By: Michael Hollenbough
The fall semester has started. This means something different to each of us. For me, it means a new year where my daughter will enter 5th grade and my son 8th. A new season of nightly homework, after school sports, and birthday party invitations for my children. As part of the sandwich generation and a geriatric millennial, I am also blessed with the opportunity to provide support to my parents as they age. I have another year of fulfilling my roles as a full-time employee, a father, a husband, and a son. This year I have added another role, that of a student.
It has been almost ten years since I have been in the classroom, virtual or otherwise, and the most exciting thing about this experience is that I am not the only one. In this new JDO class of 70 budding lawyers there are many who have been given the opportunity to pursue something new when we would have been unable to do so in the traditional classroom setting. I had forgotten what a luxury it was to sit in a physical classroom with others engaged in learning about the same topic until I experienced the same classroom environment virtually.
Yet, while no modality of teaching and learning is perfect, I have been continually impressed by the other students engaged in this process alongside me. This class boasts professionals from seemingly every walk of life. Many with graduate degrees including M.D.’s and Ph.D.’s. Just recently in my criminal law class, a fellow student and practicing psychiatrist was able to help to define and explain PTSD. Students from all over the country are able to contribute their life experience in a way that enriches all of our learning. This mix of people, professions and experiences would not have been possible in the traditional classroom setting.
Aristotle once used the Latin phrase “In medio stat virtus” roughly translated to “In the middle lies virtues”. Virtue, according to Aristotle, manifests itself in action. I don’t doubt that becoming a “more educated man” counts as a virtue. Perhaps even more so in a program that defines itself as learning law and living justice. Nor do I doubt that being a good husband, father, and son is a virtuous activity. Finding this middle ground between the virtues is inherent in the life of any learner and perhaps even more so for the adult learner. Whether you are pursuing your degree directly out of your undergraduate program as a full-time day student, working your way through the program part time as an in-person evening student, or, like me, doing so as an online student, I wish you the very best at balancing all that life puts in your path, for in the middle lies virtue.
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