Page 12 University Daily Kansan, December 3. 1981
38
Change
From page one
continuing education, is the creator and former director of the Adult Life Resource Center, which provides information and counseling to the public.
"The trend is there." she said.
She, too, reported an increase in the number of adults making changes in their careers.
Mccoy became interested in the patterns of adults' lives when she discovered new research on the subject while pursuing her own doctorate in the early 1970s. The everyday lives of women have been ignored by researchers, she said.
Research has shown that it is normal to continue growing and changing after becoming an adult, she said. That change includes careers.
"The norm is to change careers three or four times in a lifetime," McCoy said. "Solar permission for such a career was taken after the social changes of the 1960s and 1970s."
Larry Wrightsman, professor of psychology, agreed that the notion of a stable, mature adulthood setting in a confused, turbulent youth was a myth.
"Adulthood was ignored by the texts for years," he said. "It was kind of assumed that once you got your education, married and settled down, nothing more happened. But that's not true—adulthood is a very fertile
Wrightsman attributed adult career changes to a combination of causes.
HE AND OTHERS said that men and women were no longer locked into their traditional roles, that they had longer lifespans, that they had more economic freedom to change careers and that they were questioning their values.
The college students of the 1950s, who became the parents of the college students of today, followed a well-ordered program leading to a good job—or to a man with a good job—marriage and children.
Then came the massive social changes of the 1960s and 1970s, Wrightman said. Men began wondering if all there was to life was work; women began pushing for school and more education on their desk; and the divorce rate rose dramatically.
"The women's movement and divorce are probably more a part of the cause than the effect of adult career development." But there is certainly some of both.
Lilian Six, admissions director for the School of Law, said the number of students over 30 and the number of students had been increasing since 1970.
"When women graduated from college in the '80s, nobody told them they could go on to law school," she said. "If there were four or five women in a class, it was a big deal. You just didn't dare enter this male bastion."
Law school enrollments have increased nationwide. Six said the adult students included teachers disenchanted with the profession or without tenure; retired military men young enough to begin second careers; and women recently divorced or with grown children.
Colleen Ryan, a Lawrence graduate student in education, earned a bachelor's degree in home economics and sociology in the early 1960s.
"You just didn't have an opportunity to even see adults then," she said. "They would be in classes by themselves."
SHE RETURNED to school after her children were grown and had earned two master's degrees and a doctorate by 1976.
It is easier to go to school now that it was in the past because people have more free time and because there are more opportunities possible of school a work, she said.
"There is simply more to learn," she added. "More knowledge is available to you."
Ryan said that traditional college-age students seemed much more casual about their classes than did adult students.
"Many older students drive a long way or put themselves in hard circumstances to go to school," she said. "They want to get everything they can out of it, and they hardly ever miss class."
Mary Gersh, director of the Regents Center in Overland Park, said that the Regents Center students—mainly women with an average age of 35—struggled when they return to school, because they generally combined classes with low-income jobs and family demands.
"Some who come for a bachelor of general studies degree haven't been to school for 15 years and didn't apply themselves then," she said. "They'll learn a lot, and they're likely they'll lay off for a year. It's very, very hard for these people."
The Regents center offers bachelor's degrees in general studies and in such humanities as history, English, personnel and psychology to students with two years' credit from another institution. Gersh said.
IT ALSO OFFERSMaster's degrees in social welfare, English, education, public administration and business in lateafternoon and evening sessions.
"We thought when we opened up that this was the kind of person we'd have the most of, but she's a mimicry," she said. "Of our students are pursuing degrees."
Gersh told of one woman over 65 who took courses simply because they interested her.
She said that many of the Regents Center students were getting degrees because of economic pressures. Some are teachers renewing their cer-
fificates; women embarking on careers to supplement the family income; and recent divorcees supporting their families alone.
Others seek to improve their salaries by increasing their ratings as federal employees or by getting promoted.
Gersh gave an example of an Overland Park police officer who graduated last spring after working six years as a public administration degree.
"He's had two promotions already," Gersh said. "He wants to become a police chief."
Dick Rundquist, director of the University Counseling Center, said the center was counseling an increasing number of students quoting to the university atmosphere.
"An increasing number of older people are more willing to make changes in their lives," he said. "It is happening now, but it is happening more frequently."
HE SAID the difficulties adult students experienced included learning to study again; dredging up the basic skills they learned as high school students; and fitting in with 18- to 24-year-olds.
"It's not so easy to cope with living with a bunch of kids, with not having a group of people your own age to interact with, with being isolated," he said.
Richard Oxandale, a Wichita graduate student in business, was an attorney for 15 years before he returned to school to supplement his law degree with an MBA.
He said he had no problems fitting in. "Someone who defines himself as the older person going to college has a
What's hard is studying while still meeting the needs of his wife and four young children.
harder time than someone who just says. 'I'm a student,' '' he said.
"When I am studying, I get a lot of interruptions," he said. "There just isn't a solid hour."
He had been doing litigation for the United Nations and living with his family on a Pacific island when he met Lawrence and to Lawrence and return to school.
Oxandale finished his MBA degree this year and is now pursuing a doctorate in business and is undecided about his plans, he said.
"So often, you'll hear the fellow in college talk about what he's going to do after med school." Gaudale said. "That's a long way in the future."
ROBERT LINEBERRY, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said adult life changes perpetuated by publicity because of publicity from the media.
"The first person who does it makes it easier for the second person, and that makes it easier for the third person," he said. "Pretty soon, it becomes socially legitimate."
This applies to most of society's trends, he said. Half of all married women hold jobs, and the divorce rate is approaching 50 percent. Career changes are to changing social and economic conditions are becoming commonplace.
“Of course, you also hear about the guy who gets tired of being a Wall Street stock broker and who decides to star in a Santa Fe.” Lineberry said.
Not all career changes, however,
require a return to school and then lead
to more prestige and a higher salary.
One man with a degree in business administration, who asked not to be identified sold his business and eneded his marriage to work on the railroad.
"If you wear a shirt and tie all your life, sometimes you want a change," he said. "You live on this earth only one time and since, I got out of college, I've never been so smart. So I decided to try something else." He two lives in one that way."
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