Father and son graduate together

Father and son fraternity brothers, Dale Hall and his son Darren will graduate together at Southwestern Community College on May 10. While both are members of Phi Theta Kappa honor fraternity, each has very different future planned. (click photo to enlarge)

When Dale and Darren Hall of Sylva walk across the stage during commencement exercises at Southwestern Community College May 10, both father and son will take steps toward the future. But what different futures each has in mind!

Dale is a man who likes to keep learning as his interests grow and to gain knowledge to share with his home schooled children. Having already earned an MA in education and biology, a BS in medical technology and certificates in welding and internet programming, this year he added a certificate in internet design. His future is close and foreseeable. Darren looks to a more distant future.

"I want to work in areas of creating artificial intelligence for extra planetary exploration, on machines that would be able to think and analyze problems as people would or to take on tasks that would be dangerous for people," Darren said.

Darren will receive an Associate Degree in Applied Science. And he's done it while also finishing his high school education. A concurrent enrollment student at SCC, Darren began college at the age of 15.

"It was scary at first," he said. "I didn't know if I could take external expectations and it was an un-used to environment. I had a fear of not being able to get things done and what other people might want of me worried me."

"He sets very high expectations for himself," Dale said. "He's always been a very intelligent young man; my wife Ann and I have been blessed with three very intelligent children. His obstacle was lack of self confidence. At SCC I've seen him go from thinking 'I don't know if I can do that" to be able to say 'I need these courses to complete my degree.' I've seen his confidence level go way up."

"I've changed a lot," Darren agreed. "I'm more self-assertive. Before, I might know an action I wanted to take but would be too timid to do it. Now I have the confidence in most cases to take that step. I'd say I wasn't 'people-ized' in the classroom or outside. But now I engage with people better."

Asked whether home schooling had been a factor in his timidity, Darren said, "Absolutely not."

His father agreed. Sharing a favorite family story, the two told how when Darren and his brother Daniel were small, Darren would hold on to his father's pants leg while his father would be trying to hold on to Daniel to hold him back. "All three were just different in temperament," Dale said.

At home Darren and his siblings have regimented school schedule. In the mornings, each has specific course work to complete. In the afternoon, each can choose to work on what interests them most. One choice for Darren was to build a computer. But his on-going interests have always been drawing and writing. His writing remains important to him. He specializes in science fiction and while he sees one career in artificial intelligence, he also wants to pursue writing.

"I want to attempt a career in writing for the sole purpose of pressing beyond the present so we will have a blueprint for the future. I'm really anti-literature. I think traditional literature tries to analyze the same problems over and over," he said.

"I want to examine people as they will be, not as they have been. I'd like to see a time when there is a relationship between man and machine. At some point, I see machines will become like our children and I want to curtail human reaction to machines. I want my writing to be a pre-emptive strike against hatred of the machines."

While Darren talks, Dale listens on with obvious pride and begins to talk about their experience with home schooling.

"Our educational philosophy has been to have an educational program of rigor. We wanted to give our children all the advantages we could. For that reason, we included Latin and a lot of course work not traditionally included in the public schools," Dale said.

But eventually both parents and son saw a need for something more. Dale noted that Darren's intelligence was why he thought the Concurrent Enrollment program at SCC would be good for him.

"Some people opt for Concurrent Enrollment because it provides a free college education, but that wasn't the reason we suggested it to Darren. At his intellectual level, he was starting to challenge his mother and me," he said. "It was time to look at other options."

"I wanted a different environment," Darren added. "I wanted to experience a broader range of instruction."

"He's worked hard. Last semester he carried 19 hours at SCC (in addition to his home studies). He did it and made Phi Theta Kappa honor fraternity, my fraternity too. Now we'll be honor fraternity brothers," Dale said as he and Darren laughed.

What's next for Darren? That's something he isn't sharing at the moment, even with his father. Darren will say that he's looking at four possible universities. When his father said that Darren probably needs a break after all the years of study, Darren said, "Work is a vacation for me. I've got several projects to work on."

Commencement exercises will take place Wednesday, May 10, at SCC with two ceremonies, one at 5 p.m. for the Career Technologies division and another at 7:30 p.m. for the Arts and Sciences and Health Sciences divisions.

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