This article was written to encourage two groups of mature aged students. The first group are those contemplating further studies but have not got around to enrolling. The second group have started a serious course but finding it harder than anticipated: they are putting in the hours but not getting the results for which they had hoped.
To the nonstarters, it is good you have at least thought about improving your situation and it is perfectly normal that you are hesitating. Embarking upon a course of study is moving into the unknown especially if you did not achieve all that much when you were at school. Despite the best efforts of many teachers, a very significant proportion of students do not achieve all they could have at school (for a large number of reasons that we will not go into here). So far, you are in the majority of new returnees. Before you finish reading the article, ponder two thoughts. How will you feel in a few years time if you do not do a course now, which you probably would have completed? Nothing worthwhile was ever achieved without pain of some sort. Now think about how you will feel when you complete your course.
To those who are finding the beginning of their course a bigger struggle than expected let us start with the advantages mature students have over most young students. Perhaps the most significant advantage is that of being mature: you have experienced more of the vicissitudes of life; you have been attending the University of Hard Knocks longer and are still an undergraduate (some are too smart even to attend). Look around and you will notice that most people are happy because they are in their zone of comfort. You are not like other people. You have been brave enough to move out of your zone of comfort and step into the unknown. Following the excitement of doing something personal, different, learning something new is the making of a better person - a new you.
Deliberately learning, broadening your knowledge and skills, is a way of proving yourself to be better than your perception of others' opinions of you. Why lower your self esteem by stopping now? Now it may well be that your situation is currently at an all time low and that you really should take a break from your course. May you steadily recover your former enthusiasm while retaining your determination to finish the course.
Do not beat yourself up because you are not learning as rapidly as you had hoped. Everyone's rate of learning varies according to the topic, to how well they are feeling and to circumstances. In a technical sense, two of the parameters of learning are how much you know (prior knowledge) and how long you can spend learning (time on task). I am not giving you two excuses, but one does have to learn according to one's situation. Accept that we all study from where we are at to where we want to go. Teachers can make it harder or easier for you up to a point; but never impossible. Your teachers do not make you - you, the learner, makes you into the person you want to be.
To conclude: your teachers cannot make you learn - you learn as a consequence of choosing to learn. As we learn we are playing catch up; yet amateur astronomers have made some remarkable discoveries and continue to do so; similarly for amateur geologists, environmentalists, philosophers and maybe you too.
To the nonstarters, it is good you have at least thought about improving your situation and it is perfectly normal that you are hesitating. Embarking upon a course of study is moving into the unknown especially if you did not achieve all that much when you were at school. Despite the best efforts of many teachers, a very significant proportion of students do not achieve all they could have at school (for a large number of reasons that we will not go into here). So far, you are in the majority of new returnees. Before you finish reading the article, ponder two thoughts. How will you feel in a few years time if you do not do a course now, which you probably would have completed? Nothing worthwhile was ever achieved without pain of some sort. Now think about how you will feel when you complete your course.
To those who are finding the beginning of their course a bigger struggle than expected let us start with the advantages mature students have over most young students. Perhaps the most significant advantage is that of being mature: you have experienced more of the vicissitudes of life; you have been attending the University of Hard Knocks longer and are still an undergraduate (some are too smart even to attend). Look around and you will notice that most people are happy because they are in their zone of comfort. You are not like other people. You have been brave enough to move out of your zone of comfort and step into the unknown. Following the excitement of doing something personal, different, learning something new is the making of a better person - a new you.
Deliberately learning, broadening your knowledge and skills, is a way of proving yourself to be better than your perception of others' opinions of you. Why lower your self esteem by stopping now? Now it may well be that your situation is currently at an all time low and that you really should take a break from your course. May you steadily recover your former enthusiasm while retaining your determination to finish the course.
Do not beat yourself up because you are not learning as rapidly as you had hoped. Everyone's rate of learning varies according to the topic, to how well they are feeling and to circumstances. In a technical sense, two of the parameters of learning are how much you know (prior knowledge) and how long you can spend learning (time on task). I am not giving you two excuses, but one does have to learn according to one's situation. Accept that we all study from where we are at to where we want to go. Teachers can make it harder or easier for you up to a point; but never impossible. Your teachers do not make you - you, the learner, makes you into the person you want to be.
To conclude: your teachers cannot make you learn - you learn as a consequence of choosing to learn. As we learn we are playing catch up; yet amateur astronomers have made some remarkable discoveries and continue to do so; similarly for amateur geologists, environmentalists, philosophers and maybe you too.
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