Imagine going back to school in your 80s, in the year 1911, as a woman. This one brave soul had a hankering for knowledge and she did not let her age or her gender stop her from going to college to learn all that there was to know.
A Co-ed at Eighty Tells Why She Pursues Her Studies at College
Editors Note — The writer of this article is the oldest co-ed in the world, her 80 years detracting nothing from the enthusiasm with which she pursued her studies at the University of Wisonsin. She tells why in this story, written especially for The Day Book.
By Amy Davis Winship
An insatiable curiosity to know things accounts for my being in the university at 80 years. My hobbies are literature, philosophy, psychology and ethics. I took every course offered in these subjects at Ohio State University, where I spent the first two years of my college life.
I want to remain in college until I am 90, as I enjoy the college atmosphere and life more than anything that has ever come to me.
My being a student came about accidentally. I had gone from my home in Racine, Wis., to visit some friends at Columbus. When there I availed myself of the chance to hear professors discuss psychological topics.
After a lecture I told Prof. Lowdon of my ambition, which was to know all I could of the subject. He asked me why I did not enter college. I was surprised that he thought of it, for I only had a ‘log school’ education, followed by a life of varied experiences. I took him at his word and the next day I registered.
In the classroom I take no notes and I have no difficulty in memorizing what I hear. I concentrate with considerable dynamic force; storing my impressions in my subconscious and I can command the knowledge when I want it.
Often I take exceptions to the statements that the professors make, when they conflict with my opinions. This is especially true in classes where child psychology is dealt with.
They gradually come to my way of thinking, for they know that my knowledge is based upon years of experience with my own children and grandchildren, as well as with hundreds of others who have come under my care.
There is much truth in the old Brahamin philosophy — All knowledge comes from experience.
I adhere to the view that woman’s sphere is housekeeping. I was a home maker until five years ago, when my second husband died. After that I entered college in Ohio, and some reporters sent the story broadcast that I was a wealthy widow.
You ought to see the great piles of letters which I have received since that, from many nations, all from young people who want to go to college and ask financial aid from me.
Now, I am not rich and as I could not help the deserving ones, even, I have refrained from answering them.
I have a son and a daughter. I am very proud of them.
Now that my home is a thing of the past, I am doing what seems to me the next best thing to home making — seeking after truth under the eaves of the greatest university in the land. I am happy, very happy.
Source: Winship, Amy Davis. (1911, December 22). A Co-ed at Eighty Tells Why She Pursues Her Studies at College. The Day Book, p. 11-12.
