Kristen (Sepe) Erban

Think back to the start of your first formal education days.  From that first day of Kindergarten and even earlier for some, the educational system began to program you how to learn.  You were told where to sit, how you would demonstrate your knowledge of material and you were given limited, if any, choices on how you would be taught or how you would prefer to learn.  After all, good little boys and girls listen to their teachers and do what they say, correct?  Each word uttered to you by your teacher was most certainly factually accurate because your teacher knows best.  You should not question their authority or even their knowledge.  Does any of this sound familiar?

Of course it does.  It’s because over the years you have been programmed how to learn and I’m here to tell you it’s all wrong.  Why should you believe me?  Well, if you had been paying attention earlier, you shouldn’t.  Not yet anyway.  Sit back and buckle in because this class is going to challenge you to question everything you think you know about learning.  The class format will frustrate you and at times even infuriate you because if you are like most of the other students including me over the years, you will be expecting tom to stand up in front of the class and spoon feed you everything you need to know.  You expect he will spend each class relaying to you content that was carefully typed up previously in a nice and tidy syllabus.  After all, isn’t that what you are paying for?  You expect and even demand that he teach you everything you need to know to get a good grade, move on to the next class and eventually a job or additional schooling at the end of your Providence College journey.  I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is definitely NOT what is going to happen.  You cannot say I did not warn you.  You and each person sitting beside you along with all of the people tom has asked to assist will jointly be responsible for any and all learning that happens in this class.  I repeat, YOU and each person sitting beside you along with all of the people tom has asked to assist will jointly be responsible for any and all learning that happens in this class.

Grades do not matter!  Blasphemy for some, I understand.  While I am not advocating for not coming prepared for class, I am telling you that the best measure of your learning in this class is the application of the material in, and post class, and not a letter or number grade.  Again, I know you are programmed to think otherwise and for those of you that are very grade conscious, you will struggle here.

At the end of the class, if you have not come out of the other side a changed student and a changed person, I will be extremely surprised.  I have been out of Providence College longer than I care to admit, and I can tell you from personal experience that any time I spent with tom in and out of the classroom was worth the price of admission.  I learned more in those sessions than I did in my entire educational journey.  I am so passionate about the value of the journey that you are about to embark upon that I not only took the time to write this, but I also agree to assist with the class whenever I have available time to do so.

My advice to you… accept nothing and challenge everything.  Using this phrase as a guiding principle will take you far both inside and outside of the class.  Think outside of the box.  There is not only one answer to every problem.  Break the norms that you have been accustomed to over the course of the last 18 plus years of your life and you will find a whole new world of opportunity.  Sure, you might be able to find some of these typed on the back of a fortune cookie fortune, but keep them in mind WHILE you are taking the class and then look back again at them AFTER the class.  Each of them will hold true or maybe they won’t.  That is up to YOU!