a different perspective on education....

[houseelf]

When I was home a few weeks ago, I told my Sister in Law (is that "SIL" in cyberchat?) that I was seriously contemplating taking some classes and training to become a certified Guardian ad Litem. She couldn't believe that I would possibly "go for more education". In both my dh and my family, an undergrad degree is a huge accomplishment. In our families' minds, if and when a B.S. or B.A. is acquired, that is generally all one needs for education for the rest of his/her life. In my mind, however, I could see myself going back to school for any number of different things. I almost felt that I had to justify my thoughts to her and my MIL.

It feels like my dh and I have acquired different views on education since we have begun to associate with people from different socioeconomic backgrounds. I guess that we are starting to feel a generation- and socioeconomic gap from our families. Unfortunately, our income does not reflect our new perceptions!

I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this???? It feels very odd.

Kelly

My grandfather only had an 8th grade education and my father was the only child to go to college until recently, when his sister went back to school (now that her children are in high school). I was the first grandchild to finish high school , let alone go to college....

So I guess I have a diff. perspective on this? People that don't have as many financial resources don't have the same opportunities. For my uncles, graduating high school was an accomplishment..and they never ever considered themselves to be college material (though I think that they were). There was no career counseling, etc..and so they went to work right out of high school....If my father hadn't gone into the military, he would have never been exposed to the educational opportunities available to him and would have never believed himself capable.

My mother was raised by a father who believed that girls should not receive an education...they should be kept bare-foot and pregnant! He paid for both of his sons to attend college, but refused to pay for my mom...she ended up paying her way through nursing school on a military scholarship and even served in vietnam!

My parents perspectives on education were that it was the only way to break out of the cycle of poverty and to empower women...and so from an early age, they made it clear to me that I would be going to college...period...it was never something that I questioned...

I think over the years, I also really have begun to enjoy taking classes....some of my friends are in quilting clubs and take quilting classes or self-defense classes, etc....and I prefer to take a bio class....perhaps this is explained by having different interests....I'd honestly like to take a class a semester in something until the day I kick the big bucket...it's just fun. I enjoy the challenge of the classes...but I, for example don't have the hand-eye coordination, patience or dedication that it takes to do real quilting...my quilts are usually just tied....

I also think that years ago a bachelor's degree provided people with the opportunity to really step out and get higher paying jobs...and those opportunities are definately shrinking...for example, I found an add yesterday in the paper to do something with my bachelor's degree in psychology...I would have been able to earn a whopping 23-25,000$ but had to already have 5 years of experience!!!! That's a pretty paltry sum if you consider that I could go without a degree and earn as much as a manager at Papa John's pizza like my brother..

At the end of the day, a college education is also horribly expensive now...student loans have to be paid off, and when you're looking at earning $25,000 and being $25,000 in debt for the degree (that's a low estimate) then it does make me question the value economically of the degree.

I'm with you though in that I love taking classes...many of my friends don't understand..but I think a lot of it is just different interests and different opportunities.....

Kris

[DCJenn]

Kelly-

How's this for an interesting statistic- my only single female friends are the ones with the Master's Degrees. I truly believe that there is a much larger segment that one would think that find women with more education than men threatening.

I do think that there are different perceptions of what education means based on life experiences. I happen to come from a very well-educated family- my great-grandmother had a college degree and pretty much everyone had at least a 2 year degree and there are 8 of us with Master's and 3 with PhDs. So, in all honesty, it's meaningless except for the fact that if you do something different it's quite a shocker. In my family, its expected that you will go to college and you will at least consider a Master's. Crazy!

Jenn