Noreen, another new reader, who put her aspirations for a GED on hold because of her husband’s illness, still feels proud of what she has had accomplished to date:

I read a heck of a lot better than when I did at the beginning. It’s done wonders for me. I would tell anybody about the program because I think it’s fantastic. It really is. I enjoyed everything. I can read street signs, places where I’m going, and I can fill my applications out a lot better. Sometimes I like to have somebody with me just to make sure. I help him (her husband) out a lot with his applications like for doctors and that’s because he’s handicapped.

Marcia outlines specific changes that occurred in her life since she learned to read and their importance to her:

My life has changed by that I am now able to do things for myself where before I couldn’t read my mail, I couldn’t write a letter, I wasn’t able to shop and buy things in the grocery store, but now I’m able to do all of those things. I’m introduced to new products which are in the grocery store. When my mail comes, I get excited. Now I can sit down and say it’s all for me. It makes me feel very important for myself... I still feel that learning myself, as the greatest thing I could have given myself and the best gift in life I could give myself. So where they say that life begins at 50, it does. For me, it did because it gave me a whole new life and a new respect for my life.

Lydia, who works as a paraprofessional with special needs children explains: “If I didn’t accomplish any more than get that diploma I would have been proud of myself, because it was something I wanted to do.”

New Opportunities for Achievement

Secondly, there are basic literacy, ESL and GED graduates to whom participation in adult education brought new perceptions about their abilities and, consequently, a desire to reach higher and further than they ever dared to imagine. Tanya and Agnes are new readers who have not yet attained their GED and may never do so. Nevertheless, their participation in adult education programs opened their eyes to what was possible for them to achieve and encouraged them to “go for it.” Tanya who advanced from basic reading describes her feelings:

When I got into the GED class it was really remarkable how I started out from a beginner reader and where I am now. Now I feel very good about myself because I can do things. Before, I had no self-esteem I felt stupid, like a little kid. Now I feel proud of myself... For the future I plan to get my GED and become a teacher or social worker, to help other people realize that it’s going to be rough, especially, if for many years they were told they couldn’t do anything.

Agnes, who struggled with reading before participating in the adult program, explains how a change in attitude resulted in many changes in her life:

There have been so many changes in just the last year. I don’t know where to begin. It was like I was a non-reader; then I was in class reading. It was like a dream and I was Cinderella. The more I got to know myself, the more secure I got with myself… it opened so many doors for me, that it’s unreal.