to say even when it made no sense. I left there.
The next one I tried was more interesting. A greater percentage of the people attending there were returning students. The classroom environment was remarkably different. Lots of real world connections and experiences being touted and everyone learned. This was at a college in Texas that was one of the last predominantly women's colleges in the nation that still received federal funds. So, what I received was a top-notch education at the prices of a publicly funded university and my classes were comprised of all women, so none of the note passing, date making stuff that I was seeing at the university just down the road. In addition, the average age of those attending that school was mid-30s and most of those were either pushing themselves hard to complete their education so they could finally be able to support themselves, or were coming from married households, so again, none of the note-taking stuff that I saw in the 18-24 year old set.
What I did find is that so long as you could defend your assertions, participation, discussion and all that was highly encouraged. Only one time did I have a problem with a professor regarding that and frankly, it's because I felt he was dead wrong about what he was saying and didn't have a problem pointing it out to him every single chance I could get. He finally suggested that we continue our discussion after class - which I did.
He never convinced me he was correct and when in another venue (a Down Syndrome Guild meeting), I brought up his comments, I was asked by another member who this professor was who'd been saying what he was saying. I hesitated and finally said his name. That's when she introduced herself as a member of the Board of Regents - who herself had a grandchild with Down Syndrome. (He was training future teachers to see those with disabilities as somehow "broken" compared with other school children).
The next day he announced to the class that he'd given my points a lot of consideration and agreed that perhaps he was wrong in how he'd worded his ideas.
Somehow I don't think it was my succinct arguments that convinced him at all.
I worried the entire rest of the semester how my grade was going to turn out. I received an A and the comment from him when I turned in my final exam that he respected my point of view and the fact that I was willing to stand by it even when someone might have penalized me through my grade.
lol...And then there was the English teacher who would throw major exams with no warning, wouldn't issue a syllabus and was very rude to all the people taking her class. At one point, armed with the rules of the school, I asked to see a complete syllabus as was my right. She looked at my son who went to school with me (home-schooled) and said "What happens when things pop up out of the blue at your house?" (I was complaining about a major test that she'd given as if it was a pop quiz. My son looked at her and said "If we didn't think it was important enough to put down on the calendar, then it's not important enough to do. We have two people in grade school, one person in middle school, one person in college. Then there's soccer practice, CCD classes, cub scouts, my sister's therapy and my father's schedule at work. We don't deal in surprises at our house, and my mother knows the law and isn't afraid to fight for what's right."
She gave the class a syllabus the next day. She tried to punish me through my grades. But I'd learned to keep every single syllabus and paper and when I received a bad grade in her class, I challenged it. She was forced to change my grade when I proved I'd abided by her grading scale. If I hadn't demanded a syllabus, I'd have never won.
So long as you make sure you can always defend your position, and are willing to concede when you're incorrect, and go in with the idea that you'll learn something every time you discuss an issue, you'll be all right.
I was definitely no shy wall-flower, and I graduated magna cum laude (which I always like to think of as magna(Big) cum loudly)
juliet
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