Back to School for GrownUps

I hope Patricia over at the Communciation Exchange (and Subjective Soup) won’t mind that I have swiped her title…

Patricia’s article about Making Mistakes got me thinking about a particular prof - and about one mistake that I could easily have made - but didn’t.

I am generally considered - at least in academia - to be a good writer. And that is often reflected in my marks, especially for essays. I have been known, even, to on occasion, receive a 100% on papers. When it came time to approach a prof about supervising my major paper  - it would have made sense - in some ways - to choose one of the profs that I knew I could get really high marks from.

I like really high marks.

But I didn’t. In fact, I chose to ask one of the profs that typically gave me marks at the low end …As …but just barely.

I could have worked with other profs - and done well - but with this particular prof, I learned so much more than I would have otherwise, I think. No matter how well written my work was, she always thought it could be better - and helped me to get it there. She was always willing to spend the time that was needed to edit …and while she wouldn’t fix anything for me, she asked the right questions so that by the time it was done, my essay was awesome … even SHE said so :)   Only 90 I ever got from her… and I won the university’s essay competition with it too.

Taking the easy way is often attractive…but clearly, at least for me, easy is not always best.

Being willing to work with someone who points out your mistakes is a darned good way to learn… having someone just tell you you’re wunnerful can be nice…but doesn’t do a darn thing to encourage learning.

According to an article in yesterday’s Toronto Star written by Trish Crawford, the more education single mothers have, the more likely they are to spend quality time with their children.

Higher education = less time at work required to make decent income = more time for children.

The research was conducted at the University of Maryland, and involved studying the time diaries of more than 6,000 mothers. It was published in the December Journal of Marriage and the Family

Trying to do the school thing while you are a single mom is not easy. Been there, done that. My kids were old enough that they didn’t need the mommy all of the time… I can’t imagine how I would have managed it when they were little - but I do know quite a few who have manged it.

Would love to hear what you think… or, if you’re a single mom that’s doing the back to school thing, how you’re finding it.

So - once you’ve found a reputable online school - in my case, Athabasca University - the next challenge is to succeed in your studies.

I have enjoyed my online courses, although I do miss the actual classroom experience. There is so much to learn from classroom interactions … online courses, in my experience, are pretty boring by comparison. Reading, reading, and more reading….and my experience with the profs/tutors of my online courses has been pretty limited overall.

One of the biggest challenges for me with Athabasca U courses is that they do not set any deadlines for you - at least not in the courses I’ve taken so far (2 Shakespeare and now Adolescent Psychology). You can take up to 6 months to complete all of the course requirements - and if you need longer, you can cough up more $$ and have another 2 months.

So you have to be self-motivated, in other words, or it just doesn’t get done…. or at least not well.

There are, however, other formats. I have also done a couple of online courses through Laurentian University’s online option, which is called Envision. Those ones follow a regular semester and came complete with due dates for all assignments.

For some people that can work a lot better.

Trick is to know your self. Do you need due dates? If so, look for an option that will provide that structure. Or set your own, and commit to following through (good idea; not one I’ve succeeded with though!).

The best advice I could give anyone considering doing an online degree?

Don’t sign on to do a whole program, degree, whatever…. try ONE course first… THEN go from there.

Would love to hear about your experiences of online courses!

Some possible reasons to go back to school seem rather obvious…. to allow you to get a better job, or one in a field that you like (or think you will like) better than what you are doing already… and of course, as a strategy towards earning more money.

But there are a whole lot of other potential benefits as well.

For me, these have included

• increased self esteem - turns out that I am good at this school thing - both as a student and a teacher - which has led me to believe that I can do more - and be more - than I ever thought possible
• the more I learn, the more I want to learn - and the more strategies I have to go about learning those things that I want to know
• great friends, and helpful acquaintances
• a lot less time or inclination to get bored or depressed
• self-discovery - who knew that I would love hanging out events like the Leacock Festival?

I’m sure I have missed some possible benefits of going back to school…. feel free to add to the list! What unexpected benefits have you discovered through going back to school?

