Notes from my Knapsack 8-27-2026
Jeff Gill
Education in modern American culture generally speaking
___
In the 1990s, I taught early American history at Fairmont State in West Virginia for five years.
I was an adjunct, initially replacing a sudden death among the faculty of a coach who liked to teach at 8 am three times a week or once a week for three hours on Wednesday evening. So my office hours were in the college cafeteria after the early ones or before my 6 pm to 9 pm offering.
Spoiler alert: I was younger then. And learned some things I did not know. Which was well over three out of four conversations I would have were not about course material, it was about how to stay in school when all their family was saying “you’ve had your year, or two.” The biggest factor? Grandmas who said “it’s time to come home.”
Were economics a part of it? Sure. But not all. I made friends with a state senator who told me about how much grief he got from his mother and four brothers over going to college. It was doable for him, but they just thought it was stupid.
This is why universities have emphases for “First Gen” students; sometimes faculty and staff who were first generation to college in their family will have a special sticker on their door, to let today’s “First Gen” know there’s someone who gets it. I’m third gen, but I married a first gen. She’s taught me a few things about that passage.
But I also recall going into a vast hall at Purdue my freshman year (as we still called it in 1978). The person who spoke first said “look at the person on your left, look at the person on your right: only one of the three of you are graduating within the next four years.” Truth be told, he almost sounded proud of it. Turns out the state legislature had passed some years before a very popular requirement that they admit anyone from the top half of their high school’s graduating class. Purdue’s response was “okay, we have to take them, but we don’t have to keep them.” Do the math: that dean was telling me they had a 33% retention rate. A third left during Christmas break or after one year. Today, that would not fly; then, it was accepted.
And as I’ve told here before, but I keep coming back to, my grandfather retired as a school superintendent in 1968. The town homecoming parade made him grand marshal, Mom and I riding along with him. He got a plaque which I still have, and in presenting it they noted among his achievements was that he consistently graduated 50% of his students from high school.
When I referred to that years later, Mom said “that can’t be right, everyone I went to school with graduated.” But I have all the yearbooks from his years as principal and superintendent, and through the 40s and 50s: first or second grades had 75 to 80 kids, eighth grade graduation saw about 50 names, and her class like those before and after her ran in the mid- to high-20s. He worked his tail off through the 60s to get his earlier 35% graduation rate up to 50%.
Today, we would not accept what my Grandfather Walton was honored for. Our cultural expectations have changed. Where are we now? I’ll say more next time.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s worked in and around public education for many years, including campaigning for school levies. Tell him about cultural changes you’ve seen at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
Education in modern American culture generally speaking
___
In the 1990s, I taught early American history at Fairmont State in West Virginia for five years.
I was an adjunct, initially replacing a sudden death among the faculty of a coach who liked to teach at 8 am three times a week or once a week for three hours on Wednesday evening. So my office hours were in the college cafeteria after the early ones or before my 6 pm to 9 pm offering.
Spoiler alert: I was younger then. And learned some things I did not know. Which was well over three out of four conversations I would have were not about course material, it was about how to stay in school when all their family was saying “you’ve had your year, or two.” The biggest factor? Grandmas who said “it’s time to come home.”
Were economics a part of it? Sure. But not all. I made friends with a state senator who told me about how much grief he got from his mother and four brothers over going to college. It was doable for him, but they just thought it was stupid.
This is why universities have emphases for “First Gen” students; sometimes faculty and staff who were first generation to college in their family will have a special sticker on their door, to let today’s “First Gen” know there’s someone who gets it. I’m third gen, but I married a first gen. She’s taught me a few things about that passage.
But I also recall going into a vast hall at Purdue my freshman year (as we still called it in 1978). The person who spoke first said “look at the person on your left, look at the person on your right: only one of the three of you are graduating within the next four years.” Truth be told, he almost sounded proud of it. Turns out the state legislature had passed some years before a very popular requirement that they admit anyone from the top half of their high school’s graduating class. Purdue’s response was “okay, we have to take them, but we don’t have to keep them.” Do the math: that dean was telling me they had a 33% retention rate. A third left during Christmas break or after one year. Today, that would not fly; then, it was accepted.
And as I’ve told here before, but I keep coming back to, my grandfather retired as a school superintendent in 1968. The town homecoming parade made him grand marshal, Mom and I riding along with him. He got a plaque which I still have, and in presenting it they noted among his achievements was that he consistently graduated 50% of his students from high school.
When I referred to that years later, Mom said “that can’t be right, everyone I went to school with graduated.” But I have all the yearbooks from his years as principal and superintendent, and through the 40s and 50s: first or second grades had 75 to 80 kids, eighth grade graduation saw about 50 names, and her class like those before and after her ran in the mid- to high-20s. He worked his tail off through the 60s to get his earlier 35% graduation rate up to 50%.
Today, we would not accept what my Grandfather Walton was honored for. Our cultural expectations have changed. Where are we now? I’ll say more next time.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s worked in and around public education for many years, including campaigning for school levies. Tell him about cultural changes you’ve seen at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
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