Back to School at 50 08/18/2011 The university professor holds up a picture of Henry Kissinger, and asks if anyo ne in the class

knows who it is. I can answer, but the younger students faces are blank. Yet another amusing reminder of how, at the age of 50, I am quite possibly too o ld to be back at school, this time an Australian university. When I announced that I was trying to get a scholarship, my children giggled at the thought of me in class with their peers. I have to confession it is rather funny, me there wit h my gray hairs on display in classrooms run by extraordinarily young professors. My girls chuckled over the prospect of their mom trying to sleep in a dorm with rowdy students. They demanded that I sharpen my fashion sense, a hopeless expectation although a t least I don t turn up in thongs (that s Australian for flip-flops ) like some students simply b ecause classes are only a short stumble from their dorms. Mama, you wear stuff that went from fashionable to outdated to fashionable again! my eldest said. So that means all my vintage stuff is OK? But as the first grueling semester rolled on, finally reaching an end, it was no clearer to me just what age has to do with student performance. Sure, I did forget the schedule for one or two classes, and I might have lost the way once or twice or, well, a few times. But I never expected I d achieve less than the other, younger students; indeed, it would be embarrassin g if I couldn t do better than those young kids who are strangers to Kissinger s famous mug! Young and Old My frustration was likely similar to that of some of the younger students feelin g I was falling behind in the readings and short on background knowledge (shameful for an experi enced journalist!). Expectations that, far from the rush of the newsroom, I would have more time to ponder assignments proved completely false it s been chasing deadlines just the sa me. But perhaps it is the age factor at play when it comes to the physical challenge of overcoming laptop arm and shoulder cramps, rapid white hair growth in the first months and not being able to stay up all night (why would I I thought I was on holiday from work?). Sure, we all know about ergonomic typing habits, but you just tend to forget abo ut them when poring over books, wondering if it s possible to digest them in the remaining minu tes before the deadline hits. I hope I ll manage the next semester better than the first. But at any rate it s goo d that young people today seem to realize the need for further education much faster than I d id so much so that they need to be reminded to get a job and some off-campus life experience b efore continuing on to postgraduate classes. I had already found hanging around campus to complete an undergraduate degree wa s too long.

A memorable line from a veteran journalist (I forget who) was that journalists, who are expected to relate well to people, are increasingly distanced from the public as they pur sue higher and higher education. They get too posh. (Back in the day, there was no such thing a s a journalism degree. Noted names in journalism came straight from high school after a stint a s delivery boy or newsroom office help.) Not willing to spend more time studying seemed to form the perfect excuse, apart from I m busy , My kids still need me , etc. and why not just read books in my spare time? Um, possibly because the growing rows of unread books bought in that spare time remain unread , as I usually just crash on the couch when I get home from work. Friends and colleagues repeat edly reminded me it was high time to recharge by not merely hanging out at campus. So finally I did, wondering at the same time how others do it juggling their studies with managing kids and work. Universities have developed coursework programs for working people, so I headed fo r this one, with yeah! no thesis and all done in only one year. Oops, it turns out it s a packe d program demanding clone technology to manage at least three deadlines all at once. Since I have no access to such techniques, I ll just manage as best as possible, with more gray ha irs spiking out in class. Of course, it has been a great opportunity to be back on campus decades after th e last time, and at 50! But this time around, I also need a bit of extra equipment to get me thro ugh the dreaded Canberra winter extra strong arms, an anti-flu nose, more coffee and a closer ey e on the wall campus calendar which is now covered by not very fashionable coats. + Ati Nurbai ti The writer is doing a master s degree by coursework in Asia Pacific Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, on an Australian Leadership Award scholarship.