Education

Oh it’s my, I mean it’s my identity, in many ways. I mean it’s who I…I think similarly to the idea that when I became immersed in women’s studies, it changed my life. I mean it changed how I saw my world, it changed how I saw myself, it changed how I saw relationships, it changed how…it just, it became a lens through which to understand everything. So, it became part of me, my identity as a feminist, my identity as a  -- I always knew that I wanted to, I mean at least for a long time I knew that I liked psychology, and I knew that I wanted to teach, but this women’s studies piece added so much more to it than I had imagined. I mean, I think my work means…I think it’s an incredible luxury that I get to do what I love, that I, that I have the privilege of being able to do this work that I have wanted for so long. But for me, my work is not just like a…it’s obviously not a…you don’t get into this to make money, right? So it’s not like I’ll ever be rich. But it’s the personal and the political and social commitment; what I study, what I research, and how I teach, for me. It’s like who I am.

And so the chair was here and I’m sitting in the chair, and something or other was on TV, but neither of us was interested, and he went and stood over there [points toward kitchen], and I heard when he said, “Grandy, you’re like a man.” I said, “What did you say,  my cookie?”  He said, “You’re like a man.” I said “Come my darling, come.” So I shift in the chair, and pull him in beside me and I said,  “Honey, the Father gave me only sons and now grandsons, so I have to be tough and strong.” And we both went silent. And the next day when I got up, that was one of the first thoughts I had. The child say you’re like a man, he didn’t say you look like a man, you’re like  a man. And I say “Glory hallelujah, I have been affirmed!” Because      I have wanted affirmation and here it is, my four year old grandson  gave it to me.

I love being in education. I always was able to get along well with kids. Most of my career was spent with high school aged kids, some with middle school. I taught seventh grade for a while. But even in most of my administration, I was a college counselor for eleven years so I was working with seniors in high school, younger ones too, but primarily seniors. And I loved having the opportunity to help kids focus on where they were gonna go, what they were gonna do, and working with their families.  When I was a kid my father always said that each generation should leave the world a better place then they found it and I guess I thought if I could help young people do that, then you know…that was a good thing.

I took banking courses, and then I took medical courses, and then I worked for the state and you couldn’t advance if you didn’t have degrees.  And secretaries at that time took on a lot of responsibility, but they could never go further than the secretarial slot because they didn’t have the degree.  So I went back to school and I was on the twenty-year plan.  You know, I would work during the day and by that time they had – a lot of the colleges were offering night classes.  So I went to Quinsig [Quinsigamond Community College] for a couple of years and then I transferred to Northern Essex Community College where I got a degree in medical record technology.  So then I could be the boss of a medical record department in the state system, with an associate degree and accreditation as a medical records person.  So then from there I went to Worcester State College and I got a degree in Health Science, but I was retired when I got my degree [laughs].

Being part of an immigrant population, and it’s funny you ask this ‘cause I was just talking to somebody else about this, there were not any of the bells and whistles you have today to help kids.  You walked into a classroom, you were labeled “immigrant.” You were put at the back of the room.  And I was telling someone the other day that I was sitting in the back of the room and as immigrants came in, they kinda put us together, just in the back.  And the girl they partnered me with, she came in and she was actually, literally off the boat from Greece.  And they put her with me and they’re like “You can help her” and I’m like “Oh my god, it’s all Greek to me” no pun intended.  [Laughter]  You know, I – and I’m thinking to myself, “How do I help -you know I speak Finnish, they’re not even close in language at all. 

Well, again I think I took the safe way, I didn’t take risks, I wasn’t a risk taker. I did what was expected. I think that I sort of fell into the work that I do, so I continue to look for my purpose and remind myself that life is a journey; it’s not a destination, you don’t arrive, you’re always continuing that journey.

My mother would say things like, “You can do whatever you want to be,” or she’ll say, “You can do anything.” I think with women, because we don’t have a long history of doors being open, that you have to be very specific. So, when I work with students I try to focus on the gifts that they have.

I really loved it here [Assumption College]. I have made, I made a great group of friends and, in fact, this past weekend I was on the Cape with my, my “Assumption Girls” as I call them. There’s seven of us that go away at least once a year and you just feel like these are women that I really bonded with, but we’re different, we live in different places, we’ve had different experiences as far as marriages or anything else, but when push comes to shove these are people that I can count on in my life.

I never had a sense that girls were less than, but when I went to college I was an editor of the newspaper and I looked around the board table one day and realized I was the only woman on that board of twelve board I thought, “Where are all of my smart female friends? Why is this the case?” A bunch of us got together and started talking about it and we decided to start our own undergraduate feminist journal our senior year and in that process I realized how much resistance there was to the word feminism and to the idea of women speaking their minds and having interest in the politics that might concern women. So I think that I never was aware of it personally until I was at this very unenlightened elite university and suddenly you threw out the f word, feminism, and there was all sorts of resistance. And I think that made me even more interested in finding my own definition.