to think my degree is as good as anyone elses?

[SecretSlattern]

I started off in 2004 doing a NVQ 3 in Early Years Care and Education, 3 months after having DD. I qualified 9 months later, with 2 level 3 qualifications and worked for a bit in day nurseries, pre-schools and after school clubs before studying a Foundation Degree in Early Years Childcare and Education.

At the start of the second year of my FD, I discovered I was pg with DS but continued on anyway and had him 2 weeks before the end of the course. I graduated from Uni in 2008, six weeks after having DS.

I finally went back to finish the last year of my BA (hons) in Early Childhood Studies. I now have 2 DCs, one of which is constantly in and out of hospital, and have now discovered I am pg with DC3. The timing is pretty shit, but there you go. DC3 is due in May, the same month that I am due to finish my degree (although will still have to write my dissertation, which I have done before so am confident I can do it again).

However, when telling a friend of mine what I was up to (hadn't spoken in a while), she sniffed, pulled a face and basically said it wouldn't matter if I didn't finish my degree because it isn't a proper degree anyway. "What can you do with a degree in kids?" was the question I was asked.

I actually intend to go on in the future and do a PGCE in primary, specialising in early years. AIBU to think that just because my degree is "in kids" it doesn't make it any less of a degree? I still go to uni, still have to do a mahoosive amount of work, same as any other undergrad.

Xenia, I hope to Christ I never get stuck sat next to you at an airport

That should be 'consider any of the above' not either sorry.

Xenia is absolutely right in saying that there needs to be greater realism about what particular degrees from certain universities will get you. Esp now there are significant costs involved, and many people attending lesser universities would probably be better off spending three years at work getting experience and moving through the ranks rather than incurring huge debt, and being unable to get a graduate-level job.

This whole idea of a 'degree being a degree' is a product of the policy to send 50% of people to university. And it is actually a barrier to social mobility - the poorer go to their local university, because they believe that a degree is a degree, and they can live at home to save money, while the children of graduates/well-off, who know the system, pick the better establishments, then snaffle the graduate jobs.

But that doesn't take away from the OP - she's doing a degree relevant to the career she wants to go into.

Xenia has a point. I want DC's Paediatrican to have a first from Oxford, residency at Great Ormond Street, and write a few brilliant articles. Actually, he does, and is so kind, but so incredibly boring.

Thanks, I'd prefer to sit next to someone colorful and outrageous at dinner.

I am shocked by the statement that many Engineering students couldn't do humanities degrees because so many are dyslexic and couldn't write the essays.

I have no idea how many engineering students are dyslexic, but I do know that having dyslexia is not a barrier to doing a humanities degree.

"Anyway it's a reasonably free economy so wages typically tell us what society values - housewife - zero, classroom assistant, minimum wage, nanny £X per hour, doctor £Y etc etc."

I'm going to save that quote for the next wohm/sahm fight club. I'm going to pull the pin, throw it into the thread and run like hell.

MillyR, I didn't say that. I don't think dyslexia is a barrier to doing a humanities degree at all, but I do think that people who are successful are those who play to their strengths - and I include determination and a love of the subject under strengths. The reason I mentioned dyslexia is that it's a good illustration of how a person's 'intelligence' is made up of different elements, and some people who are very able in one area are very handicapped in another.

I am dyslexic and I am doing a PhD in English. For me dyslexia is (overall) a good thing, but I am very aware of how tricky it is to test for 'intelligence', and how pointless it is to try to set up different kinds of intelligence in a hierarchy.

I probably shouldn't wade into this, but surely the classroom assistant wage is low because lots of people want to do the job, and will accept that wage for doing it. One of the reasons lots of people want to do it is because the hours fit in with school hours so the classroom assistant doesn't have to pay out for much childcare and gets to see their children.

A job that has limited childcare costs ends up being more profitable than a better paid one with high childcare costs.

LittleRedDragon, there may be some truth in it; I don't know. It may be due to innate skills or it may be to do with specialising in one area early limits the time you spend on others.

In many academic subjects beyond undergraduate level, it isn't beneficial to be only good in one area and not be able to combine different skills, because so much research depends upon a synthesis if ideas and being able to adapt to work coming in from other disciplines.

Clearly English lit and Engineering are at the opposite extremes of academic thought in many ways.

MillyR - thanks, you put it better than I did

totally agree with wonderingwondering's post
very well put

'However, we also had a shedload of reading. e.g. three novels per week, prepare a presentation on one of them, and maybe reading some theoretical essays'

That isn't a particularly heavy workload for an English degree.

YANBU. You've worked hard and have a degree that is related to something you want to do.

I wouldn't say Engineering and English were opposites. Both are creative if you do them well.

'However, we also had a shedload of reading. e.g. three novels per week, prepare a presentation on one of them, and maybe reading some theoretical essays'

Surely you didn't actually do all the reading, did you? You naive thing. The art of an english degree is to write convincingly about books you've never opened. Tsk tsk, whatever next?

You don't mean to tell me that you actually read Tristram Shandy? That book would just be too heavy to take back from the library. Ditto Clarissa. You'd develop back injuries even trying. No, no, no. You read the first chapter and the last chapter and if you really have to, one in the middle ...

Reading some of the posts here (and expecting a flaming for this) - there are some real snobs out there!

As a lecturer at a Russell Group University, you should be proud of your achievements. Anyone who thinks that a degree from one of the scorned ex-polys is worth nothing, doesn't know what they are talking about. In some fields the ex-polys are far superior to the old universities.

The comment of "Anyway it's a reasonably free economy so wages typically tell us what society values - housewife - zero, classroom assistant, minimum wage, nanny £X per hour, doctor £Y etc etc.", however, possibly explains why as a university lecturer at the top of my pay scale I earn considerably less than my neighbour bank manager who has no education beyond high school.

