How much interest did your parents take in your education?

biglouis 💐

Too much. I passed my 11+ with flying colours but that was only because a new bike would be given by a relative if I achieved an A grade which I did.

At great expense I was privately educated. I loved the school but felt I could not achieve academically what my parents wanted. They almost decided my career choice- I did not have a lot of say in the matter. This was mid 50's and early 60's.
Both my parents were intelligent but each left school around 14 to earn money. Given a chance my father I think would have veered towards accountancy.

My father and both aunts had passed their 11+. I was taught by a relation of my mothers. Our village was considered working class but my father worked in management and my mother in catering. I was encouraged with kindness to work hard to pass my 11+ and at a grammar school and to go away for further Education. I was lucky a lot I knew were not.

My parents were interested and supportive, more so for my DB as the eldest and a boy. They took an interest in homework and were keen that we could do what we were interested in, finances permitting. DH’s parents were keen that he did well, but were happy that he got a job at 16. He did a degree later on and they were very proud of that, but held me responsible for encouraging him (because I was a primary teacher🤣🤣).

Almost nil as at the time they were having an bitter divorce battle at the time of my GCE exams

Caleo

Blondiescot, in view of your personal experiences do you support free tertiary education for all?

I certainly would. Ironically, I did qualify for a bursary to go to college, so my mother's supposed money worries were irrelevant.

My parents had totally opposite experiences in the 50s & 60s, despite both growing up in poor, large families in the North of England. My Dad is the only one of his siblings with a university education, and he had to fight tooth and nail to be able to stay in school and pass his exams. The rest of his siblings had zero interest and honestly although some of them have done well for themselves financially, they don’t read and they have no clue or interest in what’s going on in the world. He’s a total exception.

On the other hand, my maternal uncle told me that when he passed the 11 Plus my grandfather hugged him and said “Next stop, university”. That whole side of the family is an absolute joy to be around, even when we’re arguing.

As a consequence, my parents placed a huge amount of importance on education and my siblings and I have been all the happier and more fulfilled for it.

I grew up in a home where, getting a good education in order to get a good job and financial security, was just in the atmosphere.

My mother had grown up in straitened circumstances, her mother and grandmother had both been left widows in their mid-30s, with young children, so she grew up knowing that a husband was not a meal ticket for life and that a woman's best protection was the ability to earn her own living.

What drove my mother was the desire for financial security. Two generations of the poverty that comes with early widowhood, that had my great grandmother sewing sacks and my grandmother working as a dressmaker and taking in lodgers had made financial security her main aim in life. She wanted us to have nice safe jobs - civil service, banking, teaching, anything with job security (then) and a pension was her ambition for us.

However my mother's attitude to education was entirely utilitarian. The only purpose of education was to get a better job. I, however, just enjoyed learning and studying for its intrinsic pleasure. Having got my bachelors degree, I explained away my first masters degree as being necessary for professional progress, which it was, but my continuing to study after that perplexed her. How was it going to help me get a better job? If it wasn't going to further my career, why was I doing it? I never succeeded in getting her to understand that there was more to studying than getting a better job.

I was blessed with parents who were both loving and encouraging.
They only wanted the "best" for me educationally and decided that was a fee paying church school. I know they couldn't always meet the payment deadline but did manage over a few weeks.

The hope was I'd pass the 11+ and go on to a grammar school when the fees would stop. I did, and over the next couple of years we had some jobs done at home and some new purchases including a carpet in the sitting room. I think not paying my school fees made a big difference.

They wanted me to be independent and believed education was the key.
They were extremely involved and supportive.

My parents took it seriously as my mother had passed the scholarship but couldn't go to Grammar school as it was too far away and her family was too poor to buy her a bicycle to get there. She wanted us all to at least go to college or get an apprenticeship after school. Most children left school at 14 when she was young; she spent some of her last year at school, aged 13/14, teaching the 5 year olds.

No television was allowed on until I'd done my homework.

Parents were not as involved with school then as they seem to be now.

I was the youngest of five and my parents had lost interest by the time I was at secondary school.

My Dad never read my school reports. I hated every minute of school and was very rebellious. My poor Mum was forever at the school begging for me not to be expelled.

