My Dad

Three days ago my Dad died.

He was a major force in my educational history, so I'm going to share a few things with you concerning how he inspired me.

He believed passionately in lifelong learning. When his eyesight failed him, he read audio books and when his hearing failed him he read audio books AT HIGH VOLUME. He never stopped taking in new knowledge.

When I told him I was considering applying for university at the age of 27 he said, "about bloody time!" He could have said 'play safe and keep your job', but he didn't.

He also believed that nothing's worth doing if it's easy. When I was at uni this phrase drove me nuts. WHY COULDN'T IT BE EASY??? He'd shrug and say, 'because then anyone could do it'.

I hope you have someone who encourages, provokes, inspires or supports you. I'll be back at uni next week so if you want a lend of any of my Dad's words of encouragement you've only to ask.

I know he'd have liked that.

My thoughts this morning

Do you feel like a student yet?

How do you become a student?

Sign up to a course? Well that's the first step but fundamentally that means you've completed some basic admin. I don't think that makes you a student.

How about attend some lectures? Well you can be in a room and learn next to nothing if you're not engaged. Attending lectures could mean you've managed to read your timetable-it doesn't make you a student.

Write assignments? I suppose that's part of it, but you can probably pass things with the minimum effort. I've passed things without learning much of note. It didn't make me a student.

Here's what I think - students are created from a desire to learn new things, to test the parameters of our own understanding and to take pleasure in the slow revealing of new knowledge. That isn't always straightforward, in fact it's often the exact opposite. We don't like uncertainty or feeling out of our depth. Well guess what? That's part of becoming a student too. It shouldn't be easy.

We have all at some point read academic material that we haven't understood but persevered nevertheless. That's how you become a student.

We have all juggled the academic and the personal and somehow managed both areas. That's how you become a student.

We have all regretted starting something but refused to give in. That's how you become a student.

But eventually, slowly, through progress that sometimes feels like root canal treatment, you increase your understanding.

And one day you wake up with a working knowledge of your topic and enough confidence to tell other people about what you know. Guess what? At that point you're a student.