Quote:

"Yay for me!"

So she gets a diploma for for going to school for just ONE day? And she cut one of her classes to hang out in the cafeteria? The dumbing down of the educational system is destroying this country! I feel sorry for the unsuspecting employer who hires her only to find out she is really not proficient in Powerpoint at all. Oh yeah, I'm sure her excuse will be, "but I thought you said needlepoint".

I'm so glad you posted this...such a great, heartwarming story.

I thought this was an awesome story. She's about the age my Grandmother would be if she were still alive (also JC born and raised, but Ukranian). I'd like to think they knew each other.



West Caldwell "super senior" earns special diploma
by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday February 18, 2009, 8:42 PM


Estelle Manorek had none of the midmorning high school doldrums as she made her way through the crowded hallway from U.S. History I with Ms. Murphy to her 10:45 a.m. Shakespeare class with Mrs. Tanis,

"I'm in high school," she cried gleefully, turning a few fellow students' heads. "Yay for me."

In high school at 90 years old

At 90, the West Caldwell Care Center resident is by far James Caldwell High School's oldest student -- if only for a day. Manorek, who grew up the child of Polish immigrants in Jersey City during the Depression, never went to high school. After her brother contracted polio, she, as the oldest of four siblings, quit school at 14 to go to work.

"I worked at a leather factory, a pocketbook factory, a weight-measures factory -- anyplace you could get a job," Manorek told students after a history lesson on Washington and Lincoln. "Make sure you kids go to school. It's important -- without an education, you can't earn a decent living. People look down at you."

Throughout the day, students stopped Manorek in the hallway and in the lunchroom to ask how her day was going. With a regal wave, her school notebook tucked under her arm, Manorek greeted them all, thanking them for the opportunity to be one of them.

"They grow them so big these days," she remarked as a group of boys bounded down the hallway to class.

"I've known her for years, and she always talked about how she never got to go to high school," said Joan Dyer, recreation director at West Caldwell Care Center. "I almost feel selfish because it was such a great feeling for me."

Manorek was having such a good time having lunch with the students in the cafeteria, she unwittingly skipped one of her classes. Principal Kevin Barnes didn't hold it against her, however. At the end of the day, he presented Manorek with an honorary high school diploma -- a gesture that momentarily left Manorek speechless.

"I got a diploma from high school," she said quietly, wiping tears from her face.

"You're not supposed to be crying, you're supposed to be doing backflips," Barnes joked, handing Manorek a tissue box.

"I can't do that," she said, her eyes still fixed on the diploma. "I'm too old."

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