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College and Deciding to Become a Teacher

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College and Deciding to Become a Teacher

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Jane enrolled as a student at Cal State Fullerton straight out of high school.  Originally studying French, she was discouraged to realize many of the students majoring in that language were native speakers.  She decided to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology instead.  After graduating Jane was at an uncertain point in her life.  In the early 1970s social service jobs were scarce.  Jane had a college degree but no obvious career path.  Her father suggested she might enjoy being a teacher.  She took his advice, obtaining a teaching credential after graduate work at the University of Hawaii, Cal State Long Beach, and Chapman University.  She also obtained a Master’s of Science in Reading from Pepperdine University.  Jane went on to teach at Jefferson Elementary School in Santa Ana for 36 years.

Before her father’s suggestion, teaching was a profession Jane describes as “not even on my radar”.  She is grateful for her father’s advice.  Within a few years of educating children she “discovered that [she] was meant to be a teacher.”

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Current Population Survey, 1968 to 2013 Annual Social and Economic Supplements. Rep. N.p.: U.S. Census Burea, 2016. Print.

Lehman, Jeffrey. "Scottish and Scotch-Irish Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 1567-578. Gale Virtual Reference Library [Gale]. Web. Dec. 2016.

Riggs, Thomas. "German Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2014. 207-23. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. Dec. 2016.

Ryan, Camille L., and Kurt Bauman. Educational Attainment in The United States: 2015. Rep. N.p.: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016. Web.

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Paul with his wife Marge and their two children Joe and Jane.

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“Grandpa’s Pop Ran Away from Home,” by Paul Denny

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“Grandpa’s Pop Ran Away from Home,” by Paul Denny

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The first time Grandpa’s Pop ran away from home it was spring planting time.  Grandpa and Aunt Marie harrowed the soil and planted the corn.  Grandpa’s neighbor was a very nice older man.  He came by one day when Aunt Marie and Grandpa were cultivating the long rows of green young corn plants, and he didn’t say anything about Grandpa’s Pop running away.  He just said, “You kids sure did a good job planting that corn.  Those are the straightest rows I have ever seen.”  Grandpa and Aunt Marie liked our neighbor very, very much for what he said—and what he didn’t say.

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Growing up in New Mexico.

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Jane enjoys retirement during a trip to Athens, Greece.

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9-year-old Jane.

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Jane early on in her teaching career.

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Jane Williams, my mom, is the daughter of Paul Denny. Her parents’ first of two children, she was born December 31st, 1947.  During her childhood and adolescence Jane’s family moved a number of times.  She lived in Illinois, Tennessee, Wyoming, New Mexico, and California.  Most of her life has been spent in California where she started her family and worked as an elementary school teacher for 36 years.

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From 2nd to 7th grade Jane attended school in Albuquerque.  Most days she and her brother would ride their bicycles on dirt paths through the desert to get to school.  She remembers one morning when a large herd of sheep was grazing along the route to school.  The sheep, owned by Navajo ranchers, were so numerous that Jane and her brother had to get off their bikes and walk to school.  “I never used the excuse ‘my dog ate my homework’,” she jokes, “but I did tell my teacher I was late because of the sheep.”

Many of Jane’s New Mexican classmates had Hispanic origins.  This was one of Jane’s earliest exposures to people of a different cultural background.  She explains that the experience made her more aware and open-minded concerning differences in race and culture.

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Paul earns his master's degree

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Paul playing the banjo on the family farm.

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Grandpa Paul and me.

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Completion of an Army course.

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My grandparents while Paul was in the army.

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Family Educational History Project
by Brad Williams

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Cal State Fullerton
Fall 2016
EDEL 325

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Paul’s mother’s maiden name, Sauer, is German.  Denny is a Scottish name.  White, mostly Protestant immigrants from Germany and Scotland are among America’s earliest settlers.  The majority of them arrived during the 18th and 19th centuries, primarily because of hard economic times in their home countries.  Other reasons influencing their immigration included religious dissent, political persecution, and war.

Significant percentages of both immigrant groups were farmers back home and continued that trade in their new country.  This is a possible explanation for my grandfather’s growing up on an Iowa farm.  It may be he was a descendant of a large community of German Pietists (a movement within Lutheranism) that settled in the state in the mid-1800s.

