In sum, I think we have all known adult students who return to school because of a genuine interest in learning. These students are not really interested in what grades they get or a degree, but enroll in college simply to learn ... at their own pace. Some of these students are known to take the same course twice out pure enjoyment of learning. Is Marjorie one of these students? I have my doubts. I interpret Marjorie's comments as showing an interest in learning but, understandably perhaps, I believe that she is at least equally motivated (if not more motivated) by the prestige and career benefits of having a high GPA and being able to earn an advanced degree. I suspect that the latter motive trumped her hunger to learn.
Yes, degrees and the grades earned in the process _should_ reflect learning, but we all know that this, unfortunately, is not always the case.
Miguel
Somewhere along the line, I had a hunger to learn
more. I read a good deal on my own but I longed to reenter academia and
"suck out all the marrow" that college had to offer me. This desire stayed
with me for decades until 1999, when I was able to fulfill it by entering
----. To a degree (forgive the pun) I was able to get what I longed
for--but only to a degree. I have been most disappointed that there is so
much focus on grades and so little on quality of learning. I received an
"A" in both Spanish I and II, but how much of them do I remember? They
have not become a part of my permanent easily-accessible store of
knowledge. I took the course Concepts of Physics because the subject
fascinated me (and still does) but we did not take a nice long time to
allow us students to really grasp those concepts. I find mathematics
fascinating, but I will not take any more math classes because I am
planning to apply for a Graduate Assistant post at WPU (to have the
inordinate costs of getting my MA subsidized) and I cannot risk my GPA.
Too bad. Too bad college is not so much a place of learning as a factory,
an assembly-line, where we put out--what, exactly?
Miguel Roig, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Notre Dame Division of St. John's College
St. John's University
300 Howard Avenue
Staten Island, New York 10301
Voice: (718) 390-4513
Fax: (718) 390-4347
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~roigm
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