Mother went to Atkinson College as a mature student when she and dad were in their 60s. The following is a poem she wrote at the time.
An Atkinson student, I am, I am,
Determined to pass in every exam.
I march down the hall with steps so firm,
My goal is the distance, the Common Room,
I’ll study there, where it is quiet and warm
About Social Groups, their roles and norm.
I settled down and started to read
Merton, Homan, Hatfield and Mead.
Over seven hundred pages, scientific, analytic
Dialectic, phraseology, terminology specific.
Why can’t they use plain English, this science to explain
Why make it so exclusive, why put me under strain?
“Folkways” by Sumner I really enjoyed.
I read it when I should have read Freud.
Freud worries me, how clever can one be
And still hold on to one’s sanity?
I’m past the age where school is fun.
It’s work, work, work, till the day is done.
And sometimes longer, till the rising sun.
My exam paper’s back. Oh dear, I’ve done poorly,
Just barely a pass, I can do better, surely.
Seems I can specialize, economize, improvise, dramatize, systematize,
socialize, generalize, realize, visualize and analyse
But I simply must learn to theorize.
Determined to pass in every exam.
I march down the hall with steps so firm,
My goal is the distance, the Common Room,
I’ll study there, where it is quiet and warm
About Social Groups, their roles and norm.
I settled down and started to read
Merton, Homan, Hatfield and Mead.
Over seven hundred pages, scientific, analytic
Dialectic, phraseology, terminology specific.
Why can’t they use plain English, this science to explain
Why make it so exclusive, why put me under strain?
“Folkways” by Sumner I really enjoyed.
I read it when I should have read Freud.
Freud worries me, how clever can one be
And still hold on to one’s sanity?
I’m past the age where school is fun.
It’s work, work, work, till the day is done.
And sometimes longer, till the rising sun.
My exam paper’s back. Oh dear, I’ve done poorly,
Just barely a pass, I can do better, surely.
Seems I can specialize, economize, improvise, dramatize, systematize,
socialize, generalize, realize, visualize and analyse
But I simply must learn to theorize.