Erica Jacobs: In the classroom, old is good
By: Erica Jacobs
Examiner Columnist
September 16, 2009
A new semester at George Mason University is full of hope. Students may be turning over a new leaf or embarking on a new living arrangement or a new major. Anything is possible.
As predictable as the sense of infinite possibilities, though, is the anxiety of returning students. Some have been away from school only a semester or two, but some return after a decade or two. Those mature students have never achieved their degrees for a range of reasons: They were in the military, raising families or working long hours.
Returning students think of themselves as "old," not "returning," but their experiences enrich every college setting. Not all 20-year-olds want to be in the classroom, but every single returning student I've taught has been grateful for the opportunity to lose sleep reading and writing for my class.
They are more relaxed in their interactions -- invaluable when the class is a writing workshop. In peer review groups, returning students know how to give constructive criticism because they've done that with co-workers and family members. Unlike many younger students -- intimidated by having to give criticism -- the older students realize that "criticism" isn't always negative, and is essential to the revision process.
Imagine what marriage or parenting would be like if we hesitated to congratulate family members on their strengths, and failed to suggest ways to shore up weaknesses? Those life lessons are what make older students the backbone of any writing class. In many ways the most unhelpful comment is "everything's fine."
Additionally, older students are not as afraid to raise their hands as younger students. I plead guilty to not speaking out when I was in college. I always felt my insights might be obvious or -- worse yet -- stupid. I was secretly jealous of those who never doubted their own opinions, and their right to express them. At some point, my favorite English professor wrote on a paper, "You need to speak up more in class. You have lots to say." That was a turning point for me.
Experience isn't just salutary on the student side of the podium. In teaching, older is often better. I heard from many students at Oakton High School that they appreciated that I wasn't "uptight. Young teachers are slaves to their class rules!" they'd complain. I occasionally "bent" the rules with impunity because my experience told me that no administrator would chastise me for a liberal bathroom policy given the support of my students and parents.
Yet I would never have had the opportunity to bend rules or teach Senior Seminar if my Ph.D. in literature and experience teaching college part-time and full-time had not led the state to waive requirements for education credits. "Alternative certification" is as effective as traditional methods of certification, according to a recent study by the National Center for Policy Analysis. Without that waiver, I would not have spent 23 years teaching high school.
So if family members want to return to college, or contemplate a career move to teaching, encourage them to turn over a new leaf. Make their dreams part of a movement to welcome age and life lessons into the classroom.
Erica Jacobs, whose column appears Wednesday, teaches at George Mason University. E-mail her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.
More from Erica Jacobs
- Erica Jacobs: What no teacher can prepare for
- Erica Jacobs: Horace's Hope: My educational journey
- Erica Jacobs: I am Horace: More thoughts on Theodore Sizer's progressive Educational Philosophy
- Erica Jacobs: I Am Horace: How Theodore Sizer nailed what really happens in high school
- Erica Jacobs: When words fail us
