At adult education classes: Learning, opportunity and community

Prior Lake American

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for three hours, people from around the world who now live in Minnesota flock to Hidden Oaks Middle School in Prior Lake to learn English, or work on their GED.

Hidden Oaks Middle School is home to adult basic education classes as part of the SouthWest Metro Educational Cooperative. While most classes are offered in Chaska and Shakopee, Prior Lake has maintained its own site.

“They’ve wanted to maintain a site to serve the population within the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District and that’s why we’re here,” Adult Basic Education Instructor Thea Curtis said. “Because it is just one teacher, we get this mix of English Language Learners (and) GED students.”

Assistant Sarah Byrne and four volunteers help teach the classes with Curtis, who is the sole teacher. It’s quite the task load with GED and beginner, intermediate and advanced English classes offered to students at no cost.

“The four components (for English Language Learners) are always reading, writing, listening and speaking,” Curtis said. “We need to make sure that we’re hitting all four of those modes of learning a language, because they’re very important — all of them.”

For immigrants, the classes are often more than just learning a language — it’s about learning skills which will help them be a citizen of the United States at the same time as learning English. The program, which is funded by the state, has to show that teachers are helping students become contributing members of society.

“Our curriculum guidelines, the intent of them, is to prepare people to be active members of the community, so we focus on things like healthcare, shopping (and) being able to function out there in the community,” Curtis said. “You’re helping to lead all these students to be active members of the community.”

Student Antonia De la Vega, who is from Nicaragua, is taking advantage of both the English and GED classes offered.

“I know I deserve a better job,” De la Vega said. “That can open many doors. I get tired of being in the back, nobody see you. I want to be in the front. I want to feel sure of myself. That’s the reason I want to study English — I want my kids to be proud of me some day.”

Vietnamese student Sung Nguyen and wife Lieu Nguyen said they moved to the United States to be with their children and grandchildren. After they retired from their respective jobs in Vietnam, the couple moved in 2013. Sung Nguyen said he wants to learn English to form friendships with residents of America.

“I want to improve my English for speaking and listening for relationship with everybody here,” Sung Nguyen said. “I also want to know about the culture and the history of America. It’s interesting for me. When I came here, it was difficult for me to understand what the Americans said — American English seemed crazy.”

Student Awok Akot was relocated to Minnesota after war in South Sudan, which has gone through several civil wars. She said she is learning English because everything in the United States is done in English.

“You have to go to work, you have to speak English, you have to help your kid with homework,” Akot said. “Everything about English here. I grew up in Africa without education ... school or education is my dream that I never had, so that’s why I’m here — to learn.”

All of the students said their English had improved since coming to the classes.

“Any day I come here, I feel more confident, I remember my English, I practice it,” De la Vega said. “We have very different accent so it’s going to be good for us to understand people from different country.”

Student Nina Kochetkova, from Kazakhstan, said the class is accessible to her.

“It’s good because this class is free and very near,” Kochetkova said.

The classes are also a community, when it can be hard for immigrants or people who don’t know English to break into other social circles. Student Sagrario Juarez brought bread to share with the class that she got from her job at Subway. When student Yelena Kozhevnikova, who is from Siberia, said “Minnesota is very beautiful state — very good weather,” another student joked, “well, yeah, when compared to Siberia.”

When Akot said “sometimes, I ask myself, am I going to learn English and earn GED?” Curtis responded, “then you should answer, ‘yes I am.’”

Just as students from the English classes vary in country of origin or reasons for learning English, the GED students range as well, in age or reason why they did not complete their high school education.

Currently, the GED classes have students ranging in age from 17 to 65. The only cost for GED students is to take the final examinations, which is a series of four exams for $120 total.

“There’s no predicting how long it’s going to take someone (to earn their GED),” Curtis said. “They all have different stories as to why they were not able to complete their education and why they’re here in this program working toward this goal and it’s a real delight. It makes you feel good to know you are contributing to the success that these people are experiencing.”

Curtis, who taught kindergarten in Minneapolis for 20 years before moving to adult education classes, said the Prior Lake district is dedicated to keeping the adult education classes accessible to community members.

“It has been really meaningful that Prior Lake has made that commitment and been willing and able to continue to host a site right here,” Curtis said. “People should know that their school district feels strongly about that.”

The adult students are not required to attend the classes, yet come back time and time again, Curtis said.

“One of the things that impresses me the most is the dedication the students show to learning,” Curtis said. “We have a number of students who keep coming back. I just think that’s wonderful that they have that motivation to learn and appreciation for what we do. I think they’re wonderful, I really do.”