You Are… Final Paper

Emma Lindsay

EDU 727: Social Context 

Dr. Martinette Horner

December 6, 2020
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I interviewed my dad’s cousin, Carla Kogelman, who I refer to as Aunt Carla. I chose to

interview her because she is definitely a talker, and she knows all of the family history. She was

born in August of 1961 in Avoca, Michigan, a small town about 55 miles east of Flint and 60

miles north of Detroit. She lived with her parents, Ross and Jeanne, and her older sister, Kate.

She went to elementary school in Avoca and junior high and high school at Yale High School in

neighboring Yale, MI, which was a rural farming community. After she graduated from high

school in 1979, she enrolled in St. Clair Community College in Port Huron, which was the

county seat, so it was more diverse than where she attended her first 12 years of school. Once

she earned her Associate Degree in 1981, she attended Michigan State University to obtain her

Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications Arts and Sciences, which she finished in 1983.

Michigan State was part of her upbringing, as both of her parents attended school there and that

is also where they met.

We spent a bit of time talking about the structure of her junior high and high school

levels of schooling, as well as differences she noticed between her small, farm town upbringing

and her experiences at a large school like Michigan State. By the time she entered junior high

and senior high school, her community was having a difficult time getting school millage rate

increases passed, so the two different levels had to share the same building. This meant that they

were on “split sessions,” where the high school students attended from 7:00 am until noon and

the junior high students attended from 12:15pm until 5:15pm. This schedule allowed for the

community to not need another building, as well as for the high school students to have the

afternoons to work on the farms, or in town, in order to help their families with expenses. She

said that, although she only lived 20 minutes from the school by car, she had to take the bus so
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her route was an hour and a half each way, meaning that she got on the bus before 5:30 each

morning.

The split sessions made it difficult for the school to offer a variety of course offerings.

There were no college prep courses or advanced courses offered at the high school, and her

courses were very Euro-centric with American history, American government, and English

literature. There was no opportunity to take college courses in high school for college credit.

When we were talking about the schedule, she said that, because of the split school day, the

students did not have a lunch hour. There was an area where they could grab a quick snack or

drink or use vending machines, but there was not a time to sit down and get lunch. I found this

interesting given it is now required for students to get lunch even if it is an early release or

weather release day.

There was very limited racial diversity in her small rural town. Due to her dad’s

occupation, a regional manager for State Farm, she said that they spent a lot of time in the

Detroit metro area, where the population was much more diverse. While her parents taught her

that everyone is equal and should be treated that way, she said that they sheltered her from the

prejudiced opinions of those who lived in her community. It wasn’t until college that she

interacted with a diverse group of people and witnessed discrimination and the wide range of

prejudices that existed. In a Jewish/American literature class that she took, she was called out

for not being Jewish and called a “WASP” by her classmates.

Additionally, she talked about the treatment of other minority groups. She said that

gay/lesbian lifestyles were not supported in her community, so many students did not discuss

their feelings and hid their true identities from their friends and families. This era was also when

students with disabilities began to be included in the mainstream public-school system. This
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group of students had specific, isolated classes but began to integrate with the student population

during the day. As she progressed through school and into the workforce, she grew increasingly

aware of sexism as well. She said that she witnessed and experienced times when, as a woman,

stepping into a role that was more often considered for a male, it was met with the assumption

that she wouldn’t last or that the job was being taken from a man who needed it to support his

family. In her opinion, real progress didn’t start happening until well into her professional

career.

Both of her parents were involved with her and her sister’s schooling. Her father, a

former teacher, would regularly check in with their teachers, principal, and superintendent. Her

mother was on the school board when she graduated, and actually handed my aunt her diploma

as she crossed the stage. She said going to and graduating from college was an expectation in

her house, but not her community. She vividly remembers a conversation as she was standing in

line to walk for graduation when some of her classmates were discussing what their post-high

school plans were. There was never a question in her mind, or in the way she was brought up,

that she would not go to college and graduate with a four-year degree. She said it was standing

in that line that she realized many of her classmates did not have the same opportunities for their

futures. Many of them planned on working on the family farms or going to work in the auto

factories on the “line” in the metro Detroit area because they had family that worked there and

could help them get a job. In the end, she said that out of the approximately 120 people that she

graduated with, only 11 of them went on to complete a four-year degree.

