I love to learn. I have been told by many that I would make a great professor. Thank you. However, it is not something that has interested me largely because there is a lot I wish to create. Maybe in the future when the world has grown a bit, teaching environments are better and I have achieved more. I have got to achieve! It is a burning desire, what can I say? I was born this way. :)
Most professors I see, just regurgitate the same thing over and over again and poorly at that. So far, I have created online courses and helped a few universities in specific course development that they asked me to do. I could do this while still running my agency and other things I am involved in. I do that because of my love of learning. I wish to do more of it, in a different capacity as these avenues evolve.
Online education is a wonderful avenue, but works best for the self-motivated student and for course subjects that do not require a lot of personal interaction. I am curious to see how online schools will evolve in the future.
There is a lot to be gained to be in a classroom that cannot be replaced easily with an online class such as social interaction. Also many online schools operate without license or even accreditation - so while being a good ‘concept,’ they lack proper execution and leadership. That might suffice for cliff notes version of a class a student is already taking in a university and wants additional help to study, memorize and ace their tests.
Again though, the question returns to actual learning where the student masters the subject and truly can apply it to other things. That is when knowledge is actually gained, not just regurgitated. For example, if you learn how to do an equation, but do not understand the principles behind it, your understanding is severely limited.
I love math and engineering. It is very easy for me, but when I went to school, I felt quite uncomfortable with the students in my classes in high school and even later in college when I was a premed student. They would memorize everything, but not understand how anything worked. There is a lot of pressure for this too with ’boot training’ and a lot more to help students get into good schools by simply becoming good at test-taking without bothering to know the fundamentals. It is also too slow.
I love to explore…and I have explored a lot. I will explore more! At college, I graduated with 2 degrees, but if I had stayed one more semester, I would have finished 5 more majors too. I believe school must teach you what you do not know and not just push what you are already brilliant at. I believe in a well-rounded individual first, followed by specific expertise.
A degree to me shows some of your early interests and pursuits. Looking at the path you take after, shows what is important to you, what gaps you have in your life that you wish to fulfill and how you wish to harness your natural abilities in your work, relationships and life!
Education is multifaceted to me. I love both the arts and sciences deeply. I can’t imagine one without the other. I require both.
When I look at universities and colleges - I have been to 7 - I feel that many have gorgeous campuses and large welcoming spaces. However, they do not offer challenging education for anyone bright. In fact, it is the prior prestige of these schools that attracts any bright individual. Very few are doing anything noteworthy in the present time. It can be hard to generalize about such things, but it is clear that most schools have at least one noteworthy program that is well done, while the rest suffers.
Students sometimes come to well known schools for the prestige and connections they make, rather than actual learning or applying their abilities. In many ways, these schools are being used. The schools do it themselves with their ‘celebrity’ degrees where they hand out degrees to people with no skills, who did not work for their degrees but the school wishes to benefit through association with that individual’s popularity. It makes sense however to have a class where you could have celebrities share their specific expertise, often in marketing themselves and in their specific industries. That is relevant and useful to the student and fun for the school as well. MasterClass www.masterclass.com does a great job of this!
I would love if universities and colleges returned to a purity of thought and practice - where you are there to learn, for the beauty of learning and to stimulate your intellectual curiosity and growth, like they were when they originally founded back in early Greece. So you wish to grow and become more!! Then university would become again a place where ‘you find your place in the universe.’