https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/71d132e45265e1b8f8ab59fd3c265bdb.pdf ecb5d57077790a1749b58c9259351aff PDF Text Text Over-30 students Over-30 students find way back to school Text by Connie Braundmeier and Mar� Rogers Mrs. Ruth Carter is the mother of three children, the grandmother of four, and works full­ time as an assistant librarian at Assumption High School in East St. Louis. She is also an SIU-E night student working toward a degree in English with a minor in library science. Tom Hammond is a divorced father who works full-time as a deputy sheriff in Madison County. He realizes the need for law enforcement officers to have more than a desire to enforce the law. That is why he is a part-time student at SIU-E majoring in Human Services. He wants to understand the sociological and psychological motivations of crime, so he can work more effectively with criminal situations. ' Like Hammond and 9irter, about 1700 SIU-E students are over the age of 30. Of this number a little over half are women, according to the registrar's office. The over-30 student returns to or begins college for three general-reasons. One group is made up of persons who feel a need to return to college because they find · ,• themselves at an impasse in their careers. They can go no higher on the promotion or money scale and find they must seek other, more opportune job possibilities. This group makes up the majority of night students attending SIU-E. ·They hold full-time jobs, often have families, and spend two to four nights -' '\ Ga,ySuhl a week attending classes. Changing careers is often a heartbreaking, desperate move, but the majority of older students fitting into this category find the return an enlightening, even refreshing venture for their general outlook on life. Probably the largest over-30 group is the housewife and mother returning to school after a long absence raising chil­ dren. These mothers do not return out of boredom due to chil­ dren attending school; they return to fulfill their own potential. A University News Service article which appeared in area newspapers during the fall quarter 1974 told the stories of several housewives returning to school after a long absence. One woman interviewed from St. Louis County looking back on her 28 years as a "household engineer" said, 'I enjoyed it, b,u t now it's time for me." The third category of over-30 students includes those persons who have retired from one career and are seeking something worthwhile to fill their time with, whether it is the aim to get another job or not. To get an idea of the breakdown of over-30 majors, the Admissions Office at SIUE ran a computer print-out of a sampling of 859 students in this category. The vast majority listed their major as undecided. Most of these students were 56 Gary Suh/ �taking less than eleven hours, the amount required for a full­ time student. From there the majors broke down into much smaller fragments with the greatest concentration in elementary education (60). The two nearest to this were business administration (51) and accounting (46). These two concentrations are most ideally suited for over30 students, according to the departments, because age has little impact on job opportunities. From these major concentrations the number decreases rapidly. Psychology numbers 32, nursing 29, special education 27 and management science 23. After these the concentrations break down ·into scattered groups. Mathematics, music, engineering and art each have small groups of over-30 students. How does the older student get along with his fellow younger students? Very well, it seems. From the older point of view, Mrs. Rena Altenritter, in the University News Service article, said that 19-year-olds do not look down on mature students in the university classroom. Nursing major Camilla Laughlin (above} studies in the library. Older students listen to a Goshen Lounge deb9te. (opposite page}. Mary Anne Tillman (foreground} is leaning toward a mass communication major. Behind her is Verlin Smith, also a mass comm student. Next to Smith is his wife Doras who is not an SIU-E student. "Young people are much more encouraging for us to do our own thing (hat our own peers," she said. From the regular college-aged student, much ·the same opinion is expressed. Mrs. Vickie Heinemeier, a 20-year-old civil service worker who takes courses on .campus, said "Older students are not shy, they speak out when they have an idea or an answer. I think they care more than younger students .do about learning. They want to learn." Larry McNamara is a 21-year-old senior majoring in busi­ ness administration. He sees many older students in his classes and believes they have advantages over the younger students. "In business the older students have a big advantage because they are already out in the business world and know what is going on." Many reasons bring the over-30 student back to college, but all the reasons eventually focus on the essential purpose of SIU-E - learning. 