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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Starting from scratch.
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I have had a good and fulfilling career (teacher and deputy headteacher) and am now semi-retired and teach art two days a week, which I enjoy immensely.
I have always been interested in graphics, computer graphics and have 'the eye' for a photograph and composition. I'm considering doing a GCSE in graphic design and having a go at working my way up from there. I have an art A level and my teaching degree was in Art/Education.
What do shipmates think?
Have you started again in middle age? (I'm 55) How was it?
Have you ever joined a class of 16 year olds? I'd love to hear your experiences and stories.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748
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Posted
I've been in the opposite situation: one of my fellow geology students was a single mum of a teenager - she was in her late thirties. By the time we took our final exams, she'd embarked on a new relationship, was pregnant, and gave birth two days after the last paper...
No one batted an eyelid. Honestly. So go for it.
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Forward the New Republic
Posts: 9131 | From: Ultima Thule | Registered: Jul 2005
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
You've got 20 or 30 years left, shorter if you just vegetate. Learning new things and staying active keeps you healthy. Do it!
(My graduate degree program class had a 70 year student.)
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
My degree is from the Open University and my Arts courses were full of retired people who had the time to study. Now I teach a health degree with the OU and my students range from 20 somethings wanting to go into nursing to retired carers, though in my case most teaching is online not face to face. Mature students are great to teach, they come to their studies keen to learn and with a whole host of practical skills and knowledge. Do go for it.
I will say something from the other perspective though, a friend of mine gave up nursing to do a drama degree and found 18 year olds very irritating because they didn't take their studies serious enough.
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
The only way to do it is to do it and the only failure is not to try!
I think one of the great advantage of being in your 50s is the willingness to have a go and not give a rat's arse, if you'll pardon the expression, what others think about things.
Your paintings and your photos show you have a real talent there so work on it, hone it, give it some training.
...but don't forget our lunch date in few weeks' time!
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Lucky you to be "semi-retired" at 55.
Having nursed a partner until they went into a hospice for the last 6 weeks of life, I've now to to find a full-time job so that I can continue to provide a home during vacations for children not yet 20 years old and also to try to add to my derisory private pension (projected worth less than £600 pa)- partner's didn't have any spousal provision. Of course, I'll get my state pension when I'm 67 - although that is likely to be revised upwards before then... and the new flat-rate pension will render all the SERPS contributions and AVCs I made pointless AND expensive.
I'd love to re-train but am told I'm too old (mid 50s, just like you!) and, in any case, the fees required for anything meaningful are way beyond me and I couldn't get student finance.
So yes, I have started again in middle-age, just like you. And I hope you have a better time of it than I am.
Sorry not to be able to be more empathetic but I'm surrounded by people of my age on decent pensions who moan incessantly about being hard up or musing about which course they're going to do this year.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
So yes, I have started again in middle-age, just like you. And I hope you have a better time of it than I am.
Sorry not to be able to be more empathetic but I'm surrounded by people of my age on decent pensions who moan incessantly about being hard up or musing about which course they're going to do this year.
Sorry to hear it ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Yes - my kind of starting again is very different from having to truly begin-again. I do appreciate how lucky I am and don't take it for granted.
Our income has bumped down , of course, but I hope I'll be able to afford a GCSE - although I haven't been told the cost yet.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Being in the company of people very much younger than yourself is something you'd be used to as a teacher. However, there is a real difference between being in a position of authority and being on the same level as them, i.e. being in a class with them. That can be a difficult balancing act, because they don't always quite know how to handle it, unless they're particularly used to spending time with older people, and it tends to follow three stages:
1) some respect and deference initially
2) outright rudeness as they then try to assert themselves and make it clear that they're better than you because they're younger and smarter. This stage can include showing off and deliberate ostracism - remember with younger people the peer group thing is still a very strong force that should not be disregarded. Meanwhile, you may be either ignored, or contradicted most of the time, older people are rarely "cool".
3) they eventually get past this and start to treat you like a human being.
You, for your part, may find their conversation really limited and their enthusiasm endearing, but the naivety that goes with it can be exasperating sometimes. However, anyone who has had teenagers of their own will already have some experience of this. If you're just there for classes, it may not be too bad, but expect to be pretty much on your own a lot of the time as they enthusiastically forge new friendships and have animated (and often quite silly) conversations with each other.
If you actually intend to work as a graphic designer I can post a few things more about that, but if you're just going for a course out of interest's sake then definitely, have a go if that's what you want to do. It's fascinating stuff and you'll learn a lot. I find working with graphics and composing them very fulfilling - sadly, I only get to do this in my spare time, as a career choice it would mean a salary drop.
Graphic design covers quite a wide field - almost everything you see has been purposely designed, so it isn't just photos, books, posters, web work - it can be applied to pretty well anything. You'll probably find, if you haven't already, that your interests fall into one or two categories, but a good course will give you an overview of fields you hadn't considered.
[ 22. April 2013, 18:00: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
Thanks Ariel!
At the moment it's just for interest and to see how good I am at it. If I get as far as the GCSE I'll look to taking it further.
