The National Center for Education Statistics, run by the U.S. Department of Education, recently released alarming statistics regarding adult literacy in the United States. Using the data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, results determined that 21% of American adults either have low-level literacy or are entirely illiterate.
While others point fingers and play the blame game for such a large portion of the adult population having never developed basic reading skills, the Durango Adult Education Center (DAEC) wants to invite those adults into their classrooms and help them develop the skills they never obtained early in life.
“The original students that attended here couldn’t read or write,” said Susan Hakanson, the education center’s executive director. “That was why Helen James started the center.”
Educator Helen James founded the Durango Adult Education Center in 1987 in a church basement. The original mission of the education center was to help adults with low literacy skills who had fallen through the cracks of the American education system or those who spoke English as a second language (ESL).
Thirty-five years later, DAEC has grown into formidable nonprofit organization providing instruction for the core subjects tested in the General Education Development Test (GED), as well as ESL courses, citizenship courses, Spanish classes and newly added computer literacy courses. Each course takes about eight weeks to complete.
“Some of our students have undiagnosed learning issues,” Hakanson said. “Dyslexia. Visual and perception problems. Sometimes we send people for eye exams. Sometimes they’re diagnosed with (Irlen Syndrome).”
Irlen Syndrome (also referred to as Meares-Irlen Syndrome, Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome and Visual Stress) is a perceptual processing disorder, a problem with the brain’s ability to process visual information. It is estimated that as many as 50% of children and adults with reading and writing difficulties suffer from Irlen Syndrome, as well as half of those individuals who have been diagnosed with autism. Fourteen percent of the total world population (which may be underreported) also has the disorder.
“Sometimes, they (students) just see a string of letters instead of a sentence,” said Hakanson.
DAEC works with and accommodates such students, which can be something as simple as printing classwork on variously colored sheets of paper. DAEC also has much smaller class sizes than normal schools, allowing teachers to work more closely with students and give them the attention they never received in a regular classroom setting.
“Most of our students never fit into the high school model and they failed because of these undiagnosed learning issues,” Hakanson said.
Statistically, a lack of a proper education can lead to negative, far-reaching consequences, such as homelessness.
It is not uncommon for those students who attend DAEC to be unhoused. Part of the free education DAEC provides is a daily meal at lunchtime, provided by the Manna Soup Kitchen.
“For some of our students, that’s the only meal they’re getting that day,” Hakanson said.
Another far-reaching consequence of an incomplete education is the higher likelihood of criminal behavior. Currently, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, according to the Institute for Research on Poverty. A Bureau of Special Justice Report also found that 41% of inmates do not hold a high school diploma, and both the FBI violent crime statistics and Justice Policy Institute indicate a correlation between those who do not obtain a high school diploma and/or postsecondary education, and higher violent crime rates.
One of the missions of Durango Adult Education Center for the last 15 years is to right that particular wrong. The education center’s educators and volunteers have been working with the La Plata County Jail to help inmates work toward finishing their secondary schooling and prepare for a career path once they have served their time.
Funding, however, limits the time the educators have inside the walls of the jail.
“We only have a couple of hours a week,” said GED instructor, Mary Mullen. “That’s not nearly enough time that we need with them.”
DAEC did manage to help its first female inmate graduate the GED program this past September and held a graduation ceremony for her inside her cellblock.
“We don’t know what they’re in for, and we don’t want to know,” Cyd Franken, the lead GED teacher at the detention center, said in an earlier interview with The Durango Herald. “It’s not important. I’m just there to help them in any way I can.”
Hakanson also emphasized the work DAEC does with inmates once they have been released from jail.
“They walk out of that jail with bills,” she said. “Most of the time, they don’t have a support system. They have nothing. We try to get them back on their feet in any way we can.”
A growing number of students DAEC has helped during recent years are those leaving religious sects with little education and no outside support after they are either forced out or leave on their own accord. The staff members at the DAEC work to help them finish school and find career paths outside of their former churches.
“They don’t have much when they leave those groups,” said Hakanson. “We try to be the support they need. A lot of our student retention has to do with building communities and personal relationships.”
The Journal of College Student Retention notes that social integration, peer relationships and community support are major factors in student retention, especially when it comes to students from underrepresented groups within the academic community.
The education center’s commitment to community and personal relationships with underrepresented students also extends to the ESL population.
Hakanson calculated that there have been sixteen different countries represented by various students in the ESL program at DAEC, including Ukraine, China, Japan, Nepal, Tibet, Turkey, and Colombia.
“We even had a Sherpa guide,” said Hakanson. “Some of the (students in the ESL program) are looking to get master’s degrees.”
Many students in the ESL program are also looking to become United States citizens. The education center has run a citizenship program for several years with the help of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango, which prepares ESL students for the $750 citizenship test.
“It’s not an easy test and it’s not an easy program to get through,” Hakanson said. “Language barriers are a huge issue when they finally take the test.”
A lack of computer literacy is also a major barrier for those seeking to further their education or careers. The DAEC has added classes to help those who may need a little refresher in how to use Microsoft Excel or who last used computers with floppy disk drives.
“We teach basic, basic skills for beginners,” Hakanson said, “and then more advanced applications.”
Hakanson and her staff are also open to suggestions for teaching other kinds of classes in the future, if there is a growing interest.
“If there’s something you want to learn, just ask us,” she said.
Those who work tirelessly at the education center want every student to know they will do whatever it takes to help them succeed, whether that means working with them one-on-one to help develop their math skills, aiding them in taking their GED test, bringing volunteers in to watch their children while they attend their ESL classes or getting them a new pair of shoes to wear to their first job interview after being released from jail.
“We want to keep moving people toward economic mobility and self-sufficiency,” Hakanson said. “Keep educating them and giving them the means to find the way.”
molsen@durangoherald.com
