If you haven’t earned your high school diploma by age 60, it may seem unnecessary to spend the time and energy to go back to school. At this stage of life, professionals begin winding down their careers and don’t need a diploma or degree to find work. However, earning a GED or diploma isn’t simply about getting a job. U.S. News spoke with three seniors to find out why it was important for them to finish their education later in life.
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You Can Set an Example for Your Family
Michael Knutson hasn’t been unemployed since he started working at age 14. So he certainly didn’t need to earn his GED at age 59 to hold down a job. However, the Dickinson, North Dakota, resident felt it was important to set an example for his children and grandchildren. “I couldn’t ask them to do something I couldn’t do,” he says.
While Knutson was an honor roll student, he dropped out of high school after ninth grade. “When I was at the end of eighth grade, my mom and dad divorced,” he explains.
In the wake of that event, Knutson rebelled. He left school and started working full time. Through the years, he’s worked in construction and oil fields and has served as the volunteer fire chief for his community. He continues to work in retail today.
When some of Knutson’s daughters struggled in school, he became acutely aware of his own lack of formal education. He began to take classes at night, and just weeks shy of his 60th birthday, he completed all four tests needed to earn his GED.
“I didn’t do it because I needed it for work,” Knutson says. Instead, he did it for his family and to prove to himself it was possible. While he regrets missing out on high school social experiences and the relationships and reunions that come from it, he is content knowing that he now joins the other 90 percent of American adults who have a GED or high school diploma, according to 2017 Census Bureau data.
You Shouldn’t Give Up on Your Education and Intellectual Development
At 70 years old, Joelle Boope of Carol Stream, Illinois, doesn’t have a high school diploma. But unlike other older Americans without diplomas, Boope thought she had earned hers and has spent decades trying to sort out what happened.
Her story starts in 1966 when she was a student at St. Benedict High School in Chicago. Near the end of her time there, she became pregnant and got married. While she wanted to go on to college, her parents were not supportive of the idea and encouraged her to raise a family instead. “I thought my parents had my diploma,” Boope says.
Fast-forward 22 years: Boope began working at a telephone company and wanted to earn an associate degree for a promotion. However, when she went to St. Benedict High School to get her transcript, the school said her parents still owed $120 for tuition. Without the money to pay that bill, Boope let the matter go. In 2006, Boope again tried to get her transcript. This time, she paid the $120 dollars but was told her record was missing a half credit in literature. She started a correspondence class to allow her to complete the course by submitting assignments through the mail and earn the needed half credit. However, she found the sections on Shakespearean poetry to be difficult, and again her plans of finishing school were delayed.
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The saga seemed to be near a close when Boope called the company Varsity Tutors for help last year. The firm connects students to professional tutors and sent Boope someone well-versed in Shakespeare. The tutor helped her understand the meaning of the passages that had previously eluded her. However, when she tried to submit assignments, she was informed that the class from 2006 was now considered outdated and not eligible for credit.
Today, Boope is hoping to retake the class and finally get her high school diploma. It’s been a long road, but one she wants to see through for herself as well as for her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. “I want my kids to know how important it is to finish what you start,” Boope says. “I was a single parent and raised my kids,” she says. That didn’t leave much time to pursue completion of her diploma.
However, now as a retiree, she says, “I think I can do this.”
You Can Embark on a New Path and Continue Lifelong Learning
Sometimes, earning a GED later in life can take you to unexpected places. That’s been the experience of Murray Peer of Tucson, Arizona, who has found a new calling as the result of finishing his education. Now 74, Peer didn’t leave school because he disliked it. “I quit school because I had to work,” he says.
Later, he learned that night school was an option, and he continued his studies in that way before entering the Air Force. The military promised the chance to earn his GED, but then his mother needed help at home. Peer received a hardship discharge, which is granted to those who show a demonstrated need to return home, and he left the military without having the chance to finish his education there.
“Back then, you could get into college with an entrance exam,” Peer says. While he never did get his GED in the military, he was able to enter a Bible college and earn a diploma to become a minister. It wasn’t until 2015 that he discovered he might need to go back to finish his early education. “I applied to be a defensive driving instructor,” Peer explains. The defensive driving classes help people avoid points on their license, and instructors have to be certified by the state. To be certified, Peer would have to show he had a high school diploma or the equivalent education.
For Peer, that meant it was time to finally get his GED, which he subsequently earned at age 72. He didn’t go on to become a defensive driver instructor, but he did find that school was more enjoyable and easier than he had anticipated. He continued at Pima Community College in a behavioral health certificate program and is now working toward an associate degree.
“Right now, it’s for the joy of learning, for my own fulfillment,” Peer says, but he has found new opportunities as well. He works as a receptionist with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and hopes to become an advocate after getting his degree. He’s also become an adult education ambassador and met with lawmakers in Phoenix to support legislation that will help other adults continue their education. “I try to encourage anyone to go back to school,” Peer says.
[See: 10 Tips for Working in Retirement.]
For high school students and young adults, going to school may seem like a necessity to get a job and support a family. However, for older Americans like Knutson, Boope and Peer, finishing school is less about money and prestige and more about a love of learning and the determination to finish what they started.
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Why You Should Get a Degree During Retirement originally appeared on usnews.com
