An ‘Old Lady’ Goes Back to School : Education: Still raising a family, this 39-year-old housewife is returning to college to complete her degree and earn a teaching credential.

My husband is proud of me, the kids think it’s funny, and I think I’m crazy.

Here I am, a 39-year-old housewife with thoughts of one day teaching high school English, deciding to go back to college.

What am I doing?

The last time I studied a college catalogue this intensely was half a life ago, back when I drove a red-hot Mustang between the sorority house and campus. Today I’m commander of a powder-blue Ford Aerostar, car-pooling neighborhood kids between home and school.

I’ve got a son going into his sophomore year of high school and a daughter heading into fifth grade, and, instead of riding them to do their homework, I’m casting about for my own. Back when I was first in college, I was in awe of old ladies in their 30s who had the guts to parade around a college campus. Now I am that old lady.

Back then, as an 18-year-old, I felt I had to specialize in something. I focused on English and, during my first three years, earned just about all the credits I needed to qualify as an English major. Now I find myself short on my general education requirements--the stuff that will make me appropriately well-rounded in the classroom. Isn’t housebreaking a husband and raising two children worth, say, 9 or 12 units?

Back then was 1969-73 at Cal State Fullerton, where I set off for a B.A. degree and ended up sidetracked in my junior year with an MRS. Now it’s back to school--as a Mrs.--to finish my B.A. requirements and then earn a teaching credential.

Is this mid-life crisis or simply time to give some serious thought to an old notion? I believe there is no finer profession than parenthood, salary notwithstanding.

But, when I consider that my passion for literature has not diminished over the years, maybe it’s time I seriously begin to apply it. I’ve nurtured my own children’s reading skills; imagine the challenge--and rewards--of working with an entire classroom of teen-agers.

Sure, some--and maybe most--of them won’t see what use they have for Dickens or Milton. But, if I can educate the bunch, and inspire a few . . .

First, though, I’ve got to get myself through school.

At least I won’t be the only new kid on campus. I enrolled at Cal State San Marcos, the new university that will have its grand opening in August. (The last grand opening I celebrated was at the mall.)

This fall, Cal State San Marcos will have 500 students on the entire campus. Fullerton’s campus played host to 25,000 students, with lecture halls large enough to accommodate 500.

Based on Cal State San Marcos’ graduation requirements, I think it would have been easier graduating with my husband at Cal State Fullerton (and getting a diploma bearing Ronald Reagan’s signature as governor).

Now, for instance, the university of the ‘90s wants its students steeped in an international perspective. So I’ve got to take 15 units in something called “global awareness”--one class focusing on the United States, two classes studying Europe and two classes studying Third World society and culture. Classes like “American Society and Institutions,” “Industrialization of Europe” and “Mexico and Her Neighbors.” Oh, Homer, I never really liked geography.

Then I’ve got to take three units in something called “race, class and gender.” (“Women in Literature” qualifies, and so does “Introduction to American Ethnic and Multicultural Studies.”)

Get this: Everyone’s required to take three units of study “designed to equip students for lifelong understanding and development of themselves as integrated physiological, social and psychological entities.” How can school accomplish in one semester what my family’s been trying to do for the past 20 years?

And I love this: I’ve got to demonstrate within the first year that I’m computer literate. Of course I can boot my computer. I drop-kicked it just the other day when it ate the letter I was writing to my sister.

This course sounds intriguing: “Sp.Tp. PSCI:USSR-Gvrn&Econ.;” Do I get a unit of credit just for figuring out what it stands for? How about “Sp.Tp.Am.Hst:Rsch CA Hst?”

My 15-year-old son suggests I take “Sociology of Deviance.” Ten-year-old daughter favors “Molecular Genetics Laboratory” because she’s wondering just how related she is to her older brother. Husband thinks I ought to consider “Intro to Number Theory,” maybe as it relates to my checkbook.

For starters, I’ll sign up for “Pop.Lit:Communities Transt.” I’m not sure what it is, but heck, it qualifies for both global awareness and race, class and gender and it’s in my major.

And I need to take an upper-division math or science course. My son’s high school math leaves me in a black hole, so I’ll do something in science. “Stress Biology” sounds right down my alley: “The study of the physiological responses of mammals to extremes in their environment: temperature, hydrostatic and barometric pressure, emotional strain, water restriction, food deprivation, and exercise.”

That’s perfect. Emotional strain is being on the brink of 40. Water restriction is having to ask for a glass of it at a restaurant. Food deprivation is something I deal with at midnight.

And exercise is when I get out of bed every MWF to get my butt to class.