Pondering The End of an Era

End of an era

On Tuesday, my days of attending an educational facility as an undergraduate are over. My journey started in March 2002 as a student of computing, and finishes this week as a student of history.

Such a wide swing from one to the other. The reason for the change are simple

Computing to German after second semester 2002: Had to do pre-MATH101 to get to the first level of Maths but only got a conceded pass. I needed a full-pass which was going to take another semester. But I passed the Stats component of the course, and did only the one Stats subject in the second semester, gaining a credit. I came to the conclusion that

• One subject a semester is better than trying to cram it all in and just scraping through
• Maths isn’t my thing
• Maybe I should look into something else

German to History after second semester 2006: On finding out that I could do German simply as a walk-in student, whereas to do Chinese (the other language I wanted to learn) needed the approval of the Dean, I went down that path. And enjoyed it immensely, and still find myself translating songs into German, tweeting in German, and trying as often as my health allows to eat and drink German, still keeping in contact with a couple of the exchange-students from my 200-level courses (but where the Australian students have gone is beyond me – I found one on Facebook but haven’t heard back since.)

But after the first semester of the first 300-level course, I was really struggling, and sought the help of a tutor. We spoke generally, and formally, and tried writing, and the like, and I still wasn’t getting the hang of it. But the crunch came with my last essay for the subject. And I hadn’t learned much from my first semester because I tried cramming two subjects into a semester (the second, a 200-level reading course). I gave my essay to my tutor, who corrected it, and I submitted it. But I didn’t ask the tutor to look at the 200-level submission, because the detail required for that wasn’t as in-depth (short-answer as opposed to an essay). The lecturer for the 200-level course picked this up, and referred it to the department head: apparently there was a genitive construction in the opening sentence that, apparently I would not have known about at my level.

What had happened was that the tutor written what I wanted to say instead of, perhaps, talking to me about saying something simpler / more suited to my level. Anyway I had to front the department head on the same day as my exam in the subject (timing much?) and explain myself. I just happened to have a copy of the work that I had given to the tutor, which they accepted. But getting someone to check one’s work before submission was apparently not acceptable: they want to know about my work, not how it should look. Which makes sense, but I still feel that I was being accused of cheating - all I was doing was having someone look over and edit my work. I absolutely knew without doubt that several people were getting their work vetted – one even had her work done by another student (both being native-speakers), but the cheater was obviously struggling with the grammar (which is fair enough: how many people would be fluent in the technical aspects of their native tongue? I only know those of mine because they were taught to me). But I couldn’t say anything: one doesn’t rat out a mate (or two). I got a conceded pass (and a credit in the other subject) and, because I didn’t know if I had to do the course again or continue to the next level, I went back to stats.

Stats to History: It appears that the break I’d taken between STAT176 and the next 200-level stats course was too long, because the whole thing was lost on me. I had no idea what the people were talking about, so I pulled it, taking the semester off. But my initial reason for doing Uni was to write essays (in English at least) which hadn’t happened yet. My interest in History was beckoning, so I thought I’d go over and do a 100-level course to learn how to play the game there. I got a D for my first-ever essay, and had to ask the tutor what that meant. “It’s a distinction”, he said. As 23/30 generally is. I had found my niche!

Then came the Diagnosis, on the eve of my 46th birthday. I had already started my last subject and was at the same place I am at the moment. But the illness spelled a respite in my academic career, which had to wait until full recovery for me to return. Dang!

So here I am, some 5 years and several essays later, looking at the end of a long career. There’s still some coursework to complete, two and a half readings (for tomorrow) and a self-assessment form to complete, but by the end of November I should be a Bachelor of Arts with History and German. What I do with that next year is anyone’s guess- for now I am contemplating a Grad.Dip in either Education or Information Management, or any combination thereof, but not at Club Mac: their funding cuts have spelled a lot of changes which don’t auger well for a good learning environment, so I will be looking at doing so by correspondence (which is how most of my History course was done).

Gaudeamus igitur.

Iuvenes dum sumus.

Gaudeamus igitur.

Iuvenes dum sumus.

Post iucundam iuventutem.

Post molestam senectutem.

Nos habebit humus —

Nos habebit humus.

[which would make sense to your old-school academic – I’ll leave you with that to ponder over!]