OP well done in achieving your degree. The fact that you have achieved it whilst having a family sayes much more about your determination and ambition than anything else and I wish you well with your future career.

Edam, I am just speculating really. I meant that they were opposites in that they are both areas where the impact of thought from other disciplines is somewhat limited. I know that English will be influenced by Sociology and Philosophy, but it doesn't really concern itself with what is happening in Physics and Ecology. The same is true of Engineering but at the other end of the spectrum. Disciplines that are more in the middle, such as Geography for example, tend to build on ideas from a very wide range of disciplines from science, social science and the humanities.

Oh, I see. Although people do write books about physics and ecology, I guess...

Can't speak about geography, hated the ruddy subject and gave up thankfully after my O-level - really pissed the teacher off that I got a B without doing any work at all or handing in any homework. They say exams are getting easier but O-level geography was a piece of piss if you vaguely paid attention and read a national newspaper. IME. Although some of my best friends studied geography and I'm aware it's just as respectable as any other academic subject etc. etc. etc.!

Mind you, MillyR, I'm doing interdisciplinary work in art, psychology and English (reading theory) and there are others in my department who work with historians, architects and, yes, engineers...

I think what's clear in this thread is that there are far more different attitudes to studying than there are degree courses out there!

It's not at all unusual when looking at the family backgrounds of children with both dyslexia and Aspergers to find a strong association with family members who are engineers. It's the reason for the theory that ASD spectrum might be an over evolution of spacial perception over emotional development. My brother is dyslexic, an engineer and struggles to writes reports.

The skill you need to write about science is on the whole totally different to that of humanities. One descries what is, whilst the other marshals arguments to argue whatever the writer feels like. My doctor colleagues found the latter very difficult, despite the fact that they were at least as intelligent as those of us who had specialised outside of science. they were on the other hand much better than us at learning and memorising facts (very important for medicine, where you really have to know many things for testing).

People don't just come in more intelligent and less intelligent varieties, there are many aptitudes and skills, and no one has them all.

Nooka I can confirm that (my MA is in ASD,and we do lots on the comorbidity of other SEN.

Xenia I'm having to disagree with your post- I don'tcare if the person has a first from Cambridge or an E at GCSE as longa s they are an interesting person with some life story. In my experience many of the students studying as mature students in some of the less established uni's have interesting stories and have had much life before they reached that stage- making them IMVHO interesting people.

'And no, not everyone does say "uni" - it's an indicator of your class and educational level if you say uni ' I am working class,absolutely:my education is now at post grad level but for most of my life (until 30) it asn't,peole get set in their ways and I have no need to change. That is of course because in part my aimsare very firmly directed at an area where being apricularly posh etc would be a negative (charity sector,direct family supprt- my dream,albeit unlikely, is toestablish a charity focusing on kids in the immediate post- DX with asd year). I freely acknowledge that other areas such as law prefer the opposite traits but I am blessed as I have the pedantic speech of a true Aspie and come acrossas far more posh that I am on many occasions. best of both worlds eh

I know the thread has moved on (haven't read it all sorry!). But in response to your'friend's' comment "What can you do with a degree in kids?", I just wanted to say that I know 3 people with the same qualification you are working towards (they all got it within last few years).

One is the manager of a large private nursery, one is a part-time college lecturer in early years, and one is an NVQ assessor for early years.

Each one of them has done the course whilst looking after 2DCs each, and none of them had any prior qualifications to speak of before beginning their training (along the same lines as you OP).

Well done and good luck! I take my hat off to you. I did my degree as an 18yo (to 21), and it was a piece of cake when I think about how I would manage now with my 2 DCs. Well done for what you have achieved so far. And it might be worth rethinking your choice of friends!

BTW I went to a Russell Group Uni, and I work at a ex-poly. And I can tell you that there is really not a big difference in the teaching. The main difference is in the RESEARCH capability of the establishment. In fact ex-poly's are often referred to as teaching universities simply because that is their focus. A lot of the lecturers I had when I went to Uni were pompous, had poor social skills, and no concept of how to get the best out of a student. They were employed because their research brought wads of cash into the University.

Lots of interesting and different themes on here now.....

1. We have are all degrees the same. Who would think that? It's like the animals in Animal Farm believing all animals are equal. As I said above wage rates tend to tell you what is worth what. Plenty of people can become nurses because it doesn't require that high an IQ. Not so many can be doctors. Plenty can become secretaries - indeed plenty of graduates in useless degrees from bad places end up as secretaries and might as well have done short hand typing at 14 and left school at 16. Not so many can become partners at London accountancy practices earning £1m a year. Most of us unless we don't have hands can probably clean. Few of us can probably run a cleaning firm plc.

1. The state system has led people like lamb's to the slaughter into the Animal scenario of believing the rubbish they are told - that nothing is wrong, red ink isn't used, you are all great even if you can't spell, that it is not a competitive world out there and it doesn't matter if you don't win at sports day. The private system doesn't operate in that left wing parallel universe so children do better there.

1. Next to whom you'd want to sit at a dinner party (obviously not someone who doesn't say whom for a start.....or didn't go to a school where that mattered)... I'm joking. The sun is out, the snow looks beautiful and I'm having fun with some work. But I'd still prefer the doctor over my bin man although again it depends. I know a good few very well educated Afghan taxi drivers and I'd take them every day over the usual thick white male middle aged fat racist London cab driver who thinks he's brilliant and isn't.

Ha ha Xenia . I'd sit next to you because you are a hoot, despite the fact that I disagree with you about most things.

This is a class thread though. It isn't an education thread anymore.