Piaget's Theories: I think he was on to something after all.

I want to focus on Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory on this blog entry.  You’ll know why in about 900 words from now. 

When I was watching the videos and reading chapter 13, it brought back many memories for me.  I’m 49 and have been doing this college thang since I was 26 years old.  Now much of that involved taking part-time classes while I worked full-time, but it literally seems like I’ve been attending college for most of my adult life with just a few breaks in between. 

First, there was Gaston College which took me 3 ½ years instead of just two to get my AA since most of it was done part-time.  When I finally received my AA in 1993, I enrolled in the Gardner Webb University Goal program and it only took 4 years to complete that degree because I was working full-time. 

 I finally graduated with my Bachelor’s of Science in Business Management in 1997 and thought I was done.  Wrong!  I decided to become a teacher, so I taught at a private Christian Academy for two years, teaching everything from high school science to high school math to high school history – none of which I had any business teaching with confidence and certainty, but it was OK.  It was a private school.  All you had to do was have a 4 year degree ( it could have been in Library Science),  follow the script in the book and you were fine.  Actually, the books were really quite amazing.  The only problem was that teaching at that private school  wasn’t fulfilling my calling as a music teacher. 

I had been a music person since I was 5 years old and all I ever wanted to do was teach music.  So why did I get that darn BS degree in Business?  I told myself it couldn’t hurt if I ever got signed to a record deal because you’ve got to have business knowledge if you’re going to keep your money, right?  Of course, the real reason was I was scared of the music degree.  Playing music by ear and being able to read music was one thing, but taking college music theory and history and learning how to transpose chords and stuff scared the hell out of me.  Plus, it required….you guessed it, more college.  Still, I wasn’t happy and I wanted to teach music, so something had to give. 


So, I went back to teaching privately, but this time I was teaching music, so it was OK. I taught privately for five years and even ran my own music academy in there somewhere, taking a college course from time to time during that period.

One day, I received a phone call and the next day I was interviewed for an honest to God music job at an honest to God public school which meant lots more money and finally, happiness.  But I had to go back to college and do lateral entry work to get the job.  So I enrolled at UNCC in 1999 as a music major and as bad luck would have it, I was an awesome music teacher but couldn’t complete the lateral entry requirements my third year of teaching.  I still needed 2 music history’s and 3 music theory classes and they were not offered online or at night at UNCC.  Actually, I had never heard of an online course before.  However, the rules state that if you can’t complete the work in three years (which I never understood, because it takes 4 years to get a degree even if you’re a full-time student), you’re out. 

Eventually of course, I was able to get my license as a music teacher when just three years later I was called out of the blue to teach at West Lincoln High School in 2007.  I would have to enter the lateral entry program again (Really???), but not to worry…I had 3 whole years to complete the program. 

So off to Winthrop I went and this time, mainly because I had one heck of a department head helping me, I finished my courses and took the praxis and was done with school forever.  (Yeah, right.)

  I was finally a real teacher with a real license and that was all I had ever wanted anyway.  I thought I was truly done with college.  I know I was truly tired. 

Then, out of nowhere, that job was suddenly gone and here I am getting my masters degree at Lenoir Rhyne, just 23 years after I had started my college journey.  I think this time it will only take 2, maybe 3 years at the most to get it done, and then, I’ll really be done….maybe. 

So what does this visit down memory lane have to do with Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development?  You see, every time I would start a program, I would eventually have to study this theory in a Psychology course or while taking a required Sociology class.  This is the sixth time I have studied this theory!  I should be a genius at it by now.  I definitely know that it is a solid theory and he was dead on with the stages of development. 

But in some ways, I’m still at stage one – Object Permanence, the permanence being college and always thinking that it’s gone only to find that it’s still there – it’s always been there.  And in some ways, it may always be there for me.  I’m the lifelong learner that we’ve talked and studied about so much in this course.  I’m proof that if you want something bad enough, you have to realize it’s still there, even if you think it’s not.  And it made me wonder how many college students will be or are just like me?  Attending college, learning, growing only to start over again when you think what you thought you wanted had disappeared, but in actuality, it was still right there. 

I know I went way over 300 words with this one, but 300 wouldn’t have done it, it just seemed like it would.