I left school at 15 and never looked back. Luckily it was a time when qualifications weren't everything and you could start a job and work your way up once you'd proved yourself

Education was the be-all and end-all in our family, and so it carries on, fingers crossed.
My mother came from a poor, rather uneducated family. She was very pretty and at the age of 18 (I think) married my 45(?) year old father, who was a District Judge, as they were known in those days (in a far off land). Btw I’m not hiding my roots; I just like to keep you guessing.
My mother realised the value of education and therefore insisted on all 9 of us going on to College (that’s what Universities were called). And all, bar one, reached post- graduate / professional level. Much to my regret (though I don’t regret having children) I gave up work after 3 years of marriage; 25 years later got divorced, but never went back into Teaching/Lecturing. Worked part-time as a Receptionist- enjoyed it, but was not my Vocation ……there you go !!

My lasting memories of taking the 11+ is the day I returned from school after doing it my mother didn't ask how I'd done - she'd just forgotten I'd taken it and never asked

One thing I’m very grateful for, especially after reading some of these posts, is that my parents didn’t consider my education less important than my brother’s. We were treated equally. An educated wife and mother was as important as an educated husband and father.

My parents couldn't afford to privately educate my brother as well as me, so of course he was the one chosen, while I went to a grammar school. I didn't want to go to a posh school anyway, but I was upset at the thought process behind their choice. All I was good for was getting married and having children.

I should have added to my little story my dad was clever enough to earn a place in a local grammar school but my grandparents couldn’t afford the uniform so he stayed in the ‘secondary modern’ and left at about 14 to be a errand boy for the local co op store He wanted to work in an office as he was very clever with figures and maths and paperwork in general however he was refused because he was left handed Yes I know it sounds unbelievable but we going back to the mid 30 s nearly a century ago Then of course war broke out and he was off to fight for his country My mum never had any formal schooling after 7 years old as my grandads job kept them moving however she worked all her life always improving herself and ended up teaching needlecraft and a very good teacher she was too

My parents were working class and had very little education but were ambitious for me and supportive of my school and university career- particularly my father . I do think, as others have posted that the fact that I was an only child ( no pesky brother to steal my thunder) is relevant. I would call my family aspirational working class. They were proud of my academic success. I have a number of friends in this group - grammar school children who became the first in their family to go to university. My family talk of how proud my father would be, if he were alive , to attend the ceremony when my daughter gains her Ph.D.

None whatsoever. I left school with only 2 O levels and quickly realised that I'd need to up my game if I wanted to progress in my chosen career. When I told them that I'd enrolled myself in evening classes so that I could get better qualifications, I was told that I had "big ideas about myself".

Such sad posts. Mine is no better.
I failed my 11 plus. The headteacher called in my parents and both turned up (that was a first). The teacher explained that her opinion is I found the 11 plus too simple and couldn’t figure out how the correct answer could possibly be right. She recommended I go to grammar school further away but there was a free bus. I became top girl at grammar school tests only beaten by the two boy geeks, Robert and Nigel. Then mum and dad took me abroad and refused to put me in the local school. I expect because they had to pay. Back in the UK a comprehensive head told them I was above my year peers at 14 and she wanted to put me forward to the local college with the normal entry age of 18. I got in but it was a shorthand/typist course, mum’s dream job, but not mine. I explained to my parents that the head of the college was encouraging me in my dream to be a doctor but I needed to pass some GCE exams. Unfortunately the exams meant a fee and my middle class parents said they didn’t have the money and the sooner I got a job to contribute the better. Different times I guess. After many years in offices in the city of London, I decided to start businesses. Good training for all the paperwork needed. C’est La vie.

My parents would often say proudly ' yes she's at the Grammer
School' and that was the full extent of their interest, even my
'O' level results raised little interest. Sad when I think how much I enjoyed my involvement with my own children and their education.

halfpint1 my experience was similar. My mother was a social climber and her children had to go grammar school so she could hold her head high in the community. Fortunately we both did. But my mother wasn't bright enough to help me with school work. Dad bought me a book to help with Maths as I struggled. I was good at French and told I should go to a "language school" but don't think either of my parents knew what one was. They were typical of a generation that had known hardship and struggle as well as a world war so I imagine that they just did their best.

Actively sabotaged it

I was expected to pass the 11+ which I did and went to Grammar School. My parents always checked homework etc and kept a general eye on how I was doing but not too involved. I left at 17 and went to college to do a pre nursing course which was not considered quite the thing by my school. I spent my working life nursing and allied services.

Encouraged me always, especially my mother. For all sorts of reasons though, I only went to Uni aged 29, when our youngest started school.

I was lucky, both my parents went to grammar school themselves, and were forward thinking for their children. They read to us at night, taught us to read before we went to school, and supervised the homework to make sure we did it. It makes such a difference to children, I feel sad for those who didn’t, and still don’t get that level of support. It’s hard to see that this will ever change though.