Instructor Sarah Kirby with her students at the End of Year Celebration.
Teaching adults at Literacy KC has been a real source of joy in my life. As someone with a K-12 education background, there’s a different energy here. When adults make time to attend classes with us, it almost always means they are making sacrifices in other areas of their lives- work, sleep, time with family, etc. For that reason, our students have a drive to make their time here meaningful and to commit to their own progress. It is inspiring to see and to be a part of that progress journey.
Last year, I taught a literacy-level English class. This class is offered to students who score at the most basic level on our English test during registration. If students test at this level, it means they cannot read or write in English at all, and frequently, they also do not read or write in their first language. In other words, they lack literacy skills in general (not just in English).
Teaching this class is both extremely challenging and exceptionally rewarding. When you begin at the ground-level, you have nowhere to go but up. I remember Omar, one of my students from last year- the way he looked on the first day of class- both lost and hopeful. Omar attended almost every single class for the entire year, only missing class occasionally for appointments or if he was very sick. He had to catch a bus to school, but the closest stop to our school was still several blocks away, so he had to walk another 10 minutes to make it to class. He had to leave home very early in the morning, rain or shine (or snow- a new experience!), to make this trip.
Every day when he came to class he was laser-focused on the material. He worked hard to memorize grammar constructions, he volunteered to speak aloud even when he wasn’t 100% sure what to say, and he learned to read and write in English.
At the end of the year, he thanked me for all my help. I told him it was his own achievement that his English had improved so much in such a short time, and that I appreciated his hard work in class. He not only attended English class every day, he also came to our English speaking club every Friday and eventually started in a computer class, too.
He is back this year and he’s moved up to a beginner-level English class (our classes are literacy -> beginner -> intermediate -> advanced). He still greets me in the hall when we pass each other. I hope he will continue to rise through the different classes until he feels he can meet all the goals and accomplish all the dreams he has for his life here in the United States.