Were you encouraged and inspired at school ? Home?

Terribull I love your parents for finding the theatre and culture so important. I'm sure it was no fun to be short of shoes but inspite of the negatives it sounds to me that you had a rich and empowering childhood.

My parents weren't as adventurous as yours but were much more open than many so had friends of various ethnicities and gay ones too. They had arty friends and very straight-laced ones and quite rich and poor ones. They also had friends of many different faiths and none. This was the most influential thing I feel on the young me.

They always told me that I could do what I liked and were supportive of me. I know they were dissapointed that I married young after university and my degree was therefore "wasted" but they did quickly come to terms with that when I had a family and they had grandchildren to love.

Regarding school, I was the first in the family to go to a grammar school. It was a huge privilege I understood and the expectation from school was that we would all have careers rather than jobs. Of course some did leave after O'levels but most stayed on and most of those went to university or teacher training.

Career advice was on site and available at lunchtimes - all the university prospectus' and drawers full of other info. There was a rather useless career specialist there who you could make appointments with - so I suppose, in fact, this was quite advanced. Out headteacher was a women who had been to Sweden studying their educational system and wax very impressed, she brought loads of changes based on the idea of mutual respect apparently and treating young people as adults... but if was still pretty strict!
Unfortunately the woman who was the careers specialist had a rather narrow view of the world and was not good at thinking outside the norm, oh how I would have loved her to suggest something that made my heart sing!
We used to laugh about her lack of imagination I'm afraid.

I left school at 16 with 7 CSE's. No career advice, either office, shop, hairdressing or factory. I got into an office and was there for life.

I was encouraged at school to take Oxbridge exams and encouraged at home to do Maths. The problem was no one explained why and I always have to know why before I do something. I knew nothing about life at Oxford and Cambridge since my parents were business people and I was terrified of Maths. My pompous half brother did Maths at uni and used to say I was retarded. That didn’t help.
I wrote off academics until my 50’s when I got an MA distinction and realised sadly I would have been very happy in academics as indeed my daughter is! Carl Rogers said we live the unfulfilled lives of our parents and she just did her PhD and flies high in her field so that fits.

I was very fortunate. We had no money but my parents both prized education. All three of us went to grammar school and went on to graduate. One sister got an MBA and I have a PhD. Both parents had to leave school at 14 and go to work to help support their families and were determined that, whatever else they did without, we three girls were going to get an education. I had a lot of encouragement from school but mostly from my parents who taught us about art, literature and music.

Was I encouraged and inspired at school? Never. I went to an all girls grammar school. We were sent out on the hockey field in all weathers and shouted at. During maths class if you did not put up your hand to answer a question you were told to stand up and called a "passenger" and subject to an angry red faced tirade by the teacher. History lessons were from black and white text books and all I can remember is being taught about the medieval serf system. Careers advice was useless. I was accepted for junior Saturday morning art classes in the local college and my art teacher almost sneered. Finally after my GCE's my head teacher said "you're just not A level material dear, try a typing course".

It’s a bit sad to hear how many obviously gifted women ended up with shop , factory, office , choice. I’m not often glad times have changed but I do in this respect !

To add to this, when I was in my 50's I enrolled for adult education classes at my local college. It was an absolute revelation to find you could learn anything at any age. I thought learning was just for school. Unfortunately due to cuts the adult education classes are reduced to just a handful.

I used to do really well at school but, as I was a girl, education wasn’t important. In their eyes, the highest thing I could achieve was to get married and have children.

No- but to be fair it was my own fault.
I was sent to the 'Good' school my parents liked & sulked for 5 years until the day I could walk out.
I must have been a nightmare to teach-apart from cookery & drama!

silverlining48 I left school in 1966 and it was exactly as you described. Expected to leave at 15 unless you were especially 'bright' when you could stay an extra year and get GCEs. No career advice at all. Getting a job was easy though and you could usually turn down several offers of jobs and take the one you fancied the most, but these were all shop-work or factory. The 'bright' girls left school and went into offices.

