Returning to education is a wonderful thing
Seamus Heaney captured the spirit and opportunity of education in his short poem about Harvard Univesity. Picture: Collins Agency
The people who go back to education later in life are heroes. They really are admirable. They reach a fork in the road and they take a brave decision. Reaching a point in your life when you realise that things haven’t worked out like they should or could have can be tough. To then take the decision to change direction, to redirect your future, requires courage and energy.
Those choices are not nearly as momentous when you are 18, even if they feel like it. Even for the 18-year-old who is homesick or shy or whatever might be, there is that most glorious thing in their favour: time. For people who go back to college after missing out the first time, time is a different commodity. It has a price.
That makes the decision that much harder. ‘Sure I’ll be X age when I finish’ is the thought that often comes to mind. Others can repeat it, even if not in so many words. There are often other negative thoughts too. The sense that a schoolroom is not a place for you is an all too common feeling.
Walking back into a classroom can be a hard and even terrifying experience for some. For many, school was a bad experience, and maybe there was never any encouragement, which undermines the most hopeful dreams. For others, life and chance and fate threw up hurdles to their educational progress that proved insurmountable at the time - bumps in the road if you will. Sometimes it was a lack of confidence, or an additional challenge in how someone learned which was the obstacle. For far too many, it was an old fashioned and outdated sense that only a certain kind of ‘clever’ could be assessed and celebrated which proved the barrier. For any number of reasons, there can be bad energy around formal learning; bad memories; negative thoughts.
So to walk back inside the doors of an educational institution as an adult is a big deal. It also is a huge practical decision. How will you pay the bills? How will this affect those I care for? Will I be able for it? What comes after? These are big questions. If your life has always been comfortable, you cannot really understand them.
And some understanding is needed. Some encouragement is needed.
Seamus Heaney wrote a short poem about Harvard University, where he was a Visiting Professor, which captures some of the spirit and the opportunity education can provide.
I love this poem, with the books standing open. It reminds us that education is a glorious thing, a sort of freedom. When you learn you grow, and so it is often said that education for the sake of it is a good enough thing in itself. I love that. And if I had a million dollars when I was 17 I would have gone to Harvard and learned for its own sake. But for many who go back to school or college, education for its own sake is not the only motivation.
Many people who return to education are both looking to learn and trying to change their lives. They go back to get a trade, to learn a skill, or to secure a certificate that will allow them to change the life of their families and their loved ones. They do it so they can be paid a bit more, respected at work a bit more, have better terms and conditions, and they do it – very often – so that their kids and family will see them achieve and rise, and in the hope that those kids will rise some more after them. And they are trying to do it with their own power. That is an admirable thing which no society can ever have enough of. But those people need more than their own power, their own effort. In this world which is full of inequality and stacked odds, they also need the opportunity and the platform to stand on.
Heaney’s poem also reminds me that for many people, the gates are not unbarred. They never have been. They have been closed, shut by others or by circumstances, or by a lack of encouragement that will close gates to even the brightest mind.
So, people who go back to education will like the spirit of that poem: but they will also know that sometimes you have to kick the gate off the hinges to get a fair shake. Every person in this country deserves the chance to rise. To rise to wherever they want to. And it doesn’t matter where they are from, or who they are, or what part of town they came from. Education will help you rise.
That is a most noble thing to want to do. But where do you start? Well, great journeys start with a step. Mayo College of Further Education and Training will hold an open day in all their locations throughout Mayo this coming Thursday from 12 noon to 6pm.
Their main campus locations are in Ballina, Castlebar and Westport as well as in their hubs in Achill, Ballina, Ballinrobe, Castlebar and Swinford. They have a wide variety of courses, with no tuition fees. There are Level 4, 5, 6 courses, with opportunities to progress on with your education after that. You can find out all the details on Pages 20 and 21 of this edition.
The best thing to do is go along and talk with one of their career advisers about the options that are available to you. Don’t worry about how much or how little formal recognition of prior learning anyone has. Don’t worry about exams or assessments – go in and hear how things are done in the modern world.
Even with all that, even with those gates open, it can be hard to walk in the door. Many who do it worry that those 18-year-olds with all their energy and youth will take up all the interest. And those 18-year-olds need a good education and start too, so they will be welcomed to the open day with equally open arms. But for that older cohort, let me just say that you have a great advantage over those 18-year-olds. You have done some living: and that makes you interesting, and has earned you some wisdom. And even if no one has given you a scroll yet for that, you still cannot buy what you have or learn it except through experience. But if you do need a scroll to get a promotion, or a start, or just to get yourself back in gear, go for it.
All that you will need is a willingness to work hard, to be open to building and regaining your confidence, and a desire to achieve something positive for you and those you love. It is powerful stuff and all involved in it – the teachers and the people who run the college and all institutions like it – are wished well.
And if you know someone thinking of making that step, talk it through with them, and do encourage them to go through those gates unbarred.
