on the faces of people standing in long
queues at the supermarket and the
unemployment insurance office. You
know the look - it's a mixture of weary
resignation and disgust. The students
had no place to sit while they were
waiting to see me except on the floor.
There was no pleasant receptionist to
provide a semblance of civilized order to
the whole disorganized procedure. Once
a student actually made it into the
Broom Closet, it must have’ been
unsettling to see that the financial aid
officer wasn't exactly in perfect control

MATURE

by Karin Lind, Instructor in Anthropology

who remembers with joy the mature
students who contributed to her classes
in the past eight years.

Dear Pat, Marjory, Dorothy, Larry,
Katie, Ann, Eleanor, Stewart, Maureen,
Irene, Barbara, Mary, Marsha, Marie,
Faye, Vivian,.....

How to say thank you for your
contribution to classes... . Sometimes
you began the semester with a grand
hesitation, thumping heart, or query of
whether you could handle the course.
You sometimes called yourself the
"Golden Oldies" and that made me angry.
You certainly handled the courses, and
you gave a great deal in spirit and
enthusiasm, knowledge and open-ness to
your official instructor and_ other
students not officially labelled "Mature".
Generally, you worked far too hard. You
gave beautiful, sensitive, thoughtful
analytical papers which taught me not
only about our subject, but a little
something of you yourself. And by the
end of the semester I hope you could
appreciate your contribution as much as I
eould.

of the scene. Anxiety about money is a
killer anyway, but when you add in all

the above elements, you have a classic
anxiety-producing situation - for the
students, and for me. Smoking didn't
help although suicide by asphyxiation
became more attractive as the day wore
on.

At the end of that first day, I went
home, poured a Scotch and told myself,
"Okay, it was a bad day but the worst is
over. It's going to get better.”

The next day someone stole my car from
the South Parking Lot. c=

Perhaps it had been "many" years since
you had been in a classroom, perhaps you
had not been to a college before, perhaps
you were just beginning changes in your
life which would "passage" you into
different places and thoughts. I admire
your courage to try a new direction.

There was no need to fear being in a
room with lots of fresh-from-high school
people, or how to write a_ research
proposal or annotated bibliography, but
how were you to know that when you
began our classes? I am not sure I would
have the fortitude to do the same thing.

You stuck it out, we spent time together
on these tasks, and now you help other
students coming into class.

Sometimes I sensed a lack of confidence
or awareness of your own abilities, a
question of whether you should be at the
College at all. Now I see you taking
classes in all sorts of subjects. I miss
you in anthropology, but we only have so
many courses, and you have taken them
all! With luck there will continue to be
more mature students in classes and I
will continue to share learning and
friendship and a refreshing spirit of
discovery. =

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