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My parents grew up working class, but in that way that working class families do, they spent a fortune on education to better me.

I count myself well educated, for the admirable woman at the head of the school which I attended from the age of four and a half till I was thirteen and a half, was a born teacher in advance of her own times.

My parents were not affluent people and were not - didn't come from the extremities of education. My mother had a high school diploma. I often think I so wish she'd come out of the hills in Appalachia and been able to go on to college. I think she would have made a wonderful teacher.

I knew I wanted considerable education so that I wouldn't have to work as hard as my parents.

The childhood poverty of both my parents and their minimal education did much to influence me and my two younger brothers in our education and career choices. One brother became a dentist and the other, a professor of anthropology with a Ph.D. degree.

My parents came from a poor background and worked their way up because of education. They saw it as a way to succeed. So they cared about me getting straight A grades when I was growing up.

I had many good teachers, but only three of them were school teachers.

I worked my way through the education system and was treated as though I had value.

I grew up a middle class, colonized child of teachers and librarians and people, women especially, who treasured education.

My mom was a teacher - I have the greatest respect for the profession - we need great teachers - not poor or mediocre ones.