New School Year

     Today was the first day of school. Not ordinary school, where students have been attending for three weeks or so and the new clothes have lost a bit of their shine. Today was the first day of classes for ABE and GED students at Reading Area Community College. Adult Basic Education classes are the steppingstone to a General Educational Development diploma, and these are my students. Today I had 13 in attendance, and one student who had car trouble will be there tomorrow.
     They come from Haiti, El Salvador, and other places local and far away. Some of them have never read a complete book. We will change that this fall.
     Their reasons for taking the class vary, but have a common theme. They want to better themselves. They are committed to working hard and attending three mornings a week.
     I tell them that this is not like other schools they have attended. In our class, if you get stuck and the teacher is busy with another student, you ask a neighbor for help. If someone looks at your paper and says, "How did you do that?" you should tell them. We help each other. We know that we each learn in our own way, on our own time clock, and we don't get discouraged if we have trouble. We keep on working. The only way you won't make it in my class is if you quit coming, I tell them.
     I say that learning is like the question, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!" One bit of information at a time, we build the ladder of learning.
     The first day is like a pep rally interspersed with information, mainly Student Rights and Responsibilities. The real work begins tomorrow. We are ready!