I am not an "A" student.
I spent some time this weekend thinking about my role as a student, and types of students.
The movie The Paper Chase shows a nice example of the difference between an “A” and a “B” student … but I think it deserves some expansion for my purposes.
An “A” student (the protaganist in The Paper Chase) actively strives to keep up with, to drive forward through the material, prepares for class and tries to make the most of it. He’s a voracious learner, and the academic environment is perfect for him because of it. The “A” student is willing to discard the entire rest of his being for classwork … to spend a semester at a time doing nothing but studying if need be.
Then there’s the “B” student. The “B” student does the course work, but doesn’t attack it as vigorously as the “A”. He’s alert and attentive in class, but probably not participating, not driving the discussion forward. He’s sort of like the Paper Chase’s protaganist before he turned around and kicked into high gear.
Then there’s the “C” student. He’s the sort of guy who just kinda shows up. He does the work, but doesn’t really do it to the best of his ability, doesn’t take it that seriously… he’s got something else on his mind most of the time. Not to say he doesn’t learn the material — he does, well enough to get a passing grade and move on. But there’s not the degree of dedication, the passion, the gusto that the “A” student has, and there’s not even the attentiveness of the “B” student.
Not to say that the A/B/C student will earn that grade. It’s not so much about what grade you walk out with … a “B” student can walk away with an A, a C student is content with a B in most classes.
Which brings me to me. I’m not an A student. Not by any means. Given the choice between working on a class project and working on a blog post, forum post, leveling in DQ8, moving the plot in a replay of SMT:DDS2, or reading the material for tomorrow’s class … I’m going to do anything but reading the material. I might work on the project, I might not. I’ve already by this time put some time into all of those other things … but haven’t thought once about cracking a book or firing up a pdf and trying to pre-learn to prime myself for class, to earn some half-points. None of that at all.
Am I a “B” student? That’s a bit more questionable. The B student doesn’t really drive like the A student does, but he’s at least attentive. I guess I’m sort of on the borderline between the two … sometimes I’m attentive, I’d like to be all the time, but sometimes I just sort of wander off … or forget to go to class for a week.
What does this have to do with anything? Really, it’s just me coming to grips with my own priorities. I have never really seen classwork as the first priority, because I’ve always had something else going on. In high school, I worked all senior year, but I did a lot of classwork for the “good” classes, too. I read for Great Books, I did the homework for Chem, I did some of the homework for Calc.
But as long as I’ve been in college, I’ve been working. There’s always “got to get the next paycheck” … right now I’m experiencing mild guilt because I’m not at work right now, due to the fairly heavy rain that’s been going on all day. I feel like I should have gone in and set up my outside-net activedirectory test… but instead I’m just kind of sitting here, wasting time.
So yeah … I guess when work is the most salient task, everything else sort of takes a backseat. That’s the thrust … I should take some more loans and just quit my job outright, and focus on being a good student. Or, well, should have done that 6 years ago. Whatever. Now I’ve sort of made my bed already.