Story of a Baby Boomer’s work and education pursuits: How much similar and different are the issues and challenges today?

Here is Mark, born at midpoint of the post World War II baby boom to working-class parents in a typical city neighborhood located in the Northeastern U.S. Mark is a middle child with three siblings. He attended a Catholic elementary school within walking distance of his home and a Catholic high school that was a relatively short bus ride to another typical city neighborhood nearby. 

After graduating from high school, his parents, both of whom earned their high school diplomas through GED and never attended college, advised Mark to seek work anywhere he could possibly find it, stressing, in particular, that good jobs could be found at the automobile manufacturing plants, on the railroad, or with one of the largest steel plants in the world - all of which were located relatively close to where they lived. 

Strong work ethics were already instilled in Mark’s mind by the time he was 10 or 11 years old. His older brother had a newspaper route, and he became his brother’s helper at the pay scale of one dollar and 25 cents per week. Later he took over the route when his brother got a regular job as a young adult. During the winters, Mark would go out with a shovel and offer to remove snow from his neighbors’ driveways for whatever they would pay him. During the summers, with a bucket and squeegee in tow, he would solicit the businesses located on the main street of his neighborhood to wash their windows. Every Sunday he shined his father’s shoes for a small amount of pocket change. 

This was a world vastly different from today. The family telephone was a party line shared with other families. They had only black and white television for a good number of years. Transistor radios were considered high technology. There were no computers or smart phones, no Internet.

Mark learned quickly that working hard was the key to success. Getting a higher education was not stressed by his parents, however, because they were not familiar with colleges and did not have any means whatsoever to fund any kind of higher education pursuit. Mark was pretty much on his own to find an independent pathway that could sustain his adult life with adequate food, clothing and shelter. 

After high school, trying to find a decent-paying job was a challenge, primarily because he and his family did not have any solid connections with people who could perhaps help get his foot in the door with some of the larger industries. Consequently Mark struggled with low-paying jobs, working as a waiter, low-level construction worker, and a wide variety of other low-skilled jobs that really had no future prospects for meaningful career advancement.  When he reached his early twenties, Mark came to the realization that he had to get a college education if there were any chance of moving upward. So, he enrolled in the local community college. For independent living quarters, he rented a room in a house owned by some senior citizens. For work, he tended bar and waited tables at a local restaurant. For transportation, he had managed to buy a beat-up used car that was difficult to maintain, especially during the harsh winter months. 

The Cost of Living and Higher Education Today

While Mark was pursuing his education during a much different time, the issues and challenges he experienced are not much different than what many low-income, first-generation students are facing today. Meeting tuition and cost of living expenses, however, is more challenging than it was when Mark was just starting college back in the mid 1970s.

(More coming soon. Got an interesting story? Send it over.)