Hi, my name is Erin. I'm the initiatives administrator at the Coalition on Adult Basic Education, which you know as COABE. My path into adult education was quite by accident. I graduated with a master's degree in linguistics. If you know anything about that field, you can't do too much with it unless you have a PhD, and I needed a break from being a student. I just needed to de-stress, and what I really needed was to figure out what my path forward was. I didn't realize that I would find that path forward so quickly after graduating! 

So I just kind of looked around for different teaching jobs, knowing that I just wasn't quite sure where I was going to go or what I was going to do. But I had a background in teaching English to speakers of other languages, so I looked into programs like that, and I got a job teaching a GED class. They said, “We don't have any English as a Second Language classes available at this time, but we do have GED classes.” And I said, “Well, I have never taught that before.” And in true Adult Ed format, they said, “No worries! Here's the book. Here's all the information. You start in three days!” 

So it was quite a whirlwind, but I entered that classroom and I found adult learners with so many different stories and backgrounds and reasons why they came to Adult Ed. It was hard to imagine being in any other field. They came there of their own volition, often overcoming transportation barriers just to be able to get to this rural church basement where the GED class was held. 

The pivotal point that cemented that I would be an adult Ed for the rest of my career is that I visited my grandma. I'm a good granddaughter. I visit her, we have we have lunch together, and at lunch one time she said, “Well, Erin, I know you graduated. What are you doing now?” And I said, “Yeah, I got my master's degree and now I'm teaching a GED class.” And she goes, “ What do you mean, teaching a class? They just put worksheets in front of you, and you just sit there quietly and work on them.” And I [said], “Well, that's not at all what it is like. Why would you think that?” And she said, “Well, when I got my GED, I would stay after my shift at the factory. Your grandpa would pick me up late, and somebody would come into our break room and they would pass out all of these worksheets, and we would sit there and we would work our way through these different worksheets to prepare us for taking the GED.” 

I didn't know how to respond. That was the first time that I had ever heard that my grandma had gotten her GED. And in true Adult Ed teacher format, I said, “ Why didn't you tell me this?” And she goes, “I didn't think it was anything to be proud of.” And it was that sentence that cemented that I would be in this career because I don't want any adult learner to feel like their accomplishment is not something to be proud of just because it isn't what socially individuals might see as a traditional path to education. 

My grandma worked at that factory. She took those GED classes, she came home, she made dinner for her children, she got them ready for bed. She was doing so much. And it just, even now, it just hurts to think that she didn't realize what a huge accomplishment getting her GED was. 

And so it was that moment that I said, I'm here to stay. I've weathered a life of being a professional adjunct and moving into different positions within adult education. But it's that connection through my grandma that makes this personal for me, and when something's personal for me, I refuse to detach myself from it. That's why I advocate so hard. And that's why I do the work that I do. Thanks for letting me share my Adult Ed story.