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[mouseman]

While my father has a PhD, his parents grew up in shtetles in pre-revolution Russia, so their schooling was somewhat limited.  My mother grew up as a second generation American and middle class until her father died), went to college, but dropped out (many reasons).  The Mousewoman's family were teachers on both side for many generations.  Her father worked toward a PhD in the USSR, but was never allowed to go through with it, because he was Jewish and because his father was arrested during Stalin's time for being a Decorated Jewish Officer.

[drspouse]

I'm definitely part of the aristocracy.

Father has a PhD (retired academic; recently given important British award for hobby work) and mother eventually got a Masters and a teaching qualification, and considers herself underqualified (though she does have a massive chip on her shoulder anyway). Parents were both in college in the 1960s, on opposite sides of the Atlantic (though mother finished her studies on the opposite side). They met while both working in someone's lab in Scandinavia.

Maternal grandfather also had a PhD, was also an academic, maternal grandmother did a Bachelor's degree, was a high school teacher, and then decided she wanted to teach in Panama, having visited there on a banana boat in her summer vacation, and liking the lifestyle (they also went to Colombia, Germany, Poland, some other Baltic states, she and some girlfriends just hopped on a freighter every summer! this was the 1930s). You needed a Masters to teach in Panama so she went back to get this but then met and married maternal grandfather. That is my favourite reason for doing an advanced degree, ever.

Paternal grandfather was a doctor (as was his father, though he died of cancer from exposure to radiation, and his wife supported the family through scientific work, in a Ministry though rather than a university; at least one of paternal grandfather's sisters qualified as a doctor). Paternal grandmother is a bit more vague (early death), but I doubt she went to university (gels of her class didn't), and I suspect she was supported by her parents until she  married my grandfather, but she also had a reputation as a contemporary artist (and I think some commissions). So she may have been to art college in a small, feminine, way.

So basically anything I do is just downhill from here on.

[hipgeek]

Does getting a GED mean finishing high school?

[polly_mer]

Does getting a GED mean finishing high school?

Usually getting a GED means passing several tests to get the equivalent of a high school diploma.  Often, though, people don't take high-school-type classes to do so.  A person may enroll in some classes designed for the GED or a person may just sign up and take the tests.

[hipgeek]

Does getting a GED mean finishing high school?

Usually getting a GED means passing several tests to get the equivalent of a high school diploma.  Often, though, people don't take high-school-type classes to do so.  A person may enroll in some classes designed for the GED or a person may just sign up and take the tests.

I'm sorry, polly_mer.  I think I was unclear. 

I know what a GED is and how to get one; what I meant is, in the survey, are we considering getting a GED as part of finishing high school or not? 

I mean it's not the same thing, but it is "equivalent"....I suppose if we are speaking of "aristocracies" then a GED would probably not be equal to a high school diploma, especially in cases when there are no other colleges degrees obtained after getting the GED.  I just never know how to answer this question, since my mother did eventually get a GED but she never got a BA or even attempted a 4 year degree.

(I hope my meaning is more clear now--I think pregnancy or maybe just mid-semester blues is hindering my ability to communicate!)

[donstefano]

Parents (1950/1952) started as mechanic who left school at 16 and later started studying again at night to get his high school degree; mother trained as assistant nurse. Grandparents where all little farmers, and on one side had 15 children. Yet on mothers' side my grandparents descended from a family of wealthy farmers - impoverished, yet still taught their children upper middle class values.
Parents build a little company and started becoming financially well-off when I did my BA and moved from working to middle class.

In a huge family (I have dozens and dozens of cousins), I was the first to get an academic degree. Only 3 others have followed since. Surprisingly, 2 of these also went on to do a phd - and are now also academics.

[systeme_d_]

Hipgeek, Dear SO (who has a GED) says that counselors and teachers were very clear on the fact that the GED is just as you say, a certificate of equivalency, so that the holder of a GED can rightfully claim that he or she has indeed finished high school.

[hipgeek]

Hipgeek, Dear SO (who has a GED) says that counselors and teachers were very clear on the fact that the GED is just as you say, a certificate of equivalency, so that the holder of a GED can rightfully claim that he or she has indeed finished high school.

Thanks, systeme_d_, I'm very curious to hear what others think, esp. in relation to the context of the survey. 

By the way, my SO has a GED too, and he's now about to begin college, at age forty--so proud of him (and a little scared, but mostly very proud!)

[systeme_d_]

Rock on, Hipgeek's SO!  That's so great! 

Dear SO is presently considering a similar undertaking -- we'll see! 

[southerntransplant]

Both parents finished high school. Dad went to a trade school for high school, and learned to be a toolmaker and machinist. Out of four children, only my younger sister and I finished college. She has an MBA.

[totoro]

The survey results seem to match the Survey of Earned Doctorates data so far...

[totoro]

I just realized that a somewhat distant cousin is a professor at MIT. His grandmother, who was a professor at Chicago, was my father's first cousin. So I knew his great aunt and uncle well, though I never met any of these American relatives (I knew about the Chicago prof of course). The one the great uncles wife's (she was a school teacher) siblings was a professor too. I remember when I was an undergrad in my final year he asked me how I was going or something - and I said I am about to finish the university (this conversation wasn't in English...)... he said "You don't call that finishing studying". Oh and a famous US educational institution is named after a really distant relative I realized recently.... So I guess I am a member of the artistocracy even though my mother was the first to go to college in her family and my father didn't. Or I'm just the poor cousin :)

[gennimom]

Now that Totoro has brought this one back to life so that I could find it, I'll put in my 2 cents worth. Both parents finished high school, and Papa apparently had a few college credits. I'm not sure. My maternal grandfather finished 8th grade, but he ran his own paper for years. My uncle was apparently PO'd when Grandpa sold the paper without consulting my uncle. My uncle wanted to take it over. My paternal grandfather was an insurance salesman, but of the great grandfathers, one was a blacksmith, another was a minister. I have no idea how many had college degrees.

I do have cousins who have gotten PhDs. One was long before I was born, and it was in Special Education. I didn't know they had that area that far back. Another was a history professor in the Pacific Northwest. Two others were in agriculture and one of those has a test for a disease in poultry and a building on a northeastern college campus named after him. I have never met any of these although I do know the son of the history professor.

[cyano]

My father had to quit school after 8th grade. My mom went to Normal School for 1 year after HS after which she was qualified to teach elementary school. My mom stayed home with us and so family income was quite limited. When we were in middle school, my mom went back to college and struggled through one class a semester and eventually got her B. Ed. I was very proud of her for doing that. I think she would have been diagnosed with learning disabilities now days. She then taught ESL to adults until her late 60s. I don't know of anyone in the family on either side who went to college other than my mom.

[indirectquote]

My Dad went to a vocational school after high school and eventually shifted into business. My Mom finished high school and won a scholarship to university, but dropped out after two years. She tried to go back to finish her degree a few years ago but lost interest after a semester. None of my grandparents on either side had university degrees, though my paternal grandparents did attend college for a while (a year or so I think) before marrying. My Dad's siblings both have Master's degrees, as does one of my Mom's siblings, but I'll be the first in my family to have a PhD (assuming that I finish!).

Actually, I'm the only one of my siblings to finish high school, let alone a post-secondary degree.

Many of my family members belong to a fundamentalist sect that frowns on 'over-education,' especially in certain fields. My Dad has said that if religious beliefs weren't an issue he would have gone college and then law school.