LEBANON, Tenn., May 6, 2008
A Degree To Go With Her Grammy
Country Star Gretchen Wilson: My Little Girl Inspired Me To Finish High School
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Gretchen Wilson on The Early Show Tuesday (CBS/EARLY SHOW)
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Play CBS Video Video Gretchen Wilson Makes Good Country rocker Gretchen Wilson sold millions of albums and rose to the top of the music industry, but she never earned a high school degree - until now. Julie Chen reports.
She's toured around the world, and enjoys all the perks that come with being a country music star.
Yet, for all Wilson's success, there's one thing she didn't have. And that's about to change.
Wilson, 34, dropped out of school the day she left home -- in ninth grade -- the same day she ran away from home. But she passed her GED high school equivalency exam in April, and will don a cap and gown for a graduation ceremony next week.
Wilson says her seven-year-old daughter, Grace, was a big reason she went back to get her degree, because she didn't want to be a "dummy" when Grace asked her a question. Also, "I certainly don't want her to think you can be this successful without an education."
And, she says it fills what she's seen as a void in her life ever since she quit school.
"This is something that I promised myself a long time ago that I would do," she told co-anchor Julie Chen on The Early Show Tuesday. "And, I'm sure that having a little girl in school is a big part of it, as well -- you know, wanting to be able to be there for her and help her with her homework when the time comes, when she needs my help."
Why did she leave home, and school?
"You know, like a lot of children, I had a little bit of a troubled home. My parents moved around a lot. They were never really settled in one spot, and just some really kind of bad stuff that went on in the house that really made me want to get out there and just start my life a little sooner than I probably should have and just get out there on my own and start taking things the way I wanted to take them. Quitting school is not something I really wanted to do, but I couldn't hold down a full-time job and pay my own way and go to school at the same time."
Wilson put it in perspective, calling it "a big deal to me," and aadding, "I started to try to get involved in taking it right away. You know, as soon as I had the opportunity. But then, life happens, things start happening. Time gets away from you. It's one of those things that I seemed to put on the back burner and didn't really feel was important. But then, I finally -- I got to a place in my life -- I think, when women get into their mid-30s, they start looking inward and starting to just do things for themselves. And this was a piece of me that I needed to finish. So, it's really something that I'm doing for myself but, in turn, hopefully will help a lot of other people to make the decision to go back and get their education, as well. Because of her touring schedule, Wilson says, she didn't enroll in high school, but at the Adult Learning Center of Wilson County, Tenn. It turned out, her biggest weakness was math.
The first time she walked in, Wilson remembers, brought back her first-day-of-kindergarten jitters.
Studying on the road proved difficult. She told CBS News, "I pulled the book out 500 times and tried, and opened it, and I read the first chapter of three different books over and over again. I tell people all the time, my quiet, alone, peaceful moments are very few and far between. ... I think a lot of women get that way -- women who are busy, who work for a living and have children and are doing a lot, and have a lot of things going on, you tend to put yourself last."
She adds that she doesn't think she would have been a country music singer if she'd stayed in school: "What I mean to say is, I think I would have never followed the path that I followed. I may have been in the music business, but I don't think I would have been an artist. I don't think I'd have been pushy enough. I kind of had to get out there and start fighting and clawing my way through the world, and that started really early and I think that's a lot of what it took for me to finally get that record deal."
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Congratulations Gretchen!
I agree with the others, it''s in very poor taste to diminish this accomplishment.
Completing your GED it not something that should be mocked or made to look at as meaningless or unimportant! Shame on all you that think this is not an accomplishment!
She did this for her daughter. Unfortunately, she didnt have parents like you or me that would motivate her or inspire her to continue on with an education. On another note, how many people out there are struggling with a college education just to get a decent job. Waiting tables, bartending, not putting their $30,000 degree to use. She made the best with what life gave to her, turned back around and did something she didnt need to. GOOD FOR HER!! This shows, its never too late.
She did this for her daughter. Unfortunately, she didnt have parents like you or me that would motivate her or inspire her to continue on with an education. On another note, how many people out there are struggling with a college education just to get a decent job. Waiting tables, bartending, not putting their $30,000 degree to use. She made the best with what life gave to her, turned back around and did something she didnt need to. GOOD FOR HER!! This shows, its never too late.
She did this for her daughter. Unfortunately, she didnt have parents like you or me that would motivate her or inspire her to continue on with an education. On another note, how many people out there are struggling with a college education just to get a decent job. Waiting tables, bartending, not putting their $30,000 degree to use. She made the best with what life gave to her, turned back around and did something she didnt need to. GOOD FOR HER!! This shows, its never too late.
She did this for her daughter. Unfortunately, she didnt have parents like you or me that would motivate her or inspire her to continue on with an education. On another note, how many people out there are struggling with a college education just to get a decent job. Waiting tables, bartending, not putting their $30,000 degree to use. She made the best with what life gave to her, turned back around and did something she didnt need to. GOOD FOR HER!! This shows, its never too late.
- by justfacts2 May 6, 2008 1:24 PM EDT
- Huh? She didn''t finish high school! She got her G.E.D. and that is something very different than going through school for four years and then walking across the stage with your classmates to get your diploma. She dropped out of high school, who knows why, and years later she gets her G.E.D. She hasn''t inspired her daughter to stay in school. She has inspired her daughter to drop out and finish with a simple test later on in life when you feel like it. She doesn''t impress me much.
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