After turning 60, I decided to start spending my retirement by working toward a master’s degree at a first-rank university. It wasn’t long before I had two epiphanies:
One – It’s the most legal fun I’ve had in 40 years.
Two – I have to sit in front so I can hear everything and see what's on the blackboard or the fine print on the slides, and I need a left-handed desk in order to avoid cramps in my note-taking hand.
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But student desks are just as unforgiving as ever.
There have been other aha moments, of course, but they have come more slowly over the 2 years of pacing it one course a semester because I work full time at a demanding job.
Several observations may be worth sharing after four courses. Tell me what you think:
▪ Young adults today are amazing: smart, articulate, forthright. Their perspectives are more global and more informed than I remember mine being at that age. They also are bemused by, and sometimes even pay compliments to, the occasional grayhairs in their midst.
▪ In a world where it seems every other person is an opinionated, self-described “expert” in something-or-other, it’s exhilarating to listen to and learn from teachers who are genuine lovers of learning.
▪ Students of today see their grades as more important than I recall.
This last point is perhaps at the root of what a philosophy professor recently observed - that too few liberal arts students will take any interdisciplinary course with an orientation to science. “It takes age to lose that fear of appearing ignorant,” he said, “when we all are. It just takes some of us longer than others to realize it.”
Bada-bing.
Or as Aristotle said: “For one swallow does not make a spring, nor does one day; so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.”
Donna Rohrer