It is all about learning, and being a student again reminds me that learning remains one of the great opportunities of our lives and that in a broad sense education is truly a lifelong endeavor. I recall moving chairs and music stands in the band hall the day before I received my PhD in Fine Arts. The grand fanfare of receiving what many consider the top degree one can earn was quickly diminished when I returned to my office and began moving chairs and stands as I had before I had the degree. Nothing had changed really, it was still work as usual.
Not that I am belittling the PhD which hangs proudly on my wall, serving as a reminder of many years of schooling, of papers, of presentations and projects, of terrific stress brought on by qualifying exams, oral exams, and defenses of the major research dissertation. All that and more ultimately led to the PhD, shaping my academic career and allowing me to serve as an administrator in higher education. And I no longer move chairs and stands as often as I once did, but when I do, it is strangely comforting and deservedly humbling.
My career is a good one and, I suppose, enviable to some. Why, then, would I subject myself to yet another degree pursuit far removed from my discipline? The simple answer is that I enjoy learning new things and have always been interested in the business world. The more complex answer is that I firmly believe all disciplines and all areas of life are greatly impacted by technology and a thorough application of information and data of consumer activity. Regardless of the discipline, a healthy knowledge and utilization of marketing, financial wisdom, and business communication can be vastly beneficial in fund-raising, in promoting programs, and in setting budgeting priorities. Few in higher education administration can escape those business principles that define so much of how scholarly activities intertwine with current practices in the marketplace. Those in academia who refuse to understand how business works, preferring instead to live in a black hole of humanistic and artistic scholarship that makes little impact on modern culture, will continue to be mystified and ultimately denigrated by the leaders making the decisions.
Justification aside, it has been a rocky but exciting ride. I am now 2/3 completed with my degree and, to my knowledge, am the oldest student in the program. Each course has been demanding with all the rigors attached to graduate school including presentations, projects, and research papers coupled with extensive reading of books and articles. Maintaining my day job as Dean (day job is a myth for a dean of fine arts, by the way since there are several concerts at night most weeks throughout the year!), I find myself working every evening on papers and getting up each morning for further refinement of the previous night's work. Often sandwiching in the challenges of being a Dean with the expectations of being a student, I understand the stressful and perplexing world of a being a student again.
Each teacher has a different approach to teaching and a different set of expectations for writing and presenting. This is as it should be. There is no cookie cutter model of excellence in education, and the key is to adapt to each teaching style and simply meet the expectation set forth by the instructor. Negative thoughts about assignments are non-productive; furthermore, procrastinating with the idea that the challenges will be swept under the proverbial rug is without any merit. For me it is necessary to manage my time schedule very carefully, compartmentalize each expectation, and meet the demands with thorough attention to every detail. This is not unlike being a Dean although it is a bit more intense.
The reactions toward me by the other students have been mixed I suspect. One student called me "Teacher's Pet" while another student has called me an "Overachiever." I did hear one student expressing his admiration of someone older willing to learn new things and pursue a new degree, and I was thanked by another student for providing "real world" experiences in the discussion times. Most of the students have been very friendly, respectful, and not concerned with the age disparity. Since few of them are from an arts or humanities background, they expend very little energy in discourse about literature, art, or music. They tend to be pragmatic thinkers with concern about the future and a keen awareness of current political climate and its effect on companies.
The teachers, an impressive lot in all respects, have struggled a bit to treat me as a regular student particularly when it comes to discussion on advanced business policies, but for the most part they recognize I am there to learn not to interfere. And learn I have and will continue to do so, probably for the rest of my life in fact! Maybe there is something to being a perpetual student where each day is a new opportunity to learn, to apply, and to enjoy the journey. To use a phrase I tend to use too often I suspect--"It's a blast!"
No comments:
Post a Comment