It is sad to read about all of you who as young girls had no chance of higher education or a professional career though I’m sure the jobs you did do were necessary and useful ones. It seems to have been the norm for most girls of our generation. I was lucky. I went to a co-educational, academically selective state secondary school in Scotland. My parents wanted me to have chances they couldn’t have had in their generation before the Second World War. Both girls and boys were encouraged equally at school and it was easy for me to go to university and do a first and then a post graduate degree. Our fees were paid and we got a government grant for living expenses. My parents could never have afforded it otherwise. For a small number of children of working class parents born just after the war, we really did get history’s golden ticket. It was after graduating that sexism came into play. The only job for women graduates really was school teaching. And that would just be till you married. If you could get a husband of course. But most women like most men will always want to have a partner. Men just didn’t have to choose between a family and a career. Girls wanting to do something else or more career wise really had to struggle against prejudice. Very very few university teachers were women. I knew of firms of lawyers in the city of London who wouldn’t interview women at all other than for secretarial posts even if they were Oxbridge graduates. Even in school teaching most promoted posts were held by men. Things have changed completely now. But I do think it is hard for women to work full time when their children are tiny and hard for the children too. It seems there are no easy answers really for women. I did eventually have a career in local government but only by chance circumstances really rather than a plan.

Isn’t it sad that so much talent was wasted. I too started studying later in life and the first exam I ever did was my degree. Then an A level and a GCE. Just the one and all the wrong way round.
Even passing the 11+ it appears that many of us were not encouraged and left early to get jobs. I never knew anyone who had an A level never mind anyone who had gone to university.
No higher or even further education was suggested, to expand our world, certainly no travel to enhance us. Just early, often teenage marriage, money struggles with crippling mortgage rates or rent, and then children.
A different world and I am happy our children, especially girls have so much more opportunity, though still not equality. They travel the world, to places we have never or ever will, I am happy, but why are we baby boomers being blamed for the woes of the world and for ‘stealing’ our children’s future when life was so hard for us.

I went to Grammar School, as did most of my friends and family. At no point did I ever feel inspired by the teachers, although I have very fond memories of the place. I'm still in touch with many of my school friends.

I was fairly academic and went to university but at no point had I been given any advice as to what to do with a degree. I ended up in teaching, as it was considered the only profession for women of my background back then.

I really regret not doing Law as I had enough points but was never encouraged as "people like us don't do that". .

DD is hoping to study Law (all being well) with lots of encouragement from me.

I left school in 1971 after staying on to take CSEs. Apparently these were meant to be the equivalent of an O level - at the very lowest grade.

I was supposedly quite clever and was encouraged to do my best but wasn't under the pressure that youngsters seem to be under today.

There was little encouragement or guidance for careers - we were expected to work for a few years and then marry and have a family. Nothing else.

In my junior school my headmaster told me I should be a journalist, as I had an aptitude for English. I was also encouraged in art, I painted murals for the school hall.
When I went to secondary school, I was streamed into the science based class and did art as an option. I wasn't allowed to do art O level.
When I entered the 6th form I was still forced to do maths and sciences but now allowed to do art O and A level at the same time.
I wasn't interested in doing a science based job, so when I saw an advert that said 'Can you hold a pencil', I applied and got a job with Post Office Telecommunications, and learned technical drawing, basic surveying etc. I loved it. Years on I took an ONC and HNC in building and ended my working life as a Technician in a local authority Consultancy section, specialising in CAD design and support.
I always enjoyed my working life and still play with AutoCAD designing houses.

Discussions with my mother when I was about 15 elicited the fact that I had given no thought to what I wanted to do when adult. Nursing? No, I don’t think so. Good, was the response. You are quite unable to follow instructions without arguing and you have very little sympathy. Harsh but true - and from a former casualty sister!

Her sudden death when I was 16 meant a secretarial course and a series of interesting and enjoyable jobs. I did a BEd as a mature student, graduated at a time when teacher numbers were being reduced so never taught full time, but became a chair of primary school governors at two schools over some 20 years.

Subsequent career moves led to doing an MBA after the children had left home, so like many posters, my grammar school background enabled me to take the chances which came my way.

