Participation Difficulties

Looking at the participation record, it is difficult to comprehend the number and variety of problems faced by these adult learners during program participation. There were child-care and transportation problems. There were employment conflicts and emotional conflicts. There were money problems and there were husbands that silently undermined their wife’s efforts.

Charlene had an unreliable car that would often break down by the time she got to school and she would have to repair it before she could return home. Her husband could not help with car maintenance and gas money because his income barely covered their household expenses. Besides, he did not believe she would complete the program. And then, there were husbands who were completely and destructively against their wives improving themselves. Nina explains:

I have to admit with some of the women it’s very rough. I was able to come and didn’t get too much hassle from home, some, but not as much as some of the other women whose husbands would take their books and destroy them. It made it difficult, but they still came. Their goal was to get out of that situation.

Even when a husband was supportive, biology could come in the way. Fran, pregnant with her 11th child, knew she was working against time. She attended morning and afternoon ESL sessions two days a week, took GED classes twice a week, and spent another day at the Literacy Council. She passed the GED test in September 1996, gave birth in October, and was admitted to college in December. She was not the only one. Gina completed her GED, career classes, and pre-college classes while pregnant. She had her daughter exactly one week after finishing the program.

For women without husbands or family support, the challenges were even greater. As a single mother or widow, how do you work, go to school and take care of your children? In recommending Laurie for a success stories award, her sponsor noted: “She attended morning classes, five days a week, worked odd jobs at night and cared for her daughter and her brother, yet never missed a class."

Rita was 57 and raising three of her granddaughters when she enrolled in a basic literacy class. Six years later, she got her GED. But in the intervening years, she remembers the difficulties of making ends meet.

During the time when I started going back to school, I had my three granddaughters. They were very young. Their mother wasn’t like a mother should have been. A couple of my daughters brought them to me to keep them until she thought that she could be a mother for them... I got myself a little part-time job. They weren’t getting enough welfare money. They gave me a few food stamps for them. But, gosh, three girls, and they were going to be taken care of. I got a part-time job. It would help.

Vu-Lin, who is now remarried, is still working during the day and attending GED classes at night. Shortly after she started ESL classes 11 years ago, she left her abusive husband, taking her three children with her. Her words express the hopes and frustrations of so many single mothers:

My daughter, when I first started school, she was only 18 months old. It was hard. Hard on her, hard on me. At the time, I was a single mother. I worked so many hours trying to keep a roof over her head, trying to put food on the table, trying to get my education. Sometimes I felt like I wish I could have it all, but I can’t because I knew I had to leave her at the baby-sitter lots of times. I couldn’t take her to the class with me. I tried it one time, but it didn’t work.