Educational Psychology: Why is it interesting?

When I come up with notions like “I really love learning educational psychology” and “(certain topic) is really interesting” I will be seen as a weirdo who just landed from Mars, a Martian. I don’t care really. I know myself. I like lots of things and I really love learning. Just so you know, I got B+ for that subject and the only thing that pissed me off during that time was that my classmates who played with their fancy iPhones got better grades than I did. Well I don’t want to care about that because I know I learn a lot of things in that class. The weird thing about me is that I am curious and interested about lots of things. I like Physics, Chemistry, Calculus, and Algebra –the lots. Although I know I suck a bit at few of these subjects, I don’t care. I love learning about them. 

When I was in school, I had always wanted to be a judge, a lawyer, a marine biologist, and the last ambition I had was to become a veterinarian. Every time I learn new things that fascinate me, I want to make them my life career. Growing up, I have never stopped asking about everything. Even though there were moments when people got tired of my questions (more than hundred times, I swear), I teach myself to never give up. There are moments when I feel so dejected because my questions are not answered, they are rendered as mediocre, unimportant, and stupid, and they are just too tired to answer my questions. I am not going to lie. 

That is one of the reasons why I love educational psychology. The lecturer, even though could not really teach well, he never shot my questions down. He had always been there to entertain my endless questions about Oedipus complex, and Gestalt theory, and how human has been conditioned since birth and all. There were also moments when we had heated arguments in class because I did not agree with his examples. He, unlike most of the teachers I have met in 20 years of learning, has never discouraged me from being curious. I understand that some of us might be deeply affected by the lecturers when learning. We usually succumb to the quality of the lecturers; if their quality of teaching is really bad, we decide to just ignore them and choose not to like the subject and end up having effed up grades. Don’t do that. The waste is on you, not the lecturers. For once, do something for yourself. Love a subject not because of the lecturer, but because you know that subject is interesting and you want to know more about it.

Another reason why I really like learning about educational psychology is that the topics that we learned are all fascinating. You know that feeling when you really like something, you don’t mind going the extra mile just to get it? That’s how I feel. I don’t mind spending hours and hours between the book shelves in the library to find the best references for the assignments. Sometimes, I go online just to read on articles that are related to educational psychology like bullying cases at school just because I want to. I am not even learning this subject this semester. But I don’t mind doing it.

Apart from these two reasons, I love educational psychology because some of the topics help clear up on certain issues. I have been looking for reasons why some people turn to homosexuals, and only after learning about Oedipus theory, I got some ideas on how homosexuality is triggered. This subject teaches me why humans act certain ways. It also educates me on why teenagers are so rebellious and hormonal; and why some children turn into certain kind of adults. It’s interesting. These are all theories and even though there have been few research conducted, they are not really proven to be legitimate and true. Even though they are theories, some of them actually make sense in my brain.

I have this one philosophy that I have been holding on to since I was 17 –to learn for the sake of knowing instead of for the sake of getting great grades. I find satisfaction in being able to know and explain in detail about subjects in educational psychology. To those of you who are interested in venturing in educational psychology, or pure psychology, my advice to you is to not focus just on finding jobs and getting good grades. I believe that when the time comes, you will get that job, or you can even create one. This is a very interesting field and it would be a waste to go after it just for reasons like getting great jobs. I wish you all the best and may the force be with you.