I was medically laid off from Boeing in 2022 and have an education benefit I can use to pay for half of my Masters degree in either some form of History or in Humanities based on the Great Books of the Western World.

The benefit is $3,000 per calendar year and runs out Jul 2025 (after three years).

I can squeeze two classes in this year, two more next year, and two more classes in the early part of 2025.

It helps that I chose an affordable degree program in the first place.

I have looked at Liberty University as well, but I am going with American Public University.

ABA-Approved Law Schools With Approved Distance Education J.D. Programs

Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Cleveland State University College of Law 
University of Dayton School of Law
University of Hawai’i William S. Richardson School of Law
Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law
Loyola Law School (Los Angeles)
Mitchell Hamline School of Law
University of New Hampshire School of Law
Northeastern University School of Law
St. Mary’s University School of Law
Seattle University School of Law 
South Texas College of Law-Houston
Suffolk University Law School
Syracuse University College of Law
Vermont Law School

This list has sure gotten bigger!

John Tilley, his wife Joan, and daughter Elizabeth were passengers on the Mayflower. John’s brother Edward, with his wife Ann/Agnes were also passengers; Elizabeth was the sole survivor of the first winter.

John Tilley, was born at Henlow, Bedfordshire, where he was baptized on 19 December 1571, the son of Robert and (poss.) Elizabeth (     ) Tilley. He married at Henlow, 20 September 1596, Joan (Hurst) Rogers. He and his wife died in the general sickness of the first winter in 1620, leaving their daughter Elizabeth an orphan.

John signed the Mayflower Compact on 11 November 1620, as the ship was anchored at Provincetown Harbor. On 6 December 1620, John joined one of the expeditions along the inner coastline of Cape Cod under the leadership of Myles Standish. It was during this expedition that the party found and selected Plymouth as the site of the future settlement. John was likely on the other two expeditions as well and it was during these expeditions that the men became sick from the freezing weather.

Note that in 1999, a descendant of Robert² and Mary (Hawkins) Tilley traced her line and was able to join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants through Robert’s parents, John and Joan Tilley of the Mayflower.

Children of John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley: [baptized at Henlow]

1. Rose² Tilley, baptized 23 October 1597; died young.
2. John Tilley, baptized 26 August 1599; no further record.
3. Rose Tilley, baptized 28 February 1601/02; no further record.
4. Robert Tilley, baptized 25 November 1604; married at St Paul, Bedford, Bedfordshire, 1 November 1632, Mary Hawkins; died 1639; he and Mary had two sons and a daughter.
5. Elizabeth Tilley, baptized 30 August 1607; married at Plymouth, John Howland, a fellow Mayflower passenger; died at Swansea, 21 December 1687. See John Howland for their children.

Sources:

“English Ancestry Of Seven Mayflower Passengers: Tilley, Sampson And Cooper,” by Robert L. Ward, The American Genealogist [TAG] 52 [1976]:198-208.

“The lost children of Bedfordshire’s Pilgrim Fathers: The Tilley family of the Mayflower,” by Joy Forster, Mayflower Quarterly 65 [Nov. 1999]:322-325.

Mayflower Passenger References, (from contemporary records and scholarly journals), by Susan E. Roser. 2011. pp. 383-88.

There are two basic routes to getting a PhD. One involves first getting a Masters degree and then moving on to a PhD. The other involves finding a MA/PhD combined program where you end up doing both, but if you fail to complete the PhD you are still awarded the Masters as a parting gift. The second method is called being fully-funded…getting paid to be a student.

I have never put serious thought into the combination MA/PhD, but I have sure looked at hundreds of Masters degrees.

I will spend some time today looking up combination MA/PhD degrees.

Wish me luck!

I have in my hand, a book that just screams out to me that I do a Masters Degree in History.

Domesday Book: A Complete Translation.

It is way more than just a Census done in 1086-7.

From the Introduction:

Domesday Book is unique. A survey of England made in 1086-7. It is unmatched in its age, its scope and the consistent detail of its contents. It has been in official custody ever since it was made, and is celebrated now as the first of the public records and an endlessly rich source of historical materiel.

You can get a used set of the Great Books of the Western World for around $300.

You can get a used set of the Gateway to the Great Books of the Western World for around $50.

The Wikipedia articles for Great Books, Great Books of the Western World, and Gateway to the Great Books of the Western World are very complete.

Other Books:

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J Adler and Charles Van Doren. 1972

Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf and other Indestructible Writers of the Western World by David Denby. 2005

The Western Cannon: The Books and School of the Ages by Harold Bloom. 1994

Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds by Harold Bloom. 2002

The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A J Jacobs. 2004

I have called myself a Poet for a very long time.

Other people have called me a Writer.

I have struggled with ever wanting to be known as a Historian.

Being called a Philosopher would be considered high praise.

My choice at American Public University is between:

MA in History

Ancient and Classical History

American History

European History

OR

MA in Humanities based on the Great Books of the Western World

Help me decide.