Doing a degree at the moment,
Best Parts: empowering, informative, life changing, matures you, gives you a foundation for thought and perception, sharpens critical appraisal of knowledge and data, develops independant thought.
worst parts: finances, no support from JW/troubled family, exams are hurrendous, mental stress, considersble fear and anxiety with exams, LONG hours and no evenings/weekends that few appreciate are involved- come from a family of no education, constant threat of removal from degree, insecurity until the day they hand over the degree scroll......
The best parts of a degree need cultivating and reflection to appreciate, the worst parts need managing so that one can complete the degree and function. I currently have to work full time hours on placement whilst doing all my degree teaching myself in evenings and weekends, this has been the case for 3 years now (in total will have done 7yrs in higher ed).
I wouldnt swap it for ANYTHING in the world, I love my degree/job, I get to wake up in the morning and spend all day problem solving that results inhelping people. I love what I have been taught, the reason the 'worst parts' are so bad is how much the degree matters to me, failing or being removed from the degree is more of a threat because of how much I love it. I am fortunate that I am a few months feom qualifying so the threat of getting the boot in very, very low, but it still weighs over you. I have seen friends who were 4 years into their higher ed, removed from the degree for being 1% or 2% short in an exam. Exams in higher ed, especially the more challenging degrees, are no joke.... We stopped seeking egotystically pleasing marks a LONG time ago, now we wait with anticipation to read "pass". Our degree doesnt really have a ranking system that matters, there is a 100% job success with my degree from my university, there are high paid jobs literally waiting for us, so I am lucky. Some degrees require people to not trip up in a single exam or piece of work for the whole 3 years, such as economics. Bet a 'first' in such degrees and you are made for life, have a bad week and get a poor mark for some coursework and you cant make up for it in such degrees.
I think education is invaluble, but also highly difficult. also to even get in, is such a roll of the dice. I did a pre-medicine course in the north of the Uk (there are maybe 4 of these courses in uk) with 60 people and only 12 got in to medicine, of that 12 probably 5 remain in medicine, near to qualifying. if I ever have children I will ensure they get the best, most stable education I can give them with as much support as I can afford, so that IF they choose that path , they can have the same advantages as the majority in the educational sphere, the privelaged. As much as I struggle seeing how much advantage the kids around me have, having had good educations, I would want no less for my children.
I was a JW child, who went to 8 primary schools, at age 9 I went from Welsh language to English and a whole new curriculum too, the moves were due to my parents desicions. Then I attended a high school in a very impovrished area with a very low standard of education. Our high school certificate was awarded to us by the local factory manager, they made toilet roll, I remember his speech making me think there was no way I was good enough to work in his factory. I had no idea what university was or what it did when I left school, the Jw's made it sounds bad and I had no idea why someone would stay on at school, it was Vietnam! I was encouraged to become a painter/decorator or a joiner and worked in the local frozen food supermarket, stacking freezers. The head of the joinery (painting and dec course was full) in the college nearby course said I was going to waste on the joinery course and asked me if I wanted to be in the civil engineerig class, I said "Yes !", I loved art, design, drawing and construction. Week one we had to purchase our drawing boards, our drawing pens/pencils, and a laptop to practice CAD on etc......needless to say it ended there and pioneering began, I was 16.
At age 26, after much inner turmoil realising my whole world/belief systems were a myth wrapped in a corporation, I had left the JW's and simply phoned up a college in Manchester which took me 3hrs of travel every day to attend, it was an access to medicine course. I always wanted to be a doctor since a you g boy, but never ever once considered I could do it or even HOW I could do it. I was accepted, which still amazes me. I would travel the 3 hrs for the 9am start. I had to do 6 A level (uk higher education qualifications- maths, physics, biology, chemistry, english, IT) and get a minimum of an A* grade 'with distinction' to get into medicine, in every piece of work and every exam I needed a distinction. I would then travel back the 3hrs and twice a week in the evenings I was attending evening classes to re-do my high school qualifications in order to have the minimum req for medical school in Math and English.
10 months later I was offered a place in medical school, a month after my results and I was on a train with all my belongings, heading to University...
and I have never looked back.......
