A few of my friends have returned to school and are pursuing degrees – or advanced degrees. I admire them greatly for it, but have never been particularly tempted to do so myself.

I have a basic bachelor’s degree, a BA in English – technical communications emphasis. I only worked in the field for a couple of years, but the skill has served me well throughout my career.

One friend has an executive MBA. A few have MBAs in telecommunications management. Another has her masters’ in project management. Others are working on resuming and finishing their bachelor’s degrees – general studies, information science, teaching, even math.

There’s nothing I am passionate enough about to spend 2-4 years on pursuing in graduate school. Sure, I like creative writing and fine arts – but not enough to pursue an academic degree in the subject matter, plus the return on investment isn’t really there.

In spite of my disregard for the whole going-back-to-school experience, I get to live it vicariously.

I’m the proud parent of a college sophomore. He’s pursing a degree in digital media engineering at the local community college, with a possible 4-year transfer. He typically sails through classes in his primary subject area, but some of the broader classes are a bit of a challenge.

His 8am class this fall is Effective Human Relations. (Are any positive human relations possible at 8am?) He’s writing the first of several analytical papers for the class, this week a critical analysis of a scholarly journal article on a management topic.

He chose “constructive criticism” as his topic and found an article on “Constructive Criticism and Social Lies: a Developmental Sequence for Understanding Honesty and Kindness in Social Interactions.” You’d think such an article would be pretty interesting; you’d be dead wrong. Academic writing can suck the life out of anything!

Tonight, my job begins with helping him understand the directions and ends with proofreading. No actual writing or – ugh – footnoting is required.

I sure don’t miss those days!