Carol Ann McMillen Spence
Individual Contracts -Psychology
         Room 3404, Phone- 3995

I was born January 21, 1942 in a small town in Ohio. My memories of growing up are pleasant ones.
I was in high school during the last half of the 1950's --Chuck Berry, The Coasters --and now rejoice
in the rock 'n roll revival. High school was lots of fun with sweater hops, Student Council, slumber parties,
hay rides.
 

Ohio State University provided me with a B.S. in Education and the certificate to become a high school L history teacher. However, I became more and more intrigued with the idea of working with college students and thought --"Wouldn't it be fun to be a Dean of Women? " Now I think, "Thank God they seem to be disappearing from the college scene." I obtained a M.A. in counseling psychology at Ohio State, was an assistant to a dormitory head resident, and then became an academic counselor in the College of Education. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the students, but became disillusioned with the bureaucratic nature of college personnel work, especially in terms of theDean of Women's Office. I took a research position evaluating government funded public school programs and became interested in studying child development.

During my college personnel days, I had married Homer, my "high school sweetheart."  In 1967, we moved to Seattle where he began teaching at the U. of W. and I went about the process of obtaining a Ph.D. in developmental psychology. My special interests were language and cognitive development. To me, the question of how children acquire a complex language system without specific training is a fascinating one; it is also
a question which has yet to be adequately explained. Similarly, it is exciting to consider how a child's conception of the world changes as he acquires new information and new ways of structuring that information. It is often difficult for adults to look at the world through a child's eyes.

I am excited about studying these developmental Changes. I am also very excited about continuing my studies at Evergreen. It was a bit depressing to watch more and more of my fellow graduate students dropping out of school; I wondered why I stayed and I wondered about the sterile prospects for sharing my excitement and interest in child development. It was also during graduate school that I became aware of the political and economic ramifications of most of the problems in our society; how did this new perspective match up with "being a college professor?" Evergreen was a welcome answer to some of these problems, and I am looking forward to a stimulating year.

School has taken up too much of my life-space. Collecting cookbooks and cooking have been my only real hobbies. This year I would like to learn to ski and maybe to throw pots.

CS/cmc

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