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I'm Going Back to College?

2023-01-31 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Global development, Projects) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, heavy topic

Jet-lagged after football in London and Wales, John says he was never a good student and only later learned that school is for understanding the universe; he describes falling in love with learning (tuberculosis), praises Hank's Study Hall pay-after-the-grade model, and says he has signed up for two March classes, American history and the math he dreads.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Football weekend; the seven-year-old soccer analogy for going back to college; never a good student; the point of school

  • ★ John had the best weekend ever watching football in London and then Wales; now he is home, jet-lagged and going back to college. — 00:00:00 · London
  • ★★ Watching his children's games, John thought that, though a very poor player, at 45 he could score lots of goals against seven-year-olds, since even 'good' ones are terrible. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says that is how he imagines going back to college: he has less free time than at 19 but is far more capable and prepared. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says he was never a good student: school felt like the price of living life, which was about friendships, obsessive crushes and binge drinking. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Falling in love with learning after school: a year of reading about tuberculosis and its injustice

  • ★★★ John says he never understood that the point of school is not a degree or meeting expectations but to better understand the universe and your place in it. — 00:00:58 · education
  • ★★ After school John fell in love with learning; over the last year he has read a ridiculous number of books about tuberculosis, though it is not his job. — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says that in 2022 more people died of tuberculosis than of homicide, war, malaria, typhoid and cholera combined. — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis, malaria
  • ★★★ John says tuberculosis, almost always curable, still kills a million and a half people per year. — 00:01:27 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John asks why he grew up thinking TB was a disease of 19th-century poets, and why the world is not on fire with the injustice of tuberculosis. — 00:01:27 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John explores these questions in his free time for fun, which would have been hard to explain to his 19-year-old self. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — More capable than in 1999; admitting he romanticizes college, which also means classes like math

  • ★★ In 1999 writing a three-page paper took John real effort; now he can do it, and writes one every Tuesday. (playful) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John admits he romanticizes college: he imagines only courses fitting his interests, like a social history of tuberculosis, not required ones like math. — 00:01:56

00:02:35 — Praise for Hank's Study Hall and its pay-after-the-grade model; John signs up for two classes

  • ★★★ John calls Hank's newly announced Study Hall, a Complexly, ASU and Google partnership linking educational YouTube videos to college credit, brilliant. — 00:02:35 · Hank Green, Study Hall, Complexly, Google
  • ★★ John explains that a Study Hall course costs $25 to sign up, and only after finishing with a grade do you decide whether to pay for college credit. — 00:02:35 · Study Hall
  • ★★★ John says this can lower the cost of US college and, critically, spares students loans before they learn whether a program's approach suits them. — 00:02:35 · Study Hall
  • ★★★ Overwhelmed by how awesome it is, John has signed up for two Study Hall classes starting in March, one in American history up to 1865. — 00:03:04 · Study Hall

00:03:28 — Dreading college math; Study Hall links; astonishment at what Hank brings into the world; sign-off

  • ★★ John's other class is math: he favours math and feels math lovers' wonder, but it is very hard for him; he barely passed high school math with Cs and Ds. — 00:03:28
  • ★★ John does not know whether he can pass college math; they will find out starting in March. (unsure) — 00:03:28
  • ★★ John tells Hank he continues to be astonished by the stuff Hank helps bring into the world. — 00:03:28 · Hank Green

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a channel comment John points viewers to GoStudyHall.com and the Study Hall YouTube channel and asks them to tell friends who may be interested. — creator comment · Study Hall
  • ★ In a channel comment John apologizes for the video's inconsistent lighting, which he did not fix because he is taking it down a notch in 2023. (playful) — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: education · higher education · Study Hall · tuberculosis

Also: Projects: Complexly

Organizations: Arizona State University · Google

Concepts: association football · binge drinking · cholera · homicide · jet lag · malaria · mathematics · Student loan · typhoid fever · war

Places: London · Wales

Also centred on higher education: College Advice From an Expert · Is College Worth It? · Why is College So Expensive? · Life is not a Job Training Program · Your Brain Gets Smart, but Your Head Gets Dumb · US College Students Need Help

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