57 �Over-30 students Everett Davis: back to school after 40 year break Text by Marty Heires Sitting behind a desk in the reference section of the library, 56-year-old Everett Davis looks more like an instructor than a student. He is attired in a green turtleneck sweater and dress slacks, and his checked sportcoat and overcoat are draped over a study desk behind him. He studies a book on the desk in front, which makes his dark, heavy-framed glasses all the more pronounced and does little to hide his sparsely covered pate. But Davis is not a teacher, and on this Monday morning he is doing what other conscientious students are doing, resear­ ching a term paper. Even though he has been away from college for years, education is not new to him. He comes from a large family of eight children who were very academically inclined. , "I have two brothers and two sisters who have retired out of the school system," he says. Indeed, if it were not for World War 11, Davis himself might now be a teacher, playing the part which he, appearance-wise, is so well suited to. He began studyingt for the teaching profession at SIU-C in the 1930's before enlisting in the lllinois�ational Guard. He ser­ . ved in the guard for five years, working his way up to the rank of captain at the close of the war. He and his wife, Kathryn, had already had their first son, Mike, by the time Davis completed his service. He then did not consider the teaching profession a very promising vocation. "I was not too impressed with the income teachers were making at the time." But Davis has always regretted not finishing his education and now, after an interlude of over 40 years, he is back, really back, 24 hours-a-day worth. Until the fall quarter, 1974, he had only been able to attend SIU-E on a part time basis and in so doing picked up eight classes. After fall quarter he now finds himself just a few hours away from a B.A. in English. Of course 40 years is a long tirhe to �ait before returning to school, and no one knows this better than Davis. te·rtain things always held him back. One of the most important was money. "I could not take off and go to school without any money coming in," he says. "The reason I am able to do this now is because my wife is working. She has been for the last 15 years." Davis says that he is also at a stage in life where mo.st major financial predicaments are behind him. For instance, he has only his 21-year-old daughter, Mary Kay, at home. She attemls McKendree College in Lebanon on a music scholarship. Son Mike, 29, works for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Naples, Italy. Bruce, 17, is working on .� master's degree at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Bob,:who is 19 and married, attends the Gateway Bible College in St. Louis. Davis, a longtime insurance agent and resident of Collins- 58 ville, says he has just recently been able to take the time to complete his education. "My wife has thought all along that I should go back and get a degree," he says, "but you get caught up in the stream of life and any thought of jumping out and going back to school is out of the question." "No one thing made me come back. The urge is there and then you go." Davis says he felt he owed it to himself to finish his college education because his four brothers and sisters have master's degrees while his son Mike is nearing completion of his B.A. and Bruce is getting close to his master's. Now that he is back, Davis has not only experienced little difficulty, but is enjoying himself immensely. "I do not think anybody with a reasonably active mind should have any trouble going back to school. It has always been easy for me to learn. I have a quick mind and a good memory." �Davis thinks the only trouble a returning student might have is when a course he is taking is based on a prerequisite course which he might have taken years ago. The only trouble Davis has had was when he was attending classes on a part time basis, he occasionally did not have time to complete all of his reading assignments. That's not a problem now. "\ climb right into the pages of a good book," he says. "\ get much more pleasure from reading than I do from watching movies or television. My ultimate hope is that I get a chance to read all the great books that I have never had a chance· to read." But it is also this great ability that Davis has in literature that he feels is not one of his more endearing qualities. He sometimes feels that he is talking too much in class·and that the younger students are just waiting for him to make the first move. He is not afraid to make a mistake, but feels the same is not true of most other students. Davis is also aware that his viewpoints are sometimes in direct contrast to those of the other students in the class. On several occasions, he says, he felt like a real outsider whom the other students considered a reactionary, while he considered the other students too liberal. "In my years I have found that people have to ac­ commodate themselves, to some degree, to the world as it is," he says. "This is the main area of difference between my view­ point and that of the other students." Everett Davis finds little difference between students regardless of age. Davis (above) discusses an assignment with some of his younger classmates. At top of page, Davis relaxes with his piano at home. But all-in-all Davis is really excited to be with and arnund young people, and even though his opinions are sometimes opposed by the .younger students, he says such clashes do not occur very often. Have students given him any trouble because of his age? "!,ell no.. Most people have been very con­ siderate of me and h,ave appreciated being in class with me as I have appreciated being with them." Then too, Davis is in senior level cl.asses and most of the students he comes in contact with mean business because graduation is near for them. Davis freely admits that he is pretty im­ pressed with his classmates. As for developing friendships with those classmates, Davis lias really not had the time to get to know anybody very well. When he was going to school part time he was kept busy by his insurance business. Now with a huge