Going Back to School - Essay Example

Nothing we earn or learn in life is ever easy, but there is a special calling on the lives of those who choose to go to or return to college. No longer the “non-traditional” student, adults who return to college are not as rare as they once were. We all discover early in life that there is no such thing as knowing it all. As soon as we get it all figured out, something else happens, something is discovered, or something we already knew/thought we knew changed. Education never stops, inside or outside of the classroom.

It takes self-discipline and a mixed sort of unpretentious bravery to go back to school, especially if the student has been away from the desk-and-blackboard for a long time. It requires a complete lifestyle change for which attending classes (even online), getting assignments done, and passing examinations must take priority over nearly everything else. It is especially difficult if the returning student has a family to care for and a job. There are good reasons for returning to school as well as natural barriers that can put obstacles between the goal and the successful achievement that leads to graduation.

The decision to return to school can be something as simple as upgrading a skill set in order to be more competitive in the job market to an internal need to learn, know, do, and be more in life. I am returning to school for personal satisfaction, to boost my self-confidence, and to role model for my children. I often feel inferior and out of place with my co-workers or while out socializing with my more educated friends. I know that the only way to overcome those negative feelings is to do something about it, or change my environment.

In a safe and sanitary environment, it is easy to say that education enables me to gain more job skills and to upgrade my lifestyle and earn more income. But it really isnt as easy as that. There are deeper motivational reasons. Learning never stops, and I am both fascinated and enchanted by the idea of knowing “something new,” or something no one else knows, or even something old that affords me the opportunity to reconnect my soul to the universe around me. Becoming a professional student may not be a bad idea.

I will have to take a break from “having fun and hanging out” in order to make the necessary sacrifices to make this dream come true; but then again, who says hanging out in school isnt fun? I relish coming to class to find out what the instructors and professors will make the class do or say that will teach us something new, or build on something we already know. A case is made for the reasons why high school may be a waste of time and why middle school can be the college prep years only for those who are planning to go on and specialize in something that absolutely requires an advanced education or specialized training.

Unless it is an area of specialization, there is really nothing that a new employee (staff generalist) cant be taught or cant learn on the job and in the actual workplace environment. There is also the fact that no matter how much someone learns in school, it usually doesnt work that way in the “real world.” The 13-year veteran grade school student ends up having to erase everything they learned and start all over. The saying “Youth is wasted on the young” was never more vivid than when we think in terms of how life flips around just when we think we know it all.

Its a big world, and we live in the information age where knowledge has increased exponentially; yet, its still hard to decipher whether or not anyone actually knows anything. Why is it so easy to return to college after so many people are discouraged and disappointed or so easily bored in high school? Is there really nothing to learn between 6th - 8th grade and the college classroom? Or is the phenomena of teenage hormones a serious deterrent to thinking in terms of the future? Children and youth are always out for immediate gratification, living for the moment, or just the weekend, i.e., “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” … “Living for the Weekend”; and adults are nearly always thinking in terms of the future, thats why.

Either way it goes…there is always more to learn for children and adults. .ReferencesZachry, Elizabeth. April 2002. “In Their Own Words: Why Adults Return to School.” System for Adult Basic Education Support. SABES/World Education. [Originally published in Field Notes, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Spring 2002).] 17 Sept 2011 Hazard, Robert. (1983). “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” From the album Shes So Unusual. [As recorded by singer/Pop-Punk recording artist Cyndi Lauper.] Sony/BMG Music. Entertainment.

17 Sept 2011 Gamble, Kenneth. Huff, Leon. (1975) “Livin for the Weekend.” From the album Family Reunion. [As recorded by R&B soul performers/recording artists The OJays.] Philadelphia International Records. 17 Sept 2011 >