surrounded by kids

lukesmom

And that's the truth.
I started back in college last month. It has been 20 years since I sat in a classroom. I was sure there would be plenty of mature students there but out of 20 in my class there is 1 - me!
The average age in my class is 18 and that's the truth. How shocked I was to walk into the canteen and see them all with their heads down in their phones. Hardly any interaction. I suppose things have changed but boy I wasn't prepared for how much. They are all lovely in my class but I'm the only one with kids, the only one with my own house, the only one who knows who wham were.
Anyway. Anybody in the same boat here feeling lost at sea. Lost in a sea of snapchat, contouring and fade haircuts. Oh and the complaining! They complain so much about how the classes drag on and they wish they were at home or anywhere else to be honest. I'm delighted to be there.

dobbs2210

lukesmom wrote: »

And that's the truth.
I started back in college last month. It has been 20 years since I sat in a classroom. I was sure there would be plenty of mature students there but out of 20 in my class there is 1 - me!
The average age in my class is 18 and that's the truth. How shocked I was to walk into the canteen and see them all with their heads down in their phones. Hardly any interaction. I suppose things have changed but boy I wasn't prepared for how much. They are all lovely in my class but I'm the only one with kids, the only one with my own house, the only one who knows who wham were.
Anyway. Anybody in the same boat here feeling lost at sea. Lost in a sea of snapchat, contouring and fade haircuts. Oh and the complaining! They complain so much about how the classes drag on and they wish they were at home or anywhere else to be honest. I'm delighted to be there.

What college and course are you in?
Very similar situation myself, started just September gone by as a mature student studying Marketing and business management. Assumed there would be 5 or 6 mature students in the group but there is only 1 and he is even 5 or 6 years younger than me, unmarried and has no kids. Entire group are either just out of leaving cert or a year over leaving cert.

Found the dynamic of mixing with the group much more difficult simply because there is oceans of age, time, maturity, attitudes, behaviours etc between the entire group of very young students and myself. Personally, I'm really enjoying the challenge of going back to Education after being out of it for 17 years.

Even the way in which the young students talk and interact I tend to struggle with. They don't particularly speak or are strong conversationalists. They do what I call 'cloud speak' where they are utterly glued to smartphones and just randomly answer and cloud speak without being fully engaged.

The lecturers are very helpful and one or two in particular are putting in an extra concerted effort with me as they understand I'm the only mature student who is married, have a kid, a house and all the usual strains and life pressures.

Some of the group miss so much of the college lectures because they are hungover or too lazy. Why bother?

Ditto the complaining about class exams, assignments or projects is just constant and it's so frustrating. Like what do they expect....IT'S THIRD LEVEL COLLEGE. What were they expecting?

We just did an integrated group project in pods of 4 per group. We had to design and develop with evidence of precedure of a marketing strategy and plan for an Irish business organisation who want to break into the European and continental markets as well as protext their trade in the UK against the potential pitfalls of brexit. We had 1 full day (lectures cancelled) to go to the library and complete it. We then had to present it to a panel the following morning.

I literally had to drag the 3 others to the library and had to essentially almost do it all without input or work from the 3 others (all 3 just out of leaving cert). They were effortless in their approach. It carried a weighting of 20% C. A. into ALL our modules but they didn't want to bother doing it. I really enjoyed it but would have loved to have done it with older students who would be more engaged.

Even in the presentation to the panel they didn't engage like they should.

Sorry about the detailed rant but it's just triggered inside me when I noticed you're enduring something of a similar nature.

lukesmom

Yes very hard as you say oceans of life between us. I feel like a dinosaur most days. I get on great with them all but they have so much life to live until we can properly converse I feel. They moan about assignments and half of them never have them in on time. It feels like I'm in 6th year of secondary school. I think I have fallen into the mammy role a bit and am conscious of not wanting to get trapped there:)

goz83

I'm doing an Engineering PLC course and I can absolutely relate. The average age is 18 and two of us are mature students at 34 and 35. My assignments are usually done within a week and the majority of the class forget they have assignments until the last minute. I help where I can, but I have to remind myself that I am a student and not their Dad.

lukesmom

That's the thing I think we need to step back and let them make their mistakes. A few are just there because they are being made to by parents. One guy keeps messaging me asking me to print out his assignments for him and I've done it twice already. He's only 18 and I hate saying no. My own son is 15 so not a huge difference although he seems to have a lot more intelligence than a few of them. 😂

January

lukesmom wrote: »

That's the thing I think we need to step back and let them make their mistakes. A few are just there because they are being made to by parents. One guy keeps messaging me asking me to print out his assignments for him and I've done it twice already. He's only 18 and I hate saying no. My own son is 15 so not a huge difference although he seems to have a lot more intelligence than a few of them. ��

Say bloody no, you're not his mammy.