class load he has little time for anything but studying. He describes his relationship with students in his classes as "a little bit like the fleeting friendships I made in the military during World War II. I met many wonderful guys during the war and I used to correspond with about 20 of them. Now I ge't Christmas cards from two of them." He attributes this difficulty in getting to know people to the metropolitan flavor of this campus, and to the way people tend to go around as a "sort of faceless group." It is from his four children that Davis says he has been albe to get-what he considers a good insight into the way younger people think. Indeed this insight must have increased Davis' enjoyment of the educational experience. He loves both people and ideas and says, "In my present state of mind I can't visualize that I would ever quit going to school." 59 �,George Gregory A 73-year-old SIU-E student Text by Janice Law George Gregory, an anthropology ma­ jor at S/U-E, is 73years-old. Here he is shown relaxing at his Litchfield, Ill. home. Davis recently joined a car pool so he would not have to continue driving 40 miles to class each day. 60 After 56 years of working for the railroad, George Gregory switched tracks and took on another role - that of a full­ time student. Not just as another student, mind you, but as the oldest student at­ tending SIU-E. George Gregory is 73years-old. Or is it 73 years young? Gregory is a junior at SIU-E and plans to graduate with a bachelor's degree in an­ thropology after the spring quarter of 1976. "After graduation, I may go on for my master's . SIU-E does not have a master's program in anthropology, so I will probably do my graduate work in history which is my minor," he said with pride. A resident of Litchfield, 111., Gregory retired from the railroad in 1972, and in the spring of the same year registered at SIU­ E. "I always wanted to go to college, but never had the opportunity as a young man," he said. He had to quit high school in 1916 due to his father's death. His older brother was with the Army in France at the time, so as the second oldest in a family of six he took his first job at the age of 15 as a railroad agent. "Within a few months after my retirement from the railroad my wife died and this left me at loose ends. My daughter then suggested that I begin college since I had always said that I wan­ ted to. This sounded like a good idea, so I did just that." The Assistant to the Director of Ad­ missions at SIU-E, D. W. Wilton, was Gregory's first contact. Wilton said that one day in March, 1972, Gregory. walked into his office and told him that he was 71-years-old and wanted something to do with all of his time, so he had decided to come to SIU-E to study archeology. �Over-30 students Wilton was both amazed and im­ pressed. He explained to Gregory the procedure to follow regarding his ad­ mission and registration at the university. Since Gregory had never completed high school, he was required to take the General Educational Development Test (GED), which is accepted as a substitute for the high school diploma. Gregory passed the GED test with high scores and then, with some hesitation, registered for 11 quarter hours of General Studies classes. Wilton said that though Gregory was a bit apprehensive at first, he adjusted beautifully within a few weeks, and he remains a very energetic student. Gregory has made straight A's several times and maintains an overall grade point average of 4.23 with 116 hours completed. When choosing his major in the spring of last year, Gregory had to settle for an­ thropology since SIU-E does not offer a major in archeology. Born December 26, 1901 at Karnell, Ill., Gregory has lived most of his life in the state. While working as an agent and operator for the Wabash, and·the Norfolk and Western railroads, he, travelled ex­ tensively in Illinois. His travelling has provided interesting background for his an­ thropology studies. "I had to choose anthropology as a major in order to study. archeology. I've always been interested in archeology, and I had read ·a lot about it before I ever star­ ted studying at SIU," explains Gregory. He has worked at the excavating ·sites in an Indian Village near Cottage Hills, Ill. for the last two summers with fellow an­ thropology students and·Dr. Sid Denny, an SIU-E anthropology professor. Gregory's main interest lies with North and South American anthropology. He especially enjoyed the research he did for a class paper he wrote on the problems of the Brazilian Indians. When asked about his reaction to the young kids of today, he commented, "I don't think there is any basic difference between the young kids of today and the young_ kids-I grew up with. There are some that have habits that I don't like, but there were also kids with habits I didn't like when I was growing up." Gregory has felt at home at SIU-E almost since his first day on campus. "The kids at school treat me just like another kid, and that's fine with me." He attributes his success as an elderly college student to his vast amount of previous reading. "I read my whole life, and college is just more reading," Gregory said. Although Gregory claims reading as his favorite pastime, books do not monopolize his time. Occassionally his evenings are spent working as a desk clerk at a motel near his home, and many of his weekends are busy with fishing or hunting trips. Litchfield is located 40 miles north of the Edwardsville campus, and until last quarter when he began riding in a carpool, he drove himself every day regardless of the weather. It was reported that during last winter's ice and snow, he did not miss one single day of classes. Distinguished as the oldest student ever at SIU-E Gregory is described as a delightfully interesting individual by fellow students and friends. 