老餅范

The summer term of the master degree of education in CUHK has been commenced for four days.  This time, I enrolled 2.5 modules.  I never did this before but I really wish to graduate this year.  Therefore, I started being a full-time student "again" this Tuesday until July 29.  The cognitive load was so high that, sometimes I felt so tired, more tired than working full time at school.

Most of my classmates are teachers, including principals, senior teachers, and young new comers also.  Some of the "experienced" teachers take this summer vacation to "recharge" themselves and so,  in the summer term, it's unusual that a number of coursemates are so young, probably in their mid to late twenties only.  They did something similar to what my students always do.  For instance, they will reserve nearby seats for their good companions, eat sandwiches and even "big breakfast" in the classroom with a knife and fork, and of course, they chat and talk during the class.  Sometimes, the professor had to stop and asked the class to keep the voice down.  If they do such things habitually, just like what our students do, how could we then request our students not to do so?

Worse of all, a classmate's so "good" that she asked the teacher whether it's fine to be absent from several lectures.  Of course, the professor won't say "yes" in front of other students.  But in fact, it's adult learning and we're adults.  It's hard to believe that it requires to ask for permission from the professor, but should "adjust" ourselves!!  Alternatively, if she thinks learning is so cool and can't escape from several lectures, she should make a decision of dropping that subject and take a good break.  What's the result?  The professor gave us a memo in writing that all of us require to have at least 80% attendance.  So, thanks for that "good" classmate!!

Anyway, I have much confidence to pass all the remaining modules in the summer and attend the graduation ceremony in the coming November. It's my second master degree, and most likely I'll study the third one!! Learning is full of fun and joyfulness, not only aiming for a academic qualification, but the contentment of learning something new, sharing with good coursemates, and proving to your children that learning is fun.