Special Populations

The Only Normal People
are the Ones You Don't Know Very Well

We who teach in the field of adult education know that many of our students, returning to a classroom setting after sometimes years of absence, face significant barriers to reaching their educational goals. As teachers, we struggle with our own barriers: multileveled classrooms, uneven attendance, testing requirements, reporting requirements, and on and on. We know that "neither learners nor teachers can be whole in a system that fragments, punishes, and demands immediate progress" (Horsman, p. 321, 2000). Most of us have learned that unless our students find safety and acceptance within our classrooms, they will not learn well. We view, and by our example, encourage others to understand students who arrive on our doorstep shell-shocked and distressed by violent incidents in their pasts as reacting normally to trauma.

It is crucial that, within the literacy program (and perhaps also more broadly in education), the range of what is "normal" be broadened and the discourse opened up to include awareness of the struggles that many learners, whether survivors [of family violence] or not, have in a broad range of areas. . . . The pressure for survivors of violence to learn, while "acting normal" and disguising the impacts of experiences of violence on their learning will slow or even block learning. . . (Horsman, Literacy Learning for Survivors of Trauma, pp. 65-67).

We can help learners gain the skills required to advocate for themselves. And in order for our teaching, testing, and reporting to be meaningful, we have found ways for our students to address their feelings and fears in the context of preparing for the GED and improving basic skills.

For adult learners with a history of family violence, physical safety is of paramount importance. At our learning center we require all visitors to check in at the front desk; only students and staff are permitted beyond the reception area. We have telephone protocols designed to protect our students from unwanted intrusions. [See Anson Green's La Cocina de Vida and soon to be released Still I Rise curriculum for information on safety and other essential issues related to dealing with family violence in the adult education classroom.] Though our orientation packet asks questions that might provide information about potential family violence situations, rarely do students make such disclosures on those forms. Happily, our administrative assistant has a knack for quickly developing a rapport with new students and often discovers situations of which we would otherwise be unaware.

At my learning center, classes are open to people of all ages and both sexes, and most enroll to work toward their GED. Daily attendance fluctuates between ten and twenty-five, and our program combines computer lab time with classroom instruction. Since classes include both men and women, any men who happen to be present are involved in discussion whenever issues of family violence arise. Pamphlets, posters and questionnaires about family violence prominently displayed throughout the learning center in English and Spanish, so students know that we recognize the importance of this issue.

The influence of domestic violence on the ability of some students to achieve their educational goals is profound. Their lives are in upheaval; they may not have a place to live; their children may be farmed out to different relatives and friends. If they have left the abusive situation, they may be struggling with economic survival and navigating through the maze that leads to support services like TANF. I try to make my classrooms a safe place where these students can examine and reflect on this experience if they chose to do so. Through reading and writing about themselves and others and reflecting on their personal goals, students have an opportunity to sort through thoughts and feelings in a safe, supportive setting (Green, p.2, La Cocina de Vida).

Just this fall, during a free writing assignment (Fawcett, pp.5-9) followed by sharing, a student read her account of a particularly violent childhood experience. I was literally struck dumb by her story. An older male student had the presence of mind to say, "But you must know it wasn't your fault. You were only a child." Another student, also male, told how his experience of childhood violence had affected him and what he did to overcome it. I think that often, we assume that family violence happens only to women and further, that a coeducational setting is not optimal for dealing with it. In this instance, luckily, it worked.

To address the issue of self-advocacy, we invite speakers from outside agencies to make weekly presentations to our students, requesting a format that is as participatory as possible as well as printed materials that will encourage interested students to follow up on the topic, if that is appropriate. We hope to encourage student self-advocacy by introducing available community resources and avenues of contact. We have had representatives from Women's Protective Services, Planned Parenthood, Prevent Blindness, Habitat for Humanity, local community colleges, LEARN (a nonprofit that offers assistance, and counseling to adults 19 years of age or older on educational and career opportunities as well as assisting adults with admissions and financial aid details required prior to the beginning of each school term), Family Counseling Services, the American Red Cross, Texas Tech Office of Cultural Diversity, Contact Lubbock, and Texas Agricultural Extension. Some students have become volunteers (Contact Lubbock, American Red Cross); several have received eye exams and been fitted with glasses (Prevent Blindness); some have become aware of dangerous medical conditions (Planned Parenthood); and several more have found financial aid to pursue post GED certificates (LEARN).

Like most adult learning centers, we serve a student population that faces significant barriers to reaching educational goals. In response, we attempt to provide an accepting, learner-friendly environment, to offer a collaborative learning process, and to facilitate students' self-advocacy. By inviting our students to work as partners in learning and by acknowledging that they have already accomplished a great deal just by their presence in the classroom, we can all feel successful, no matter what standardized tests may tell us about grade level progress.

There is much, much more to say on this issue, but space limits the conversation. I hope readers will explore the references, especially Anson Green's curriculum and the books by Jenny Horsman and Hayes & Flannery. The Clearinghouse will loan many of the titles listed.

Andresen, L. (1994). Stacking the deck: four aces of self-esteem. Linkages: Summer 1994 Newsletter. [Online], 8 paragraphs, Available: http://www.nldline.com/self.htm [2002 March 29}.

Belenky M., Clinchy, B., Goldberger, N. Tarule, J. (1986). Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. Basic Books: New York.

Fawcett S. & Sandberg A. (1992). Evergreen with Readings: A Guide to Writing. Houghton Mifflin: Boston.

Green, A. (1999). La Cocina de Vida: An Adult Education Special Project funded by the Texas Education Agency-Adult & Community Education Division [available on loan from the Clearinghouse].

Green, A. (1999/2000). Still I Rise: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression and Abuse. Draft. National Institute for Literacy Fellowship Project.

Hayes, E. & Flannery D. (2000). Women as Learners: the Significance of Gender in Adult Learning. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco [available on loan from the Clearinghouse].

Hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress. Routledge: New York.

Horsman, J. (2000), Too Scared to Learn: The Significance of Gender in Adult Learning. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: New Jersey [available on loan from the Clearinghouse].

Louise Sanders has been an ABE/GED teacher at Bridges Learning Center in Lubbock since 1998. She holds a degree in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and is certified on the secondary level in both California and Texas. She is currently working on a Masters degree in Interdisciplinary Studies: Adult Education at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was a participant in the 1999-2000 Project IDEA cohort. Louise has lived and worked in Spain, California, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico and Korea. Her newest hobby is wheel thrown ceramics. She has two grown children, a son living in San Francisco and a daughter, currently an Americorps *NCCC volunteer in Washington, D.C. Her mottoes are "Onward through the fog," and "Bloom where you are planted."