Hmmm...Learning!

Saturday, April 26, 2008
As you all know, I'm a student at the University of Denver. In order to receive tuition assistance from my company, I'm required to have a degree plan, and be working towards it, but the truth of the matter is that I go to college because being a student is fun.

Obviously, not every class in my degree plan is fun, but for the most part, I've enjoyed most of the classes I've taken over the last 20 years. Some I took just because I wanted to, like cultural anthropology, and some I took because I had to, like macro-economics, but with the exception of the Organizational Leadership class, I've learned something new in all of them.

I think what I enjoy the most about being a professional student is that it exposes me to information and ideas that I would never had explored on my own. For example, this week's reading for my "Law, Politics and Policy" class is A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law by Antonin Scalia. Left to my own devices, I probably would not have selected a 165 page essay on law by a Supreme Court Justice. But I'm enjoying it, and learning about aspects of our judicial system that I've never thought about before.

The cool thing about this experience at DU is that now I'm not only a fan-girl of science, but also of public policy, the founding fathers and global studies.

College is one of my weapons against the Mad Cow, but I think I'd be attending and enjoying it even without that impetus.

Hmmm....learning.

2 comments:

Random Michelle K said...

I *love* learning.

I can't wait until I get my head screwed on right again, so I'll have the energy to start taking classes again (bonus of working for a university)

My undergraduate career was exactly as you describe here. I took things because they were interesting (Class I remember most fondly? Greek & Roman mythology. The Aeneid is really an interesting story. Since then? Faiths of Abraham, a comparative religion class.)

And you've nailed exactly why it's so good. I never would have tried to read the Aeneid without being required to, but ended up enjoying it.

My only regret is that I all but slept though my plant geography class. In retrospect I freqnetly wish I remembered anything from that class. But an instructor who speaks in a monotone and who's class consists of 50 minutes of slides, and who schedules his class in the early afternoon? Forget it. :)

Tom said...

"So, what are you learning about?"

"Everything!"

Thanks for reminding me how much fun learning is. I only had 2 semesters in my college career, but many of the classes were interesting. IE nnn, Welding and metal shop. PE was Fencing. Then there was CS 161, Fortran and PL/I, my first computer class. My brother said, "I thing you'll find it interesting." He was right.

We all know about the "ancient Chinese curse," namely "May you live in interesting times." It's time to update to a modern American blessing. "May you always have interesting classes."