During her time in high school, more vocational educational programs opened up and

some began joining school systems. These programs allowed students who did not want to, or

could not attend, college the opportunity to learn a trade such as carpentry or plumbing. There
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were also programs to train individuals for other careers like secretarial or nursing assistants.

This opened the door for students in her rural hometown, unable to afford college, to learn a skill

and get a job.

While she grew up in a time that involved much turmoil, and mentioned JFK and issues

with unemployment, inflation, and interest rates (11.20% the year she graduated from high

school), the historical event that she said changed her perspective on things was the return of

soldiers from Vietnam in 1975. She said that, initially, she was excited to attend the welcome

home parades that her parents took her to, but she came to learn that they weren’t all welcomed

home with open arms, and many of them were not treated as heroes and continue to this day to

suffer with PTSD and lack of acceptance.

The most common themes that emerged through the interview were the lack of diversity

in her area and schooling and the impact of the introduction of vocational programs. One was

the limited diversity that surrounded her in her community growing up both in regard to the

students she went to school with and the content she was exposed to. Her social studies classes

in high school centered around American history and American government, with little to no

mention of the histories of the minority populations that lived in the Unites States. Her English

classes also centered around American and English literature. The lack of diversity in history

textbooks and English literature selections continues to be an issue today.

One area of diversity where she began to see some movement was the inclusion of

individuals with disabilities in public schools. With the passage of the Education for

Handicapped Children Act in 1975, schools were charged to place students in the least restrictive

environments (Spring, 2011). This meant that they should spend as much time as possible with

their nondisabled peers and only be in separate setting schools or classes if their needs were so
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significant that they could not be met in another setting. This is a change that began to happen

during her time in high school.

The twentieth century, where providing educational opportunities that met the unique

needs of each individual, was a marked shift to the nineteenth century when it was commonly

held that education provided a common opportunity by giving everyone the same education.

(Spring, 2011). Aunt Carla’s recollection of vocational programs in her community, as well as

her high school, demonstrates the education as equality of opportunity mindset was evident. As

a student, Aunt Carla would have had no idea that what she was observing in a small, rural,

school in Michigan, started with the vocational guidance movement in the early 1900s. when the

idea emerged to help students select educational programs that matched their interests (Spring,

2011). The 1914 report of the Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education argued that

vocational education was key because it met the individual needs of students and helped them

prepare for their lifetime of work (Spring, 2011). It changed the organization of the educational

system from the time of the common school movement from one size fits all to offering different

types of programs based on students’ strengths and needs.

Through this interview, I learned a lot about how historical trends are woven into every

aspect of education. From the inclusivity of the schools to how education was presented to

students to the differing opportunities based on where you live, which all still exist today. And, I

must say, I learned a lot about my aunt as well.

Appendix

1. Where did you attend school?

2. What was the community like that you grew up in?

3. What was the schedule like at the schools that you attended?

4. What types of courses were available for you to take?

5. What was the make-up of the student body?

6. Did their backgrounds differ from yours?

7. What did you do for your post-secondary education?

8. Was going to college something that was expected by your parents?

9. What were the post-secondary plans of your classmates?

10. Who was involved in your education?

11. How was the diversity of your college experience different from the diversity of your

primary and secondary school experiences?

12. What were the major political, social, philosophical and economic events that happened

during your years in school?

13. That kind of impact did those events have on your childhood, education, and/or

professional career?
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References

Spring, Joel H. The American School: a Global Context from the Puritans to the Obama Era.

McGraw-Hill, 2011.