
A 54-year-old custodian just graduated from the college he cleaned at night - shawndumas
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/05/18/this-54-year-old-custodian-just-graduated-from-the-college-he-cleaned-at-night/
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LionessLover
I read this when it was first published and while it's impressive for sure
this is easily overlooked:

> Decades earlier, in 1982, Vaudreuil received an associate’s degree in
> aeronautical engineering, but didn’t pursue his chosen career in the
> struggling airline industry.

So he had significant prior training in a related field.

Also, maybe that's my European bias, but I'm not so thrilled about this story
because to my mind it _shouldn 't_ have been so hard for him in the first
place to get that education, and some more aid after a normal failure in life.

I mean, are we making lives hard so that we can then celebrate the few(!)
successes as if they prove anything? Like, that making lives in one of the
richest countries in the entire million year history of mankind hard is a good
thing?

This is like a Roman circus, we throw people into the arena and then celebrate
the few who make it out again as "heroes".

 _" Are You Not Entertained?"_
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs))

~~~
un-devmox
\-- So he had significant prior training in a related field.

> He had to drop Calculus 1 initially because his basic Algebra was too rusty.
> So he self-taught himself through YouTube videos, and went on to ace
> Calculus 1 -4.

I agree with your sentiment (everyone should be afforded the same opportunity)
but, I feel that you are being overly cynical. After all, other employees at
the university had/have the same benefits. IMO, this man should be recognized
for his accomplishments.

The older you get the harder it is to change careers. Maybe this man's story
will help motivate others to follow in his footsteps.

~~~
cisstrd
I think you read it wrong, parent is calling him "one of the few successes"
which to me actually is recognizing his achievement, but instead of "this is
great", what he sees in the story is "how the hell was it so hard for him in
the first place, it shouldn't", so it's a difference in perspective, but not
that he does not recognize his success (that's my perception).

That being said, of course I agree with you. I was once enrolled in a
community college program out of fun, thinking I would actually learn
something, but with housewives and retired people in the class, the progress
was next to nil and I dropped out pretty quickly, at first I was angry, but it
actually gave me a glimpse into how hard even the easiest things were to them.
I could read something for 5 minutes and be able to recite it, they would
struggle with it for an hour. Not to say I am a genius, but one should really
take advantage of all the chances while young, that's what I got from it, so I
guess it was worth it.

So I deeply respect his achievement.

Clarification: Though I also partly blame the teacher for the bad experience,
but that's another story entirely.

Edit: In case someone missed it, not so long ago this was on HN "Learning
Chess at 40", very interesting read
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11653538](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11653538)

~~~
un-devmox
Yes, I can see (now) a different interpretation of the parent post. I get your
point.

It is too bad you didn't have a good experience with CC. My experience with
community college was quite different and very rewarding. In fact, when I
transferred to university I was farther along in computer science and math
than my classmates. However, I did have one class, WordPress (in which I was
told we would learn to build themes from scratch), that parallels your
experience!

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Johnny555
But will that degree help him find a job? And will he get any tangible payoff
from the thousands of hours of class & studying (even if it was "free")? (I
get that the degree has intangible "I put myself through college!" benefits,
but if he was trying to better his situation, was the degree the right
choice?)

What's the job market like for newly minted mechanical engineers? Does he now
face years of apprenticeship to earn his PE so he can really take advantage of
the degree?

He ran a plastering business for 24 years, would he have been better off
taking some business courses to learn how to grow his company and then putting
those hours into his business as the economy improved?

~~~
pjmorris
I suppose if he hadn't gone for the degree someone could pose questions like
yours about his unwillingness to retrain. And, who knows, maybe he's got a
plan to reshape the engineering behind the plastering business. It's probably
more profitable and more painful to ponder your own counterfactuals than
someone else's.

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stevefeinstein
I'm really interested in if he'll find a company that'll hire him despite the
fact that age discrimination while illegal is practiced by most companies. I'm
51, and compared to when I was 21 it's way harder, and I'm not even looking
for more money than the typical twenty-something.

~~~
ALee
I can unequivocally say that as an employer we've hired people who are much
older and re-trained because they were able to do the job. We're okay with
people who have kids or are older, as long as they get the job done. If older
people can't get the job done and a younger person can, then so be it.

------
jaredandrews
Ahh, my alma mater! This is exciting for me because the last time WPI was
discussed nationally it was due to the comments of graduate and former U.S.
Representative Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin.

~~~
progressive_dad
I had quite a few friends who excelled in Science and Tech in highschool and
went on to MIT, Stanford, Virginia Tech, GA Tech, Purdue, UofI Urbana, etc.

My parents were over 500k in debt when I was applying to colleges and I had a
pretty good idea what I wanted to do with my life, so I opted for an
associates degree from a community college and to start my career as a
computer programmer as soon as possible. I was making enough money I made it a
point to travel to visit my friends and they all seemed miserable, stressed
out, disappointed with their choices, frustrated, lost...

All except my friend who went to WPI. He was as enthusiastic and happy as ever
eating bad Chinese food, bent over 30 half assembled hacked gameboys, same as
when I'd last seen him 3 years ago.

Its the first place I want to take my son when he's looking at colleges.

~~~
jaredandrews
I have some qualms with WPI but overall I wouldn't change anything about my
college experience. You are correct, most of the kids there are passionate
about what they are studying. This is an attribute I found disturbingly absent
in many campuses that I visited during my college years. WPI, at least in the
CS dept, is very focused on "learning how to learn" which is why I think this
happens.

Another aspect is the "WPI Plan"[0]. Over the years there have been talks of
getting rid of it. But if they don't, definitely encourage your son to
consider WPI. Without the plan, I'm not sure what the point of going there
would be...

Also... Worcester as a city tends to get a lot of shit. This is from people
who have never been there or never put in the effort to go off the beaten path
there. The "mainstream attractions" in Woo are pretty lame, no doubt. But
Worcester is a city that rewards the open minded and creative, not those who
enjoy "plug it in and it works" activities. To a certain degree WPI is the
same way.

Not sure how far off you are from the college touring experience but feel free
to shoot me an email (in bio) if you have ever any questions about WPI.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester_Polytechnic_Institut...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester_Polytechnic_Institute#Project_System)

------
_RPM
Reminds me of good will hunting, where he was a janitor but was smarter than
professors and really good at math.

~~~
chipotle2
They should make a movie where the professors are smarter than the janitors.

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drawkbox
It is getting better, but adult education options are very poor and few
considering careers and jobs change often now, and the skills you need do
those jobs change as well. With that environment, you have to cheer anyone
past student age that tries to better themselves no matter how they do it.

Learning lifelong should be the goal of everyone, constantly improving
yourself and learning that you know nothing.

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dh8
See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years you're gonna start
doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're going to come up with the fact that
there are two certainties in life: one, don't do that, and two, you dropped
150 grand on a fuckin' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late
charges at the public library!

~~~
frank_jaeger
See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, you don't read articles you
comment on.

>Vaudreuil starting taking undergraduate classes tuition free at Worcester
Polytechnic Institute.

Infinitely cheaper than your $1.50 suggestion.

~~~
czr80
He or she is quoting Good Will Hunting, I believe.

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olivermarks
I dislike that this piece of writing leads with the guy's age.

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benten10
For non-Americans, non-townies, non-Mass people, it's pronounced Woo-stuh. Not
Wer-Chest-er. Yeaahhh.

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peterburkimsher
This story is like the reverse of Viva La Vida - Coldplay.

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sbjustin
Obviously it needs to be said, Good Will Hunting?

