My father was a firm believer in education and set up RESP for all his kids, so a year after completing high-school I figured I better use it (even though I hated school!).
Because I really enjoyed sports I figured I would take Phys-ed and become a Phys-ed teacher. Well that only lasted a month when I realized that I really didn't want to be tied up in the school systems for my occupation and dropped out. Dad got his money back and I went on life guarding and teaching swimming, occasionally thinking of what I wanted to do with my life. I thought of going to university again to become a marine biologist for I loved deep sea diving and figured I'd move to the coast so I could be a ski-patroller in the winter and as a marine biologist with work where I could go diving in the summer. That idea was soon dropped when I found a job working with horses (another passion of mine) at the race track.)
Now keep in mind when I first went to university it was back in 1975 when there wasn't the internet as we know it.
Fast forward another 20 years...
I had started a tree nursery and wanted to learn everything I could about propagating trees.
I had won a government contract for growing coniferous seedlings for reforestation - a new program to produce those seedlings here in Saskatchewan instead of bringing them in from B.C.
Part of this program was to educate the new growers with the latest information on growing tree seedlings. I learned so much but I was eager to learn more!
The University of Saskatchewan had a propagations class which I enrolled in but I just wanted the information - I didn't want to write exams or anything so I just audited the class.
Doing this I realized that there are much better ways to learn than through sitting in university classrooms - although I did make some good connections!
It's funny when we went on a class outing to a local tree farm and greenhouse the fellow there said he didn't care about a university degree, he would rather hire folks who had a keen interest in growing with some practical knowledge - kind of a funny thing to say to a class of university students, but I did agree with him!
I learn far more with hands on experience, meeting with folks who were already established in what I wanted to learn (having a mentor) and learning online! There is a wealth of information on the internet which you can access right in your home.
My husband, since we got high speed internet, said it is just like having the library right in your own home (the library is where he use to spend a lot of his spare time in the years before the internet). He remarked that you can learn anything online and became a great fan of Youtube!
One more experience with college education -
I took a long distance course (my dad had offered to pay for any secondary education I wanted to take.) I chose long distance learning for I didn't want to go to the city. I found a course through the North Regional college situated in the town closest to me. I loved working with kids and thought about being a school teacher (I needed work that wasn't too physical for I had acquired a spinal cord injury.) After talking to the coordinator at the college about what you actually make being a teacher with all the extra hours you are expected to put in I opted to become an Education Associate which had an hourly wage instead.
There was a lot of book learning in this course. Texts seemed like a bit of a racket - the cost of text books were high and you were required to have the latest edition, even if they had only changed a small bit in the text. Funny, I never looked at my texts again after finishing the course even though I find books a great resource and I have oodles of reference books that I go to quite regularly when I want to look up something plus I like learning from books. I would have chosen much different books to buy with the money I spent on text but I needed the certificate from the course (for employment in that field) so I bit the bullet and bought the texts.
I felt they could have utilized technology much better and given us access to the teacher via live-streaming or in virtual classrooms where you all can be on video or have your voice heard through audio channels.
I do feel our education system is failing our kids and there is far more better ways to learn then by sitting in classrooms. Youtube has become a great resource, for it is open to anyone to share their expertise and this has bought all sorts of new knowledge online!
One Youtube channel that I have learned a tremendous amount from is Dr. Jordan Peterson's channel found at https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos
He has a lot of his university lectures there. Great use of that technology entwining the university and Youtube!
He wants to take it one step further and start an online university making high quality education available to masses of people.
He figures that the genuine humanities isn't really being taught in the universities so he wants to take it out of the universities and move it online!
Find out more about this...
One more place Youtube has opened doors is with debates or conversations with some of the great thinkers of our time.
I want to share with you a very interesting conversion between two great thinks - Dr. Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Zizek.
The topic was "Happiness: Marxism vs Capitalism" but it was much more than that and it was a wonderful example of people having differing views but being able to communicate, a meeting of minds which is expansive and brings about greater understanding and improvements. They shared their deep thoughts on fundamental matters such as freedom, truth and meaning.
Give it a listen and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic and these meeting of minds.
I'm all for improving our minds and our lives by any form it comes in.
Care to join in the conversation with @Ecotrain question this week on University Vs Youtube? Find out more here
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