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This year, all three of my children are enrolled at the same college. It is a unique and exciting time for them. As I contemplated their collegiate experience, I suddenly realized that they have hardly ever known a time that I was not enrolled in college. I have several degrees, four successful professions and have been a college student for most of their lives.
Curiously, at 46-years of age, I have not yet decided what I want to be when I grow up. Perhaps I simply cannot satiate my desire for knowledge. Either way, the fact is that I have a compulsion to master certain disciplines. Somehow, I have always been able to work this life-long quest for knowledge into our family life. Twenty, and even fifteen, years ago, this was not so difficult. I merely attended college full-time, worked full-time, and was a full-time father and husband. Now, even though the kids are nearly on their own, I lack the desire to continue this hectic pace. But I still have the desire to learn.
Distance learning was the answer to my dilemma. I could continue my studies and my career at the same time, as I have always done, but I could fit it into my schedule rather than the school's. Honolulu University afforded me this opportunity.
While sitting in class many years ago, working on my first doctorate, listening to a professor's lecture, I remember thinking, "I could just read his book. It would save time and I would likely absorb it better." Now, I have experienced what I thought and have concluded that it was correct.
However, distance learning is not for everyone. My girls are thoroughly enjoying their on-campus college experience. I understand and respect their enthusiasm. Nevertheless, as both a student and an educator who has experienced learning in many formats and for many years, I firmly believe that learning is best achieved when the student has a desire to learn. There is nothing magical about sitting in a classroom, listening to a lecture that is virtual verbatim from the book. Education is not something that is done to you; it is something that you do. Classrooms and professors are merely tools to facilitate education. They do not educate.
Fortunately, even necessarily, education is achieved in other ways as well. Mentorships and distance learning are some of those other, age-old methods. Indeed, many of the graduate programs of even the most prestigious universities are such programs.
Desmond Allen, Ph.D., M.Div., MBA
This letter is written pursuant to my graduation from your institution's post-graduate program. Although my formal training is in education, language, literature, and theology, and I have served as a former teacher and administrator in both private and public education as well as a business owner and manager, I am currently an Associate Director of one of our country's largest ministry centers and the campus for Summit College.
I wish to express my gratitude to yourself, Dr. McMilan, and Naty Mercado for your encouragement and facilitation during my time of study. Honolulu University allows students to work and develop at their own pace, including accelerate study achievement during vocational hiatus and longer course durations while vocationally active, thus affording me the opportunity to satisfy an intellectual pursuit which evolved during the process of previous doctoral studies. Your programs are contemporary in both content and context, as they serve to meet the needs of students in terms of the needs of today's society; the programs are designed to engender critical thinking on a personal basis, thus expanding one's worldview.
The faculty and staff of Honolulu University are both a resource and encouragement as they readily avail themselves to offer direction and counsel in a friendly fashion while fostering the fulfillment of the student's self-motivation. The most effective learning experiences are those based on the interest of the students; the research components of the HU programs allow students to pursue subjects in which they are interested, rather than those of interest only to faculty supervisors.
Thank you for the availability of such a program; wishing you success in the future. I anticipate future communication with you (and possibly Dr. Gladden) when I visit Honolulu November 18th-21st of this year.
Yours
truly,
Peter Gibson, Ed.D., Ph.D.