Equipped For The Future

GED Students Meet Learning Goals
through Community Involvement

Many students have come into our learning center with the sole purpose of getting their GED. They usually want the GED so they can find a better job or move up at their present job. Test preparation is their only concern, and other learning goals seem superfluous to these students. But by bringing Equipped for the Future into the picture, teachers can help learners reach their academic goals while furthering other real-life aims, such as becoming better members of their community.

As we planned a class project, several of my students wanted to do something to help young students stay in school. Their own life experiences had taught them the difficulty of meeting educational goals later in life as parents or grandparents. But they wondered how they could communicate to kids still in school the importance of setting and meeting educational goals. I informed them about a mentoring program at the local elementary school. My students were worried they weren't qualified to be mentors because they hadn't finished school yet. The teacher in charge of the mentoring program said that their ambition more than qualified them to mentor the children. She had my students attend a training session to prepare for the program. The adults planned with her what days were good and decided to schedule mentoring sessions one right after the other, so they could substitute for each other if necessary. Once mentoring sessions began, the adult students especially liked the way they could show the kids they were still trying to learn all they could, no matter their age. The children have made them cards and small tokens of their appreciation. Several of our students have commented that they keep every one of these tokens in a special place. The adults have been inspired to continue learning and improving their skills so they can help more children.

How did this project tie in with Equipped for the Future? The four purposes for learning in the EFF framework are: Access (gaining access to information and resources); Voice (giving voice to ideas and opinions); Action (solving problems and making decisions); and Bridge to the Future (becoming lifelong learners in order to keep up with a rapidly changing world). In the course of the mentoring project, these adult students achieved all four purposes, with particular emphasis on giving voice to their own life experiences.

Word has spread throughout our community that these GED students enjoy helping others. The class volunteered to help with boxes for the needy at Christmas. Many of them are on the recipient list for this assistance and asked me if they could help as a way of showing their appreciation. After researching who organizes the annual Christmas box drive, the students contacted them. The organizers were very pleased with their willingness to help and were especially impressed that some of the volunteers were also recipients. Students used their skills to coordinate schedules, sort food and clothing, gather, wrap and decorate packages. Math skills came in handy to divide up donations as evenly as possible, as well as making sure each family received basic staple items. The GED students prepared boxes for over eighty families.

Two years ago, a tremendous flood in our area affected almost every family. Several of our students volunteered for the Red Cross and in other local organizations. A couple of the students sustained considerable damage to their homes and had no insurance, but managed to repair what damage they could, as well as helping friends, relatives, neighbors and fellow students. The class became a gathering point for coordinating these impromptu relief efforts. Students shared stories about all the damage repair work they had been doing and how tired they were; but they were still ready to go back out to help more families.

This will be the second year that our class will have a team walking in the March of Dimes Walk America. Some of the participating students have disabilities, previous strokes, and other encumbrances themselves, but want to walk to help others with similar problems. The learners gain self-esteem from being recognized as lifelong learners, bettering themselves and their families while making a difference in their community.

In all these projects, students were learning academic skills in the context of meaningful action as community members. Again, all four learning goals of the EFF framework were in play. Learners gained Voice as mentors and took Action as they solved problems and made decisions on their own. Involvement in the community has encouraged learners to seek out additional projects to help others. At the same time, they have learned how to gain access to information and resources in the community both for themselves and others, meeting the Access learning goal of EFF. Learning to be better community members has also helped several students gain the confidence and self-esteem needed to get a job or a better job, fulfilling the Bridge to the Future learning goal. The learners' enthusiasm and enjoyment of community projects has spread to new class members as well. Thus, even recruitment and retention of students may be improved as learners participate in community projects.

Janice was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, living there for over 30 years. She graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a BBA. Janice returned to school after working in business for seven years to take education classes while working in the public schools. She has been married for 17 years and has a 13 year old daughter. About 9 1/2 years ago, they inherited a place in the country and decided to live there. They moved just as their daughter was starting kindergarten. At that time, she began substituting in the schools in Gonzales and nearby Luling for one year. Then, she was offered a position in Gonzales teaching Adult Education. That was over 3 years ago and Janice says, "It is very gratifying to be able to help these students academically and otherwise." Janice has been involved with Project IDEA and EFF. Her family enjoys the small town and country life. They raise chickens for Tyson, plus cattle and goats.