Still thinking about education.

You know, I still have a lot to say about education. I feel like I made the point that education should be specialized. However, I also feel like I only outlined a personalized program that would work for me.

I just read Eric Hamm’s article on ADHD. It was really good and had me thinking about my own education experience. I left a rather long comment about my experience in school. I started education week outlining some of my education experience and here I will wrap things up with a last bit of insight into my education experience.

Hi Eric,

Wow. This scenario sounds vaguely familiar! haha. Describes me exactly. Luckily I found some workarounds and had some inherent ability to conquer some of my own ADD/ADHD, or whatever you want to call it.

1. I was somehow blessed with a pretty good photographic memory. Or maybe developed it along the way? I was constantly day dreaming and not paying attention in class. Yet somehow I could pass tests pretty easily because I would just look at the book or remember exercises we had to do and mark down the answers like it was an “open book” test.

2. I made friends pretty easily. I also happened to befriend most of the people who ended up in the National Honor Society. Needless to say we worked together and their paying attention in class helped me to get the right answers on tests. 😉

3. I have always loved words and so writing papers was no problem. I was just glad to get out of class! haha.

So whether it was a paper, test, exercise, or group project I pretty much has my bases covered.

When I got to college things got a little difficult again. I had #1 and #3 working for me, but I lost #2. And I realized I needed to take things to a new level. #2 never seemed to work for me again because I never really made good friends with anyone in my major. Instead of prescribed classes everyone was taking different stuff at different times so it was hard to develop any kind of group that was studying the same stuff as you at the same time. Of course this all changed in my MBA program and I can once again thank my friends for helping me get straight A’s. 😉

My one secret in college was to take a copious amount of notes.

Lectures usually bored me to death. Unless the professor was somehow witty.

So here is what I did. I got a separate notebook for each class and just started writing in class. I would honestly just write anything, related and unrelated. Whatever thoughts were passing through my mind.

I would draw doodles. I would make diagrams and maps. I started using the outline system I learned in high school.

I would listen to the teacher and write some of the better points they said. Especially if they emphasized it. But I would also write my own ideas about the subject in the sidenotes.

Guess what happened?

I went from almost failing out of two classes my freshman year to getting A’s and B’s the rest of the time I was in college.

So I guess I say all that to say that the will to learn is seemingly more important than the method or even necessarily the subject matter.

Thank you Eric for helping me set a new record for longest comment! And check out some of my education week articles if you haven’t had the chance!

Cheers,
Jeremy

Today Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th president of the US. The proposed stimulus bill is promising that the vast majority of the money will go to education. More than any other program. Although I hate the idea of just throwing more money at the education problems we are facing, I am glad to see the focus being put there. Hopefully we can take some steps in the right direction.

If you haven’t had the chance to read some of my education week articles please do so now. I would love your comments and feedback!

Education Week Articles:

1. Education: What’s the point?
2. Who Needs an Education?
3. Learning to Create Creates Passion
4. How to Train New Employees
5. In Praise of Lifelong Learning