There were still about thirty of us desperately wanting only four available places! The art teacher dismissed all those that weren’t graduate students or in their senior year. I wasn’t either but I saied. He told the thirty of us to leave if we had not yet taken the prerequisite classes. I hadn’t but I stayed! Then he interviewed each of us asking why we thought we should be chosen.
When my turn came he asked me if I’d had I taken the required life drawing classes and I said, “No.” which made the others angry. But I explained I’d been drawing from the model since I was thirteen and probably did as good a job at it as him or better. He didn’t say anything but the group got angrier. I told him I’d heard he was a good teacher so wanted the course and he asked why I couldn’t wait a few years then take the course from him.
“I have two years left in my four year degree with no room in my later schedule to take your class.” I told him. “At the end of the four years I’ll adopt children. If I wait much longer I’ll be too old to do that.” This made the other students very angry and very noisy because it was a WASTE OF AN EDUCATION IF I WAS ONLY PLANNING TO BE A MOTHER!
The teacher looked me in the eyes and expected me to answer their question. I told him what my church had taught me: “If you educate a worker you have educated one generation. if you educate a mother you’ve educated four generations!” I was accepted into the class and the things I learned from him changed my life and I recall his words.nancymauerman.com