I have just completed a Postgraduate Diploma in SpLD and loved the new learning involved. But the MA was too much - with my dyslexia the sheer weight of writing simply overcame me in the end.
I have no need for the social side of things - but hope they do treat me as a human being!
(All this is assuming I get on the course and the days are not when I'm working! But I am excited at the idea ![[Smile]](smile.gif) )
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
You should be fine, with teaching experience, and having been a mother. Polish up your Photoshop skills, get hold of Illustrator and get used to working on a Mac and you'll have a head start for your class in the autumn ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Go for it.
Mr. Lamb is a Vietnam vet--so he didn't do college till 40, graduated from seminary about 50, and had to retrain (second masters) to keep us afloat financially at age 60. He's not ruled out going for the doctorate, though he's 65 now.
I'm also thumbing through course catalogues, but $$$ are a big concern, o woe...
Otherwise I'd do a second doctorate in a heartbeat. (I'm spoiled.) Alas, that we must eat...
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
I think starting again is a great idea - I just wonder whether a GCSE will teach you anything really new, given what you already know. You could probably walk straight onto an HE module course, if such exists - though cost may be prohibitive. What about an A level?
Although I still (need to) work full time, I took on a part-time Masters a couple of years ago (I was lucky enough to get 50% funding). I should finish this summer and was looking forward to getting my life back - but I'm starting to feel that I need another new thing to keep me sane.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Nicodemia
WYSIWYG
# 4756
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Posted
Go for it Boogie! And what Qlib said, I think you might find a GCSE too limiting - go for an A level!
Posts: 4544 | From: not too far from Manchester, UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
You could consider Open College of the Arts as an alternative.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
You could consider Open College of the Arts as an alternative.
Jengie
Thank you Jengie Jon - that looks really interesting, I shall look into it.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
I knew I was right to open this thread.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Talitha
Shipmate
# 5085
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Posted
I agree about the A-level, or maybe some vocational course at a further-education level (I don't know what there is in graphic design). Also, if you go to an adult education college you might not be in a class of 16-year-olds.
I'm also considering starting again with my career. I'm currently a full-time mum, and before that I was a programmer, which I quite liked and would be fairly happy to go back to. But there's also an academic field I'm very interested in and would like to get into if possible. I don't know how realistic it is to try to go in at Masters or PhD level, or whether I'd have to spend 3 years and 3x£9000 (which I don't have) doing a whole 'nother undergrad degree, or whether there's some kind of middle path. I'm thinking of contacting the relevant university department and saying "I'd like to study with you in 3 or 4 years' time; what should I do in the meantime to make that possible?"
Posts: 554 | From: Cambridge, UK | Registered: Oct 2003
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I suppose I better put my experience in although I am hardly career changing.
My first degree was Mathematics and Statistics
My second degree is Biometry or the application of statistics in the Biological sciences.
My job for the last twenty four years has had at its core statistics, particularly statistic used in research. I am because of my job fairly rare, a non-academic, non subject based statistician. Most statisticians that are not academic work in a single alternative discipline whether bio-medical science, agriculture, psychology, sociology, teaching, or linguistics.
My third degree is in social science (general as what I was really interested in doing was research methods but could not as there would have been problems with me completing the statistical component).
My doctorate is technically in Theology and but really sociology of religion a discipline which is split between theology departments and sociology departments and my approach is ethnographic/anthropological.
So I have swapped over disciplines to something way different from where I started academically. I did not go back an re do a first degree. I got entry because of an accident in the entry requirements to the sociology masters. The requirement stated anyone with an arts first degree could do the masters. My first degree is from an arts faculty despite being in mathematics and statistics. So they had to accept me.
Check the entry requirements before saying "I must do an undergrad". There is an old tradition which held that taught masters degrees were really for people who had an undergrad but wanted to change specialism. Some will still allow this sort of student.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I did a GCSE in Graphic Design about 12 years ago. It was really enjoyable, but quite hard work (time-consuming), especially as I was studying for Psychology A level at the same time. But I'd recommend it as a good starting point. As I was taking it just for interest, I didn't take the subject any further, so can't comment on what happens next; presumably your Graphic Design tutor could advise on the next step.
To give you an idea of the sort of topics covered (which vary each year) I had to research and design a packet of tea, a logo for a Fish Restaurant, an Art Nouveau poster, and an advertising leaflet for a shop selling clocks and watches. The background research and experimental prototypes count at least as much to the final marks as the finished designs.
Good luck!
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
Was fired from my computer programming job 3.5 years ago. Have been completely unable to get re-hired. When you (a) don't have 5 years experience in the latest thing, (b) were fired, and (c) are 51 years old, you're rotting meat.
So I'm going back to school to get a teaching certificate and teach math in high school.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
So I'm going back to school to get a teaching certificate and teach math in high school.
I hope you enjoy it mousethief - there is usually a huge shortage of good maths teachers and tutoring is another option.
Both my boys took maths and further maths A levels and needed tutors to plug the gaps left by school. The tutors cost us a fortune!
Good luck with it, when do you start?
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Good luck with it, when do you start?
Thanks. School starts June 24; it's a one-year program.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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