School
I wrote about this in my previous post. I was quickly humbled by after failing or getting less than mediocre results in my Accounting and Tax courses by midterm season, and consequently failing my finals – the courses I needed to graduate. Needless to say, I can say that I didn’t have a strong foundation at the time and was swept with visions of grandeur.
I was so caught up in the doing and “Getting Things Done” without true and genuine understanding of the curriculum that was set out for me. There was a quote in my Accounting textbooks that said, “When you’re studying the trees, don’t lose sight of the forest.” I couldn’t have set it better myself in how I was approaching my courses. I was consumed with the “micro” of things, overlooking the big picture and overarching concepts that linked everything together.
Several things I had tried to salvage my semester was to have regular visits with my professors to get more personal attention and ask more questions to gain a better understanding of the material being taught in class. The funny thing is, I had sabotaged myself in this regard (be it out of pride or stupidity) by being “too scared” or “ashamed” to ask questions and gain rapport with my professors.
Further, I tried to model myself and align myself with students who were doing well in class and talked to them in a genuine fashion in terms of getting help and pointers on how they approach the course. Ultimately, I didn’t follow through because I was so caught up in feeling always behind and inadequate. This is something that I’m fully conscious of and will be looking out to squash completely for the New Year.
From both of those instances, there were HUGE lessons learned there after not following through on what I originally set out to do. I should have been going to those meetings without pride or ego intact to further engage myself in the material and not only keeping up with my material but staying ahead and actively engaging the material (no matter how ‘uninspiring’).
After reading the book, The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin, one chapter that particularly resonated with me was Losing to Win, which entailed going into periods of renewal and taking breaks. In case my case, I had gone to school four 4 years straight summer school included and never taken a break, after reading the book I decided to take the semester off to give my brain a badly needed break from accounting and tax. It would have been foolish to go into the new semester in September 2008, failing so many times to the point I had lost count. I was running on empty and had nothing else in me to give.
As of writing this post, I’m reading What Smart Students Know by Adam Robinson, recommended to me from my friend David. From what I’ve read so far, it’s a holistic approach to learning and offers concrete strategies that leads up to an entire attitude change on how we should view learning. I’m excited to implement the strategies offered in the book and I’ll share my thoughts and experiences along the way.
Now with a fresh new outlook and a renewed energy and spirit, I’m ready to take it on with new strategies to learning and approaching my remaining classes for the new year.
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