One of the best ways to figure out whether going back to school - or taking a particular program or course - is to have a look at the job postings in your area.

What is it that you want to be when you grow up? Find a job posting for that job - or better yet - a whole bunch of them.

What qualifications are they looking for?

And just as importantly - what are they paying?

Going back to school is, for many people, an excellent course of action.

BUT

if you are doing it to improve your career options, it would be far, FAR better to do your research before you make any decisions - and before you’ve put out any money!

This is a lesson that I learned the hard way.

I decided that I was going to go back to school and take computer programming. Applied, got in … paid… did well in my courses.

And THEN it was time to look at the co-op job postings our co-op consultant had posted for us.

Excuse me????

The hourly rates being offered were higher than minimum wage - but significantly lower than what I was used to making in social services.

ACK! That was not a happy discovery.

But really, I had only myself to blame.

The newspaper I read (for years) came from a much larger city than where I lived. Yes, programmers could make decent money - there. In a much smaller city, not so much.

As it happened, I fell into teaching, and it all worked out very well… but it would have been a much better plan to have done my research first!

I strongly advise it.

Which is not to say that you shouldn’t do it unless… but we’ll talk more about that another day

There are so many possible reasons to consider going back to school as a mature/returning student.

In some cases, it comes down to money/opportunities… if you are not happy with where you are and what you are being paid, why not look at other options?

In others, it is about doing what you love, or have always wanted to do.

In mine - at least once - it was a response to burn out. Best decision I ever made.

I had been working in the mental health system. I had been working mostly with kids and I loved it. It was my passion, and I was totally committed to it - to making a difference in the lives of the children I worked with.

But then I had a serious car accident, and I was physically not able to work directly with emotionally disturbed and acting out kids.

After about 4 years off, during which I mostly played video games and went to physiotherapy programs, I was able to work again… but not with my messed up kids. I worked with adults.

Spent some time as a Rights Advisor - that was a job that I could have done for years & years. But then Mike Harris won the election in Ontario, and one of the first things he did was axe the Ontario Advocacy Commission. You still had rights if you were mentally ill in Ontario - but you no longer had the right to know about them, or be supported to exercise them. Details, details.

Anyway - I did some other social service type jobs …but the climate here was very much at odds with my own personal beliefs and values, and it did not take long for me to crash and burn out….waaaaaaaaaaay out.

I just could not do it any more. In one week there were three incidents that contributed to my decision to go back to school:

1. A woman (that I didn’t know) who was mentally ill - but not seriously mentally ill enough to be eligible for help in Mike Harris’ Ontario - killed a toddler that was being pulled for a ride in a wagon by a 14 yo babysitter. I wonder if the babysitter ever got seriously mentally ill enough as a result to qualify for help.. probably not.
2. I met with one of my clients and she complained about her doctor wanting to increase her dosage of antidepressants. Even with the proposed increase, my dosage was higher. That struck me as wrong - that I was being paid to support people that needed less medication than I did.
3. I received a call telling me that a client had committed suicide and I was to go and mediate a support group that that client’s family had been attending for years. I did not know a single person in the group - but I was expected to go be supportive.

   Before the meeting, I sat outside the meeting place - on the edge of a concrete planter, I remember - and wrote reams of paper - tears streaming down my face - about how I could not do it - had nothing left to give.

So - even though I was a single parent, and had 2 kids depending on me - that week, I filled out applications for college.

I decided that I would go work with computers.

I knew next to nothing about computers.

But I liked writing on them. I was newly involved in the Internet, and enjoying that.

And I knew that computer programmers were anti-social types who could work in a cubicle and not have to interact with people.

And besides, computers do not call you up in the middle of the night and threaten to commit suicide unless you come up with the right thing to say or do.

So - I went back to school.

Have you gone back to school? I would love to hear your story. What caused you to take that step?

Are you thinking about going back? Love to hear about that too… why you’re considering it…what you’d like to take… ?