There were lots of books around when I was growing up and not much else (including food/clothes/outings) I won a scholarship to a posh school at 10, and mum scrimped to make sure I had uniform and dinner money. Dad was alcoholic, nice man but … home life was difficult I learned to keep my head down, cloak of invisibility. From time to time a teacher would try to talk to me, but I revealed nothing. With hindsight maybe I should have opened up as there would have been help, but I didn't. I was not able, because of finances, to take advantage of the many extra curricular activities, and all in all it was a wary experience. But I did learn lots, not able to use it all until my late 20's when university opened up my career opportunities. Uni in your late 20's is quite different from late teens, and I did well. I still hide my childhood experiences.

I got the Girl Book of Carears

I WANT TO BE... A GIRL BOOK OF CAREERS Paperback – 1 Jan. 1957

Printed in 1957 and full of nostalgia! Careers avice for girls. Each page dedicated to a different career ie. being a secretary, librarian, nurse, therapist, police, forces, florist, air hostess and many more. With pictures and adverts. Brings a smile to your face! Very interesting.I found one leaving school after 1 year of A Levels and taking a secretarial course whilst waiting to go to College.

Got a degree 10 years later after having married and having 2 children.

have had an interesting life.

She would get married have kids and her husband would keep her!

A very common attitude, when I got a big promotion to the Head of a major department in my school my late MIL asked if there weren't any married men with families up for the job, they should take priority over a woman, especially a married one!
I recall being in the first year at the grammar school and w friend came round for tea, my mother sat with us for a while as she read the evening paper. Next morning my friend was telling everyone that my mother actually read a newspaper and had opinions on current affairs! My parents b oth encouraged me, I was never left to think I was inferior for being the girl.

What a lot of you are/were artistically gifted! My heart bleeds for the ones who were not allowed to take up their Art School places. I was very much encouraged by my last Primary School teacher, Mr Edwards and, with his help, got an old LLC scholarship to a girls' independent school. I stayed on till I was 19, as a took an extra A level but by then I knew I had a place at Cambridge. My parents were bursting with pride, as no-one in the family had ever been to university before. It wasn't all smooth sailing after that but I've had a satisfying career as a writer and all three of our girls have degrees, some of them two. I owe it all to Mr Edwards and the LLC really.

I left school in 76 after sitting CSE's. Sometime in 75 a Careers Officer came into School and gave a Lecture then spoke Individually to each of us. I also remember Brochures for the Forces being out and a few Application forms for local businesses. When it was my turn to speak to the Careers Woman she looked in her folder and before I could even utter a word "shop assistant,hair dresser". I walked out without saying a word.
My parents supported me all the through school, yet they never attended Parents evening. My Dad worked hard and as he saw it he wouldn't give up his family time to be told something he already knew. I passed those CSE's and went onto college, motherhood, then back to college to become a Teacher.

When I see the encouragement and interest my grandchildren receive in education, I feel so happy for them and the opportunities they have. Even with the corona virus, I am confident children will receive all the help and encouragement they need. I went to an all girls school, there wasn't a lot of encouragement for the sciences and I never received special lessons for my poor maths grades, just a look of disdain from my very scary maths teacher. If only - who knows the avenues that could have been opened!I ended up as a very bored shorthand/typist, hated the jobs.

'Went to a Grammar School with 80% of pupils from wealthy homes - and I wasn't. Consequently I didn't fit either at school or at home, where life was lacking a lot of the luxuries, but I was considered 'posh' and therefore excluded by local children. 'Didn't enjoy school, like SueDonim I was not outstanding, but surprised everyone by gaining a decent set of qualifications. 'Went to work and came into my own . On reflection I have been grateful for the decent education but regret the unhappy years and feeling of isolation from eleven to eighteen.

Like SuDonim I was not encouraged at grammar school and was not made aware of my potential til too late. School life was made unbearable by a vindictive games teacher, Miss Spooner, ( anyone here know her?). I left after o levels , which I later discovered were better than most of the girls who I perceived to be looking down on me. After a course that was equal to A levels I pursued teacher training so all was not lost, but I’d rather have gone to art school!

Encouraged: yes sometimes.
Inspired: never.
Hated school from start to finish.
Left: at age 15, and never looked back.
The relief was enormous.