By Richard K Munro

I have attended a few colleges in my life and got some benefits from them. The main barrier was COST. American colleges are very expensive. One should only go, in my humble opinion, if one has clear goals. It is important, for some careers, to have a formal diploma or credential. If I were young today I would take a practical course in Nursing or Engineering or Computer Science. Medicine or Law are good careers but very long and very expensive unless one can do them via the military. I many Navy nurses, doctors and Marine lawyers in my day. I would recommend to any young person to do at least one tour of duty or to join the National Guard or Reserves and for many this could be the way getting some college without incurring an enormous debt. I know a young man to worked and studying for ten years to finally get his BS in engineering and now has a very good job. But his first job after high school was in a supermarket in produce. But he kept on studying at junior college at night to get his AA and then finally transferred to a four year college.

When I did become a teacher in my early 30s I was a mature individual and so was able to handle the stress of the classroom and academic obligations. In high school I had studied five years of Spanish and two years of typing and those two skills helped me enormously in my professional career.

As a teenager, I studied some classes near to home at Seton Hall University and also a summer in Soria Spain via the University of Northern Iowa which was very influential in my life. The program no longer exists, sadly. I commuted to NYU via the 77 bus and the PATH train and it was (then) relatively inexpensive. I got a solid undergraduate education (BA with honors) but thought graduate school was too expensive and I really didn’t want to be in the classroom anymore. So my New York education was over. I took advantage of my time in New York to enjoy the museums and culture and baseball games (frankly the thing I miss the most) and made many side trips to Washington DC. (I was in the Marine Reserves and trained at Quantico.)

I wanted to see the world and have some adventure. So I joined the Marines and later lived in Spain and worked as a construction worker in the West. I always studied when I could and did some military history courses via American Military University. I found it very difficult to live, work AND formally study so usually my education was via books as an autodidact. I had some freedom because I always avoided accumulating school debt.

After a number of years in construction and later at the Bank of America I thought it would be best to go back to school to get some formal certifications. I had studied computers and accounting at the American Banking Institute and some of those classes were at Seattle University which at that time was across the street from the bank. I first thought I could get an MBA but then thought a better fit for me was to get a 5th Year Teaching certificate 4-12 which I did by working nights and going to school during the day.

The hardest part was student teaching (which I had to pay for) while working full-time to maintain benefits for my family and support them. In order to be as employable as possible I also got a certificate in English to go along with my Spanish and Social Studies certificate. I worked or studied seven days a week. for two years I cam home at 10 or 11 PM M-Thurs and 7PM on Saturdays. I did not watch television for about two years! I only saw my family briefly most days. On Sundays I was with my family from about 7am to 1pm but the rest of the time I had to read, study, and type school papers. I had dinner with my family only Sundays and after dinner, I stayed up as long as necessary to be ready for the next week.
I took the CBEST (California Educational Skills test) in Math and English and passed it. On April 26, 1989 I was interviewed at the Tacoma Dome by an administrator from Arvin High School (Kern HS District) in California. They expressed mailed me a contract as a bilingual Social Studies teacher Varsity Soccer coach and JV Baseball coach. In the meantime I planned to get my MA in Spanish via the University of Northern Iowa in Soria Spain in the summers so from 1989-1991 I got 30 credits, got a Bilingual Certificate of Competence and a California Clear Credential. That was the most expensive educational project I had ever done and cost about $25,000. I paid about $10,000 in cash in 1989 but borrowed the rest. It took me about 10 years to pay that off but in the meantime I was able to support my family, buy a home and get tenured in the Kern HS District. From 1991-2003 I really wasn’t able to study formally because I was working nights, summers etc. In 2004 an opportunity opened up for a Fellowship to the University of Virginia and I studied there for one year (30 credits) but even with the Fellowship it was extremely expensive as I was maintaining two homes our family home in California and a one-bedroom apartment in Charlottesville. I tried to save as much money as possible by walking to school and not having a car. I rented one occasionally but traveled mostly by bus and train. At first I hoped I might finish my PhD but it was just too expensive, For me to have continued I would have had to quit my job, cash in on my retirement and move the entire family to Virginia. And I wasn’t getting any younger I was 49 in 20O4. So I maxed out my salary scale cut my losses and went back to my full-time job in the Kern HS District. I have since done many GREAT COURSES on literature and history and have been studying languages via DUOLINGO. I intend to do self education for the rest of my life. I am tempted to do on line classes in a more formal setting at times the problem is the cost and of course, I don’t need any more degrees or formal certification, I am retired (I do some part-time translating for lawyers or tutoring) and I don’t think I will ever work again except something I really love to do.