Western Kentucky University - Talisman Yearbook (Bowling Green, KY)

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CLASSY By BONITA CORLEY Photos By KEVIN EANS 24 Child in the classroom SOME PEOPLE start college at the tender age of 17 or 18. Others start college as early as 16, and a gifted few start even younger. Katie Glynn began her college career at the age of 6 days. She couldn’t wait so she went to summer school and took part in the folklore and film course. Katie, born June 5, 1985, was the sixth child of Luanne Glynn, a graduate student in folk studies from Sharon Grove. Glynn was doing her graduate field studies, “a really tough course,” in the fall of 1984 when, “I started feeling tired.” Glynn thought that the strain of doing taped interviews and transcriptions was the cause. “I said to myself, ‘Gee, this is almost as bad as being pregnant.”” Glynn said that two weeks later she confirmed her pregnancy and began checking with her professors to see if she would be able to continue with her studies. “I made sure that I was going to be able to do it without creating a problem,” Glynn said. “I just wanted to keep going. It was definitely not something I planned ahead for.” Katie attended classes regularly with her mother. “Katie is just part of the classroom,” Sheila Cobb, a Glasgow junior, said. “I didn’t even know she was there until the second week of class.” Dr. Lynwood Montell, a modern language and intercultural studies professor, said, “I don’t notice that she is there.” Katie attended three of Montell’s classes with her mother. Katie’s mother is part of a new breed of students on Western’s campus. This older-mother-with-child trend is the “wave of the future,” Montell said. However, Katie is not the first child of Glynn’s to go to class. “The others have come when they have had a holiday from school,” Glynn said. “They have all gone to classes at one time or another, but not regularly.” Cobb, the mother of 9-year-old Damion, had a class with Glynn and Katie. She has also taken Damion to Montell’s class several times. Montell said, “Damion came by after class, shook my hand, and told me he enjoyed class.” Glynn was not worried about keeping Katie under control while still being able to continue with her work in the classroom. “I was pretty confident that I could keep her happy and quiet.” Montell said, “One day, the mother was taking an exam, and the baby started making a little noise. I asked (Luanne) ‘Could I hold your baby?’” While he was holding Katie in the hall of the Fine Arts Build- ing, another professor said, “So that’s the good baby I hear so much about,” Montell said. Glynn said there was really no choice as to whether she would have to take Katie to class. “Because she’s breastfed, I can’t leave her at home with my family. It wa s the easiest thing to do and definitely the cheapest. That was definitely a factor.” Katie rested in a carrier on the floor by her mother’s desk. Montell said that he didn’t know of any rules against a baby in a classroom, and was not checking because, “I don’t care.” Montell had “total respect” for older students such as Luanne Glynn, and will “bend over backwards to help them,” he said. Glynn was glad that her children have gotten to “go to college.” Glynn had quit high school but gotten her graduate equivalency degree and began her college career in 1977. “I like the idea they are exposed to a college education,” she said. “I was never exposed to college myself. 7 @ GLYNN USES a pacifier to quiet Katie during a discussion in Dr. Lynnwood Montell’s class. Katie and her mother were in a vernacular architecture class.

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most kids that age. I began looking through hair magazines and thinking it (barbering) might be fun,” Todd said. As Todd worked with customers, he looked as if barbering were fun. He joked easily with customers. Todd said he put in “about 35 hours a week at the shop in afternoons and on Saturdays.” Bully, on the other hand, worked 60 hours, seven days week. Billy did not attend Western like his son, but he was at one time connected with the college. From 1974-75, Billy served as a public safety officer for Western. Billy said he had been traveling 79 counties for 1969-74 as a state inspector of barbershops for the state Barber Board. “I decided to get off the road and I started at WKU,” Billy said. Billy heard about the job at public safety from his brother who had worked there previously. Members of the Kirby family still work for public safety. Cousins Richard Kirby was a lieutenant and Howard Kirby was a dispatcher. “I enjoy barbering. I knew when I was at Western that I was not going to continue there. I do very well (at barbering),” Billy said. Billy added that he didn’t AS PART OF a community education class, Todd attends aerobics in Diddle Arena. His father was a public safety officer for a year at Western. DURING A LULL in business, Todd and Billy talk and read. Business was slow because of the Lady Topper’s NCAA semi-finals game in Philadelphia. mean Western wasn’t a good place to work. He went on to say that he thought Western was “the greatest place in the world! We're very fortunate.” Todd said his father did not influence him in his decision to attend Western. Todd said that he decided to go to Western because he lived in Bowling Green. Billy hadn’t always worked behind the barber chairs in the shop on College Street. From 1960-68, Billy and two of his brothers worked at a barber shop located in what was Edgewood Shopping Center where West- ern’s “Egypt” parking lot is now. When Western made a lot out of the center, Billy said he didn’t bear Western any grudges. “They moved us to Western Gateway Shopping Center,” he said. Billy bought his shop on College Street after he worked for Western's department of public safety. To both Kirbys, Western has always had a part in their lives. Todd said he never considered any other school, even while in barber school near Vanderbilt. “I had always planned to attend Western.” Ucaeet weewen 112d eee — BS Barber Shop

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THE YOUNGEST member of the ver- nacular architecture class watches her mother Luanne Glynn, a Sharon Grove graduate student, take notes. Katie had been going to class since she was 6 days old. KATIE ACCOMPANIES her mother in the cafeteria line at Garrett Conference Center’s Hilltopper Inn. Katie could not be left at home because she was breastfed. GLYNN TALKS with Sandy Pom- erantz, a graduate student from Philadelphia, outside the Fine Arts Center. Glynn’s other children have also attended classes with their mother. yn) Child tn the classroom