English Comp I

I'm really liking this class. It's strange that I didn't take an English Comp class in college. But when the PA program admissions looked at my transcript, they marked that English Comp was one class I needed. It was the only class I could get into by the time I applied to the city school, so rather than waste time, I took it.

I was immediately impressed by the professor. He engages the class and makes it interesting without being boring and just reciting a lesson. I have to say, it's not easy when teaching an evening class full of students reflecting the gamut in every demographic. He has freshmen who are probably 18, adults returning to school (me), and a wide range of accents to steer around. We are a real melting pot of NYC. Or more precisely perhaps, Brooklyn. It's amazing. Some students have such thick accents, it hurts my brain listening from one student to another at times. The effort of figuring out what they're saying can be difficult. But I noticed Mr. R is incredibly patient. Not to say he's a push over. He once admonished the class for paying more attention to the cell phone than to the class. But he treats everyone like an adult, without ever talking down to them. And rather than getting caught up on discipline and risking discouragement, you can sense his goal is to get the students interested in writing/reading.

I wasn't sure what to expect in the class. It started off pretty basic: how to write an effective sentence, verbs, objects, subjects. I started to wonder if I were in a college class or in 4th grade. However, I realized this was a good time to really pay attention and improve my writing skills. And I found out, writing is not easy! Not that it was ever easy for me. But to write well, is such an art. Almost weekly, we have a short essay due. The class is proving to be a great refresher for me. English class was one of those courses I never paid much attention to. But with this new focus of my new found goal, it's a real eye opener of how little I really absorbed in previous school. And suddenly, I wanted to take all my college courses over again and experiment how much better I could do in them if I had really wanted those classes, rather than going through the mundane motions of: this is college; declare a major, graduate in 4 years. I really enjoy just learning. Once I'm done with these prerequisite classes, I may decide to keep taking a class just for the fun of it. Crazy, huh?