A response to last weeks editorial on student loans
I grew up as a very poor child near Vienna, Mo., and I went to Bend School, a one-room school for all of my elementary education. I walked a little over a mile to elementary school and to catch the bus to go to high school. I graduated from Vienna High School in 1960. I had good teachers in both elementary school and in high school.
My parents could not afford to send me to college. I applied for and received National Defense Education Association student loans. I believe any work is fine as long as it is honest work. I would not ask for a handout. To get through college, I worked in the hat factory, cleaned houses for people, worked in the dorm as a waitress for 50 cents an hour, and worked in the library.
I graduated from Central Missouri State College in three years. When I was 20, I started teaching. I had 10 years to pay back my NDEA loans, but I paid them back in five.
I went to the University of Missouri for my master’s degree, and I took 24 more hours in night school and at various universities. I had 31 years of a successful teaching career at the high school level.
I like Charlie Daniels’ “Long Hard Country Boy.” It is not the refrain from Daniels’ song that makes this English teacher’s blood boil. My blood boils that individuals expect their student loans to be forgiven, and I understand that is being done.
I agree with Mr. Warden that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone has to pay these student loans, and I believe it is Mr. Warden, me, and others who pay taxes.
I have not worked for pay since I retired. As a volunteer, I have tutored students at all levels and taught English as a second language. I still teach ESL. I love to teach.
Sincerely,
Mary (Adkins) Halbrook
