Higher Education Observer

This is a reblog from my other blog, partsofspeaking.   You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. We’ve all heard that statement a thousand times in our lives.   It may be true about dogs, but it does not apply to people. I am a doctoral student in a program in Adult Education and Organizational Leadership.   It is an executive style program for mid-career professionals, or so it is advertised.   As someone who has already been employed in various forms of higher education for (gasp) 35 years, I don’t really fit the description of the mid-career professional.   I do fit the description of an adult learner, of course, and I found out today I met the standard of an older adult learner, a special class—I’m over 50 or 55.   I am 57, and I am sure a lot of my friends and colleagues think I am crazy or something a little less foolish for doing doctoral work at this age.   I will not be able to retire for 13 or more years, due to Social Security and getting a late start on i

If you have come to this site on my blog because it was referenced in a "free essay" site or something along that line, I have removed it.  As a professor, I am worried about plagiarism and protection of my work, and I decided after 4500 hits on this essay that it was time to take it down.  It is probably still available elsewhere, having been stolen by those free essay sites.  I have removed it from my other blog, too.  If you are a legitimate professor and want it for a class, I can be contacted through the comments section of this blog and will send you a copy.  I originally wrote it as part of my doctoral program.  My professor at the time told me it was ready to be published.  Apparently lots of others thought so too.  I imagine this will hurt overall traffic on my blog, but it's been up 4.5 years, and that's long enough.   Merry Christmas!