No Regrets

I once bought a higher education diploma for a friend whose career was stalling.

As someone who works in education, I should feel really bad about it. But I don’t. Let me explain why.

I lived in my home country then, after I just returned from the United States where I’d earned my Master’s. I was already teaching and working for international organizations then and made good money.

The woman was a good friend, and I knew her most of my life as a good, conscientious person. After she finished high school, she went straight into the clothing alteration and tailoring business and learned most of what she knew on the job from older Soviet-trained tailors.

She worked for several alterations businesses and then decided to go to a technical school (a rough equivalent of a technical college degree, which in the post-Soviet space took 3-4 years to complete compared to a 2 years of vocational school).

She found it very useful as she learned some theoretical stuff there about clothing patterns and design, as well as basics of textiles. She was going to the technical school’s evening program, while working during the day.

By that time she already married and divorced and was raising her little daughter as a single mother. Watching her juggling so many responsibilities was hard for me, and I was thinking about how I could help. She was a proud woman and only took money from me very reluctantly when she was in a real bind, and I always was telling her that I’m giving her money not so much for her as for her daughter who was also my goddaughter.

When she graduated from the technical school, my friend was so tired of the demanding work and hours of the alteration business that she decided to find something more stable and predictable in terms of the hours.

Her technical school degree helped in an unexpected way: her favorite teacher told her there was a vacancy of an instructor at a sewing vocational school and she should apply.

It was at the most opportune time as my friend started losing her vision because of the constant strain on her eyes while sewing. This would have been a perfect example of the reversed “if you can’t do, teach” approach. She could teach anyone how to sew, mend and repair anything. She was also constantly was coming up with new ways and approaches to tailoring and alterations.

She applied, went through the entire interview process with the demonstrations of her sewing and pedagogical skills and was hired on the spot.

She absolutely loved her job. Her classes were popular, and her students were always thanking her for how much they learned from her. Many of them still keep in touch with her, more than 20 years down the road.

Almost at the same time as she began teaching, she started to take evening courses at the technical university to get a higher education diploma. Back then, in the post-Soviet education system technical school did not count as a higher education degree. She would have had to go to university for five years to get her higher education diploma and none of her technical school courses counted toward it.

She completed only three semesters of the evening school. There was nothing new she was learning there, only a couple of classes on fabrics and materials that really interested her. At some point, she said, “I’m not learning anything new there, just wasting my time and money” and quit.

After three years of successful teaching at the vocational school, she was about to be promoted to the senior instructor and department chair. But then the school director found out she had no higher education diploma and said she could not be promoted for that reason. Even though she said that she completed two years of the university, it was not enough.

She came to me crying, upset that she’d hit the glass ceiling and would never be promoted without the diploma.

“Since it’s the piece of paper they need, let’s just buy it!” I suggested to her.

“Am I hearing this from someone who is in education herself?” she asked incredulously.

“Listen, as you said, you are not going to learn anything new there. You could probably teach the teachers at that university. But if the diploma is a requirement for your professional growth, let’s just buy it.”

“I’ll pay you back, I promise,” she said, relieved.

“Oh, forget about it, just find out where and how you can buy it and tell me the price.”

It cost me $100, around four of her monthly salaries. I’d make it with one hour of simultaneous translation, so it certainly didn’t break my bank. It was a real diploma, too. At the time, it was possible to get a validly signed diploma with no name on it and just fill in the name. I’m not sure if this is still a possibility but I’d think since people still can buy driver’s licenses in my home country, they could probably buy the higher education diploma as well.

And my friend was promoted a year later.

Do I regret or feel guilty about it? – Not really. See, the Soviet and post-Soviet system was so rotten and uncaring about people that the people were looking for all sorts of ways to fuck it up. Buying a diploma without getting useless and outdated education was one of such ways.

And no, I’d never buy anyone a diploma from a medical school, a law school, or even a teaching school. This was an exception because my friend was self-taught and exceptionally good at what she was doing. And she found great joy in teaching.