“According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates for 2009-2011, about 49 million persons claim German ancestry, many more than the second-place group” (Rippley, 2014).  Maybe this is why German is the third most popular foreign language taught in American schools.  Scottish is the twelfth most populous ethnic group according to the 1990 census (Lehman, 2000).  The state with the highest population of German Americans and second highest population of Scottish Americans is California.

German and Scottish immigrants “helped create what has been recognized as the dominant culture in America, namely, white and Protestant (Lehman, 2000).”  In 2012 the median household income for white Americans was $57,009, slightly above the national average (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014).  Thirty-five percent of white, non-Hispanics aged 25 and higher had a B.A. or higher in 2015 (Ryan & Bauman, 2016).

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Not long after completing his high school education Paul moved to Chicago.  While working odd jobs he began taking courses in typewriting and shorthand.  He graduated top of his class and gained work as a court reporter for several years, recording the proceedings of several important murder trials.  Paul enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II.  He was not sent overseas.  His skills with short and a typewriter made him more valuable at home.  He was a First Lieutenant and secretary to several important generals.

Following his military service Paul went back to work as a court reporter.  He started a family.  After some years, disappointed by low pay and long hours, Paul moved his family to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  His cousin lived there.  The cousin had convinced Paul that he could make more money if they partnered selling insurance.  More money was not made.  Paul decided it was time to go back to school.  He continued to sell insurance while studying business at the University of New Mexico.  He eventually earned a teaching credential and Master’s in School Administration.  After several years as a high school business teacher, Paul took a temporary position teaching the same subject at Chico State University.  Afterword he was offered a full-time job teaching at Cerritos College and eventually became chairman of that school’s business department.  Paul retired in his 60s.  Not content with a life of idleness, Paul earned a real estate license in his retirement and went on to own several rental properties in Whitier and Buena Park.  He also spent time writing short stories about his younger life (I’ve included a short example on this page).

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Paul was a young boy during the Great Depression.  In 1932 his family lost ownership of their farm but were allowed to stay on it as sharecroppers (working the land for the new owner).  Paul remembers that year corn could not be sold at a profit.  Rather than sell it at a loss his family ate corn meal mush for every breakfast and corn bread for every lunch and dinner.  Instead of coal they burned corn cobs in the winter.  Corn husks replaced toilet paper.  In a short story Paul explains that most years the only birthday presents that could be “afforded” were affectionate spankings from family members.  The poverty Paul experienced early in his life was a motivating factor for his future success.  “If I stayed home I would have ended up a farmer,” Paul explains.  “I didn’t want to stay poor.  I wanted to go somewhere else.”

His formal schooling took place in a one room school house up until the 8th grade.  Living in a rural area, one instructor taught all grades.  Paul also attended Sunday school regularly. This lasted until he was about 15, a time when he became less interested in and more skeptical of the Church.  After the 8th grade Paul was not required to further his education.  Most youths in his hometown did not.  High school was not offered locally.  The first in his family, Paul decided to continue his education.  He went to live with a family in a neighboring community where he could attend high school.

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Paul Denny, my grandfather, was born on a small farm in Farson, Iowa in 1924.  He lived there throughout his childhood into his adolescence.  He was his parents' eldest child and only boy.  His father was absent for much of his youth, leaving Paul and his three sisters responsible for many of the family farm’s duties.  At 18 he moved to Illinois and has since resided in Wyoming, Tennessee, New Mexico, and California.  He has worked in a variety of occupations during his life including farmer, court reporter, army lieutenant, insurance salesman, high school teacher, college professor, college administrator, and real estate agent.

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My grandfather is a modest man.  He would never come out and say it, but I know him to be above average in drive, work ethic, and intelligence.  I don’t know how much of that is natural ability and how much was inspired through life experiences, but I believe it is the reason he was able to rise from his impoverished youth to the successful person he is today.  For as long as I can remember he has always been an advocate of pursuing education throughout life--just like he did.  This attitude has been a strong factor in influencing me to stick with my college education over a period much longer than the average student.  As I near my degree and a possible teaching credential I feel fortunate that I was exposed to this attitude throughout my life.