Back to School - or - The Annual Confusing of the Bureaucrats!

Every fall since I retired I have been "back to school" in one sense or another.  I've taken classes at the local tech school.  Last fall I went back to college to brush up my German.  It's fun....if you take it seriously enough but not too seriously.  And in Wisconsin - as I have mentioned - it is basically free.  Just a little thank you from The Great Badger for decades of paying taxes.

Not nearly enough retirees take advantage of this option.  In part because it is not widely acknowledged.  You almost have to know which office door to knock on and whisper the secret pass word.  Especially since many of these offices at the tech school are staffed by current students or perhaps recent grads.  

I had kicked around the idea of being a substitute teacher in our district.  (Eventually opting against it.....I think I'd be good at it but in an age of easy offense and on line vilification I'd have to be a hermit regards anything I post anywhere).  Eventually I decided it was time to go back to Tech and take an electronics course I fancied.

So, up to the admissions office.  Pick a time when it should not be busy.  Select a likely looking clerk and announce that I had a challenge for her.

"I'm over 60, want to audit a course, need to register manually instead of on line, and today being one week before term starts is the first day I'm allowed to do so."  I might as well have been speaking Portuguese but she hung in there.  Screens were brought up on her computer.  Attempts to enter data were made.  An older employee, and then another were consulted.

"How many people does it usually take to make this happen?", I was asked.

"Oh, usually three will suffice".

In the end it was possible to register me but that part about tuition being free was just a bit much for the Business Office to figure out.  I'd planned on coming back in a week to get a parking pass and so forth so I left expressing confidence that clerk number Four would have it all sorted by then.

Class starts in two days so let us hope my confidence is not misplaced!