Cap and gown

Today

My sister graduated today with a BA in Eng lit and phil from the Open University. It's taken her seven years of hard work, concentration and commitment to get there and I'm just so proud of her.

There was a lovely ceremony at the Dome and we were reminded that the OU stands not just for social inclusion but also social justice. The honorary doctorate was awarded to Dame Stephanie Shirley whose life story was an example of triumph over adversity.

"You're the second Dixon of our generation to get a degree," I told her. Later there was a discussion about the benefits a degree can bring and Lizzie pointed out that Chris and I achieved a great deal and we neither have degrees. "It doesn't mean that you're totally handicapped if you don't have one," I said "And having a degree is an achievement in itself. After all, I'm finding studying for an NVQ hard enough!"

In My Day

Daddy couldn't have achieved what he did without the education he received from the Society of Friends. Thereafter, everything he did was as the result of his own initiative and hard graft. He found it hard to see what additional benefits a degree could bring. So, while he was an enthusiastic supporter of a good grammar school education, he felt that anything past the age of sixteen (at a pinch eighteen) was really time wasted that could be better spent at the school of life and hard knocks.

When you look at his life and how much he really did achieve it can be hard to argue with his viewpoint. As neither Chris nor I have a degree and yet have achieved a fair amount in commercial terms, the modern emphasis on higher education seems still more questionable. Especially as he and I are also not particularly backward in the area of intellectual and cultural knowledge and understanding. But I also think that Daddy's quite aggressive stance against higher education was not helpful. A university education would hardly have hampered us and might have opened a few doors sooner. I did spend four years at art school where I failed to gain a degree and the skills I learnt (such as corset making and how to construct a model out of balsa wood) have been very little use to me.

I can only find it in my heart to feel so proud of those members of my family who have worked against difficulties to achieve so much and I know that we all, whatever our education, learn much of what we need from life's lessons and hard knocks.