Okay, here I am in week three of university. I survived the first week, which mostly consisted of introductions to curriculum and professors. The second week was more of an exercise in posturing and interpretation. For example some students have an established circle of peers which they arrive and leave class with; class is a social exercise in inclusiveness. Others are still considering the validity of remaining in the course and so they lurk near the back. They also may be the students who have decided to disengage from the social politics of university and find safety near the exit. And then there are the students who are eager to be noticed and remain on the honour list (or pull up their average in their last year) who sit at the front of the class, engaging the professors before and after class with theories and ideas they stumbled across throughout the week. The adult learners sit in the middle of the class. That is where I sit, not in the front row, I don't need to be validated, not at the back (I can't see or hear), I sit in the middle, where I can listen and observe. My view is not disrupted and I am not including or excluding myself due to my choice of location in the room. Of course I am not alone, other adult learners seem to gravitate to the middle of the room as well. It seems I have a common strategy. It is interesting to sit in the middle of the class because there are several rows in front of me and I can see everything that students are doing on their laptops, cell phones or notepads while the prof is lecturing on information that will be on next weeks test (but I digress....).
I was talking about week three. I am here and already the capabilities of my "mature" "adult" brain is starting to show the limits. There is a huge difference between a student who has transitioned from the secondary school system directly into the post secondary school system and someone who has slowly continued learning in the comfort of their home at a pace that worked for them. Guess which one I am?
An example, I had 300 pages to read for this week (in total! I don't have one really mean professor) and I read maybe 200. Not because I am lazy or because I did not make the time or didn't care about the topic. Mostly because after class my world changes from mine to my children's. Any given evening we have at least two places to be for the children's sports or activities and although I take my books with me and sneak in a reading, the time spent is limited and lacking quality. Then I have to go home, do the bedtime routine or if my husband is putting the kids to bed, there is laundry, dishes, lunches to make for the next day, preparation for tomorrow's dinner, etc. When I do sit down to do readings it is after 8pm and my brain is ready for bed. In fact my day often starts at 6am, with a workout, getting breakfast for everyone, clothes selection for children, managing book orders, permission forms, etc., signing agendas, dressing the baby, finishing lunches, showering and then getting kids to school and daycare before going to school.
This is not a complaint, I love the children, husband, house and even challenges that I have to balance (or juggle) successfully. It is just hard to get my brain to stay stimulated late into the evening to do several readings on several different topics and then to retain the information that I just read. My brain is showing my age even if I can fake my outward appearance to be less obvious. This brings me back to a previous thought, I know that my brain is showing it's age, because I cannot imagine being successful in class while texting, googling, messaging and trying to retain the professor's lecture and yet, the younger brain is trained to manage multiple inputs of data.
I can only hope that two things that I learned in my adulthood course last week are true:
1. I am still considered to be in young adulthood (until 40 anyway and only by developmental psychologists)
and
2. I still have the capability to adapt, change and learn.
If it is in the textbook it must be true!
Well back to the books.
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