Throw back Thursday: 1982 when we had student grants, loans and good paying jobs

macWR

 

Ouch!  It’s 30 years since I started university. This is me in 1982 in my first year at Mac. I was 20 years old here. An exciting time and I was proud to be going to post secondary education. I really didn’t have a glue what I wanted to do, but always some how knew that I would go to university.

What strikes me now  is how lucky I was to be going to school at the time when  I did. Governments were still supporting universities so tuition was affordable. Both the Federal  and Ontario Governments had grant and loan programs. In Hamilton there was still good paying manufacturing jobs to be had in the summer where one could earn enough for the following year.

These were the last years when Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister and government was addressing inequality and was helping with programs to develop a more equable society. I finished school with debt, but nothing like the amount that students have know. Looking back being the son of  an auto worker I feels so enriched to have had the opportunity to go university.

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