Back in August, when we were being inundated with
television, radio, and internet ads for back to school madness, I was in the
midst of meeting with prospective, new APPEAL students here on campus. After a quiet stretch in July, it made sense
that new students would make their way to our offices on the ground level of
Reid Castle. Sometime in August, we all
seem flip that switch from lazy summer mode to productive, school mode,
regardless of our age and regardless of whether or not we are going back to school. It’s just something that is ingrained in all
of us as we have been conditioned and programmed from a young age to equate
August (despite the oppressive heat and humidity) with back to school.
Even with all of that programming and conditioning, though,
adult students may have a different approach to back to school. Many of those aforementioned prospective
APPEAL students from August completed the application process and found
themselves back to school, in an accelerated seven-week term that began the
last week in August. For some, though,
they had too much going on to get all of their ducks in a row for the first
half of the fall. I think of one woman
in particular, who was ready to go back to school after not having attended a
college course for years. But she was facing one major commitment: she had to
get her young daughter ready to go off to college. For this reason, she had to
wait, but is hopeful to start in October.
This isn’t unusual, and it is in fact one of the reasons why
programs such as Manahattanville’s APPEAL program offer accelerated terms all
throughout the year. This way, the busy
adult student is never far off from a new term beginning. And accelerated terms typically fit the adult
student’s style of learning better. Rather than committing to a class that
means twice a week for a shorter period of time throughout fifteen weeks, an
accelerated seven-week course allows the adult student to spend a longer amount
of time in class once a week, but to earn the three credits in only seven
weeks. In doing this, they actually get to better know their instructor and
classmates (let’s face it- if you spend four hours once a week in a small room,
you’ll certainly get to know the others in the room!)
There’s no denying that it is very much autumn as I write
this. The days are shorter, the nights
cooler. And for most ‘traditional’
students, the academic year is in full-swing and mid-terms are starting to
appear on the horizon. But for the adult
student, it’s a whole different ballgame.
The idea of getting ready for ‘back to school’ can just as easily happen
in August, October, or six months from now.
Jon DeBenedictis
Program Director
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