Hola

I just finished a final. I just finished a course. I'm so happy to be done with that silly, frivolous class I paid big bucks for. The best part of the whole class was that it was only 8 weeks long. Lol

Shael is going to school with me Thursday. I'm actually pretty excited about it. I'll have company! Yay! I'll have someone to talk to (hopefully) on that long ride down and back. And since today was the last day of that stupid class, I will be getting out of my last class at 12:30. She's on fall break, so she will not even be missing any school herself to visit mine. I hope it doesn't scare her away from college now that she has finally decided to go. I'll try to remember the camera and take lots of pictures.

There is the most beautiful tree here on campus. It is brilliant! I think the trees here in NWA are much prettier than they are in NEO. How is it that that is possible? It's only about 70 miles difference. I think it's the elevation. The elevation here in Arkansas is much higher (I think) than in Oklahoma. I want to get a pic of it Thursday when Shael comes to school with me. Hopefully there won't be this huge storm in between now and then that blows all the leaves to the ground.

Thinking of leaves falling to the ground, let me tell you a little story about a couple of my classes.
The first one, Life Span Development. We are discussing spanking. Hoo-rah a subject I'm familiar with. It seems this prof is proficient in putting words in your mouth that you never intended to say. So, if you don't know where you stand on a subject, if you aren't 100% positive, he can make you out to look like a fool. I made some comments, well, heck, I'll tell you what I said. I said that spankings are not punishments, or shouldn't be, they are a form of discipline. And a life time without discipline will eventually lead to punishment, such as jail, the ultimate punishment. And the prof said "So, you're saying that unless people spank their kids they'll grow up to go to jail?" I said "no, I didn't say that. I'm saying that undisciplined kids are more apt to grow up to have behavioral problems that may (or may not) eventually lead to some jail time. He all but said "Moving right along". Today in that class we were still on the same subject and I wanted to get on with it already. He didn't like what I had to say today, either. Gosh, what's up with me? Today he asked the question "Have you ever seen someone mistreating their kids in Wal-Mart and intervened?" His point was that most people will not say anything, just turn the other way and ignore it because that's the social norm these days, to ignore children in need of some help, simply because of "privacy". If a child is acting horrible and the parent spanks them in Wal-Mart, I applaud them. If I see a child that is being mistreated, that's a different story. So, I spoke up. "Yes, I have said something to a parent who I thought was mistreating their child in Wal-Mart". He looked over and said "WHO SAID THAT?" lol. It's me! It's me! It's Earnest T! He wanted to know what I would possible have to say to a parent in Wal-Mart so I told him the truth, and this is truth, I have done this in the past. A couple of times, to be exact. I walk up to the parent (usually the mother) and say "Excuse me, I don't mean to interfere, but is there anything I can do to help you? You look like you are getting a little stressed out". This will let that parent know that what they are doing is being noticed by others. So, if the parent really isn't a child abuser, which in most situations is probably the case, they have time to step back and take a look at how they are acting and reacting to their child/children. If they are in fact, a child abuser, they may take a second look at what they think is "normative" behavior and question themselves "is this not acceptable?". I don't know, that's my perspective.
My point being, I know what I believe to be right, and I know what I believe to be wrong. No glorified teacher with a PhD is going to sway my beliefs.
The second one, Adult Development (which is the bad class this semester), we had this discussion last Thursday about immunizations that help and I brought up the fact that I didn't allow my daughter to receive the HPV (or whatever) vaccination. Well, that started up a round of discussion that took up the rest of the class. My mind was already made up, there was no way anyone could sway me, no matter what they said. I knew what I believed and I was standing firm. After class my prof took me aside and said "I hope you didn't think I was preaching to you". I don't care if she was, she wasn't going to change my mind.
So, where was I going with all this? I am so grateful that I am an adult student, compared to a student fresh out of high school. Yes, fresh out of high school would have been so fun, with so many activities that I could have done then that I can't do now. But, I would have been like a leaf blowing in the wind. At the mercy of the wind to move anywhere. As an adult, I know my principles, my beliefs, my morals, my faith. Yes, I am constantly learning, but my core being has been solidified. I know what is me, I know what makes up me. I am confident in that. Maybe some would say bull-headed and stubborn. But, that's ok. Better to be bull-headed and stubborn than flighty and moving from one belief to the next when something better sounding comes along.

So, I don't know, maybe I don't make the best kind of student every teacher dreams of having. I ask those questions that make those professors have to stop and think and either be honest and say "I don't know" or fluster about making stuff up. Both have happened to me. I use to think at NEO that it was just out of touch instructors, but now, I think it's just me. lol. I ask those question that make you go "hmmm".

Did you know that scantrons cost 3 cents less here at U of A than they do at NEO? What's up with that? (Apparently, I'm all out of questions that make you go "hmmm") And they are full page scantrons, too, not just those skinny little shrimpy things that NEO uses. Although, I'm totally okay with those skinny little shrimpy things because they only have 100 questions on them and the full page scantrons have 400.

Holy crap, I just about turned this chair over. Would that not be the highlight of my humiliation? It's not very stable and if you lean back just a little bit too far it's starts getting a little unstable.

Maybe one of my questions that make you go "hmmm" could be:
Who's grand idea was it to create the word lisp with an "s"?