Ah, Now I Get It

Last night was the first class for the fall semester in my ongoing pursuit of a master's degree. I'm enrolled in two classes--one lasts the full term and the other is only five weeks. The shorter one is a seminar about being a graduate student. It is labeled "701" which should have been a hint to me when I was first taking classes...I've taken 711, 721, 702, & 712 so far. The first class I enrolled in was 788 which turned out to be the first class for PhD in Ed.Psy. that my friend urged me to take with her. It was really good--really hard, but good. And I learned a lot of things that have been really helpful in my subsequent classes. But, sheesh, I felt like a Kindergarten kid in there when everyone else revealed their multiple master's degrees. I was the only classroom teacher in a room full of women who were all in supervisory positions in the district.

But, last night's first class of 701 was the "Ah ha!" moment of my graduate school experience. The purpose of the class is very specific. One is to introduce us to the Educational Psychology department of the university and the faculty (next week is an actual gathering, catered, with the 17 members of the department). These are the people from whom we choose our committee to guide us through to completion of our project/thesis. Also the seminar teaches a quick course in APA style writing (how to correctly cite references and compose for research reports). We also have to pass an on-line program to certify to work with human subjects in a research setting--yes, an actual certificate. Then, we must create a CV for ourselves (curriculum vitae = professional academic resume) which the professor will review and return for corrections until it is complete and stylistically correct. In order to practice the writing skills and to acquaint ourselves with the faculty and their areas of expertise, we must find, read and summarize a research article for which each of them has been the primary or secondary author, and create a paper with these summaries.

Oh.

All of my instructors in those other classes have assumed that I took this 5-week seminar already, and knew about various concepts that they referenced periodically. Wouldn't that have been nice for me if I'd have carefully enrolled in the first class, first?

But, I'm in it now and it is a relief to find it. I've been pretty confused up till now about this whole experience. One thing he stated last night is practically a quote I've said to CoolGuy. "To graduate with the bachelor's degree you get the list, take the classes, check off the boxes and, voila, we hand you a diploma." Yes, that is what I liked about it: there's the goal, I scurried about and achieved it.

But, the professor (he's actually the department chair) went on to say: "The difference at this level of the university is this: a graduate degree requires that you choose the focus for your mastery, and we'll guide and mentor you through the process."

Okey-dokey...it all makes sense now. See what doing things in their proper sequence can do for you? Confusion is cleared up, I have the view from beginning to end--at last. Just another episode in my life of not doing first-things-first. Doh.