“‘Cause I’m free as a bird now…” These lyrics have never seemed so true to me and my situation. I know that it might seem to be silly to consider finishing one semester of leveling-type courses a significant achievement, but for me, it is. I’m happy to have financial accounting and the math/stats class in the rearview mirror. These were both classes that I think will end up being completely different in their application for me than they might be for the rest of my classmates, but they helped me do some things that I think will be valuable in addition to the course material.
First, they got me thinking in a business mindset. It’s like a whole different language, and just as when a person learns a new language, immersion will help you pick it up fastest.
Second, it helped me get back into the pace of there being right and wrong answers. Now, at seminary, I would say that there are some very wrong things that I hear, but I’m being asked to write argument papers, arguing one direction or another, without necessarily having a mathematically provable wrong answer on the other side.
Third, it helped me surround myself with a certain kind of people with a certain kind of background. My professional background has prepared me completely differently than that of some of my other students, and it has been interesting figuring out how we can all help each other. I’m finding out that everyone has different experiences that have brought them to this point, and all of these experiences are able to somehow help.
Fourth, and I think most importantly, I have learned the value of asking and receiving help from my classmates. Not that all of our work has been done in groups per se, just that they have been an invaluable resource for me as we have all done our individual homework. Some of my favorite help is the kind that doesn’t give me any answers, but helps guide my thinking to how to get there for myself. Sometimes, professors just won’t have time to explain everything in class, but my classmates get a concept anyways. I imagine the business world is something like this, working on teams, with everyone bringing their background to the table, and working to achieve a common purpose. For me, that’s how the best of church staffs have been, and that’s the way that I try to run my church staff. I hope they would say that is true.
So, while the official, graded learning has been good, so have some of the habits that I have developed along the way. That’s a kind of learning that is just as good to have, I think.