Odd ramblings about education
May. 12th, 2009 09:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carmenbeaudry
Formal education is a funny thing.
Great-grandma Julia went to school through 8th grade. Her sister, Henrietta, graduated 8th grade, got a teacher's certificate and started teaching when she was 14. Through the years, as the requirements for teachers became more stringent, she ended up being grandfathered into having her undergraduate degree by recognition of her life experience and (I think) taking one class. When the state of California started requiring teachers to have Master's degrees, she basically told them that either they would recognize her 45+ years of teaching, studying and learning and exempt her from the requirement, confer the degree upon her based on life experience, or she'd retire and they could suck eggs. They gave her the degree.
My Grandmother Carmen (Julia's oldest child) only went to school through third grade. She loved reading and music and being pulled out of school to help with the younger children and to work on the farm was torture for her. She was stubborn, though, and when she was told that she could go back to school if she wanted, she replied that she was too old and wouldn't do it. She read voraciously her whole life, and was a fierce advocate for education in her family.
My mother was the third person in her family to graduate from high school. She had plans to go on to nursing school, but there was no money. She worked for a year after high school and ended up marrying my dad instead. She went back to school briefly when they divorced, but that was about the time that her mother became ill, and she dropped out to care for her. By the time Grandma died, she didn't have any interest in going back.
My father joined the Air Force because that was the only way he was going to be able to do anything that wasn't farming or cutting down trees. I remember being very small and playing under my father's desk as he studied while going to Oklahoma State for his BS in electrical engineering. That's what you took in those days if you were going to work in computers, because you had to program with a soldering iron. After that, some 2 tours (5 years) later, the Air Force sent him to San Jose State for his Master's.
My sister's got a BA in social sciences from WSU. She started out at Highline community college, with her declared major Nursing. After she transferred to WSU, my father convinced her to switch her major to Business. I seem to remember her working toward her Master's as one point, but I don't think she ever finished. Currently, she's a stay at home mom and very happy.
I've started college enough times that it's hard to count, without finishing any of the times. In high school, it was taken for granted that I would go on to college, and that was my intention. When I started my junior year, I had enough credits to graduate, but the principal wouldn't sign the paperwork for early graduation. In those days, there was no way that a high school student to go to college unless they graduated early and registered just like any other student, or if they were give special permission to attend classes that they couldn't get at the high school. I wasn't able to do either. By the time I graduated two years later, I was so sick of school that, although I applied to a few colleges, I really didn't want to go. When I went to France, I carried letters from my piano teacher that enabled me to audit music classes at the Lycee' International de Foucroix. I started exploring ways to stay in Paris and study. Then, I got homesick and missing my boyfriend, and so I came back home. There's still a whole bunch of "What ifs?" about that choice.
When I got back, I started looking for some sort of training, and seriously looked at Highline's nursing program, including taking some of the prep classes, like A&P. Then I had the huge fight with my father about becoming a nurse (I still don't know what he has against nursing), and ended up moving out and looking at alternatives. I couldn't get financial aid unless it was based on my parents income and my dad refused to fill out the forms unless he approved of what I was taking. So, I figured I'd wait until I'd lived away from home long enough to apply on my own and see what happened. I ended up taking fashion merchandising classes at a private business college that's no longer around (and so neither are my credits, grrrr), until the strain of working full time, going to school full time, and having a full time social life took its toll and I ended up with mononucleosis and hepatitis A-B at the same time and collapsed for two months.
After I picked myself up from that, I met Bob and we started living together. During that time, we worked with the bands and I got the idea of going to electronics classes. I was part way through the electronics certificate program when I got pregnant with Evaria and ended up quiting. After that, I was too busy with my business, work and raising the girls to think about school.
After the car accident made it so I couldn't continue working, I went through all of the Dept. of Vocational Rehab's tests and figured out that, while I really didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would need to retrain in order to do anything. This was before it was determined that doing anything full time was beyond my capability and they declared me disabled. I went ahead and got financial aid and registered at Tacoma CC. I went almost two years before a bunch of stuff caught up with me and I was forced to drop out.
Now, I'm in a very strange place. I would like to have a degree, and it would make a few things easier. There doesn't seem to be undergraduate programs having to do with historic clothing/material culture, at least not locally and I am placebound. One of the things I found out last year in Florence, however, is that at least in Europe, what you know is more important than what degree you have. I've also got the option of seeing how much credit I can get for my life experience, and Evergreen does have a campus very close to me. Would I like to go back to school? Yes, but I don't see it happening in the near future, for financial reasons. I'm also afraid, after having so many starts that came to nothing, that this time won't be any different.
Italy_Katy just graduated last Sat. with a BS in Psychology and a BA in Linguistics. She's got a three year plan to become completely debt free before she starts grad. school, and I think she'll manage it. Yes, I'm envious, even as I'm really happy and proud of her. Hey, kid, maybe you and I can get our Master's at the same time? :-)
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Date: 2009-05-12 05:32 pm (UTC)Bleah!
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