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Tyler Lindner | Northern Star
Non-traditional students aren't so easy to pigeonhole
Editor’s note: This is a student from the University of Idaho responding to their newspaper’s running of Christ Elsner’s “Non-traditional students should think before they speak” as a syndicated column on Nov. 16.
Slap! Ow! Slap!! Ow!! OK, OK, enough already.
Hmmm, as a non-traditional student, I need to think before I speak? All right, looks to me, a certain Chris Elsner, whose column originated in the Northern Star, reprinted in the Argonaut, needs to heed a bit of his own advice. After all, the worst vice is ad-vice. Or, might he be a candidate for a serving of “open mouth, insert foot and chew vigorously” pie? Either way, the slaps in the face that the column dishes out are some that very few, if any, “non-traditional” students in the nation (not just here at University of Idaho) rightfully deserve.
Case in point: As a veteran, I helped guard the right of said individual to denigrate me and my fellow vets. Just because you have the right to do so, does it have to mean that you should? Hey, Einstein, discretion can be the better part of valor. Take a hint. Veterans’ educational benefits are not a “courtesy” of the federal government. They are bought and paid for with our blood, sweat and tears upon fields of battle, defending your rights and your way of life. We volunteered our very lives so you can sleep well at night and not have to worry about some lunatic busting down your door in the middle of the night and doing unspeakable things to you and/or your family at behest of the government. Try joining our ranks and see what it means to be baptized in blood.
OK, so some of us are single women with children, but then again, so what? I’m a divorced, non-custodial parent myself. I wasn’t aware that single parenthood makes people members of a lower caste or some sort of lesser human being. From the sounds of things, you must be of divine lineage and had some sort of immaculate conception, or were you hatched?
So, then, what do we contribute to the learning environment on campus? How about leadership, for starters? How many times have you sat in class and had to endure the drudgery of a lecture until some non-trad piped up and started some interesting dialogue with the instructor? I don’t know about you, but our time would be better spent interacting with the instructor and creating a dynamic learning experience instead of a hypnotic, mind-numbing lecture.
As correctly pointed out, we do bring a vast wealth of life experience into a classroom. So some single-mom-non-trad showed you up and made you look like a jackass; boo-hoo, life is just so unfair, get used to it. It just gets worse from here on out. Is that life experience always beneficial to a lecture setting? It greatly depends; it may serve as an example on what not to do or say. I’ve opened my mouth a time or two and had to insert foot, chew vigorously and spit, or go eat crow in front of the instructor later. That’s how we learn – by making mistakes and then being able to recognize that and regroup and tackle the problem again. ‘Spose you’ve never made a mistake before, eh? Oh, of course not, some people just simply never make mistakes.
Let me also remind you that a good portion of the T.A.’s, tutors, grad students and other faculty on campus are non-traditional students. Sure, some of us are older than the instructors and/or classmates, but again, I wasn’t aware of the fact it makes me a lesser person and that I should have to cower in a corner for fear of retribution by younger peers. Universities would be hard-pressed to make things work without the complement of non-trads that supplement the ranks of faculty. Non-trads do bring a wealth, depth and breadth of knowledge of life, living and the world to campus that is not easy, if not outright impossible, to duplicate in an academic setting. Chris, maybe you should consider drawing a drink from that well of knowledge. You just might accidently learn something useful.
Not all of us have rich parents that are able to bankroll our education this late in life, so we are trying to get the most for time and money spent here on campus so we can go back into the workforce better equipped and more marketable in a tightening job market. Maybe you should again take a hint and a smart pill and follow suit, rather than puking your guts out at some drinking orgy and bad-mouthing your older counterparts. If you’d like to pigeonhole us into a caste, then it might be well to point out that the other option I have over school as a non-trad is to be on the dole and be a burden to the taxpayer. Since I’ve always prided myself in being productive and being able to support myself, going on the dole isn’t really much of a choice.
If anything can be said in regard to Chris Elsner’s toothsome tidbit of wit: Watch out, old age and decrepitude will always overtake youth and beauty. Some day, you might even find yourself in that boat we non-trads are in now and be wishing that your peers were a little more supportive and understanding of your position in life.
Michael W. Coey
University of Idaho sophomore, forest resources/forest products/German
» Next Opinion Article: Northern View Community resident, non-traditional student, fed up with unequal treatment