61 �Over-30 students Return to school is worth the trouble By Nora Baker A few dozen people applauded. I had just been elected president of a local women's liberation organization. I made a brief speech about women moving into the mainstream of life, about them fulfilling their potential to the best of their abilities. As I spoke, I felt decidedly uneasy.What was I doing to live up to my words? Earlier that same day, a dozen different people had applauded my winning fifth prize in a local bridge competition. What was the difference? I thought. I didn't deserve applause for either event. While I truly believed in the cause of women's liberation, I was not an outstanding member. Most of the other women possessed multiple degrees and were working at challenging, worthwhile careers.I was a college dropout twenty years ago. For a long time, I had been killing time, aimlessly drifting. I had held a variety of jobs whenever times were lean, but mostly I stayed home, prepared gourmet meals, and did \ needleworl<. I nurtured lovely potted plants. I bought antique bric-a-brac. .,, When we moved to Edwardsville three years ago, I was impressed by the number of older women who were enthusiastically taking courses at SIU. These were mostly on the graduate level, but the preponderance of women my age who were getting out of club and volunteer activities because of the pressures of education was impressive. One day, half as a joke, I suggested to my husband that I, too, might go back to school. To my amazement, he was enthusiastic. I abruptly changed the subject and said nothing more for the next few months. I had always wanted to be a journalist.When I first entered college in 1951, I was discouraged from this on the grounds that it was no career for a lady.I was steered' into ia liberal arts program. 62 After I married, I discovered at' the local em­ ployment agency just how valuable a year of college with a concentration in liberal arts was. They put me to work in a factory. I always wrote. At one time, I supported my family by churning out true confessions under a number of pseudonyms. My ego was boosted when I wrote for little magazines.I got nowhere. The immediate catalyst for my return to college was a visit from my nephew. He had made plans·to enter SIU-E and I helped him with the preliminaries. At the last minute, however, he changed his mind and returned to his home on the east coast.The idea of college had now become fixed in my mind. My major fears were of ridicule and hostility. How would young students react to me? Could I compete? Was my mind so stagnant after twenty years of nothing more challenging than balancing the family budget and reading cookbooks, that I would be unable to concentrate, to memorize, to absorb? Would younger students resent me? Laugh at me? I prayed they would simply ignore me. From the beginning, the encouragement of my family has been a major factor in my continuing education. Without them, I could not have gone to school.My husband and teenage sons have been truly supportive, making tremendous sacrifices and changing their way of life to help me. My fears about fellow students were un­ founded.From the first day, I met nothing but frien­ dliness and help. I needed help that first day, literally having to be led by the hand through the confusion of registration and textbook rental. During that quarter, I didn't know many people. I never set foot inside the University Center, feeling too alien and out-of-place.I realize now this was in my own mind. I was embarrassed because I was older than most of my professors. I was secretive of the fact that I was friendly, socially, with many faculty wives ... afraid of seeming pushy or seeking favoritism. I yVas rrght about mind stagnation.I had to read everything four and five times before it remained · 'fixed in my brain. I developed an ulcer. I lost a lot of sleep. Memorizing facts became a traumatic ex­ perience. My second quarter, I met a lot of people I had been in classes with the first quarter. We now had something in common ...survival.I began to make a few friends.I saw people to say "hi" to. We now use a lot of TV dinners and frozen piz­ zas at our house. Beds don't get made unless the owner wants the bed made and does it. I used to turn socks inside out for the laundry so lint wouldn't show on them; now, we all have linty socks. My sons brag to their friends about my ac­ tivities, their friends' mothers have told me so.My husband admits he's "proud of my guts." My mother does not complain so much that "at your age, you should forget all that nonsense and con­ centrate on my welfare." Our house is no longer a hotel for every relative in the continental United States. I haven't had a decent night's sleep since I star­ ted all this over a year ago.I've dropped out of a lot of clubs and I don't go to church very much any more. I don't attend PTA meetings. I've developed a second ulcer and I'm a vitamin junkie. I've lost seventeen pounds. But, when I graduate, when all the worries, pressures, frustrations, aggravations, bad food, long hikes from the parking lot in incredible bliz­ zards, deadlines, exams, crises are finally over . I'm going to miss it. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Focus Magazine: Issue 9 Excerpt Subject The topic of the resource Focus Magazine Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 1975