T H E T U S C A R O R A R E V I E W 2 0 2 2 4 3 Michelle was quick with her first suggestion, “childcare.” While she understands that FCC has been ramping up in this area, she still expressed how large of a barrier childcare is to a vast majority of her students. Her second suggestion was less straightforward, and it was aimed at the whole nation, not simply FCC. For many students, they come to the United States with degrees, credentials, and experience. However, as a nation, we do not have a lot of programs to move people smoothly into those same fields in the U.S. An example she gave me was the medical field: “It’s just difficult for someone who is an M.D. somewhere else to come to America and get recertified. I understand it’s complex, as it should be. There should be a system but we just don’t do a really good job of capitalizing on that… If people want to work in their field of expertise they should be able to. I wish we had better support for moving them quickly into a career that took advantage of their credentials.” As we moved into a discussion of solutions, I offered her my own suggestion for breaking down barriers. I asked Michelle if she thought whether having more teachers who spoke some of the programs’ common languages and teaching classes in those languages would be a help or hindrance to their learning English. She responded with excitement, as this idea has been on her mind, and it’s an area that will probably evolve and develop in the future in all of Adult Education (grant programs), which is what education should do— continuously evolve to meet students’ needs better. One consideration is always how to match what happens in the classroom with what happens “out in the real world.” Michelle clarified: “Some employers want to know that the students have a high school diploma or a GED because they want to know that the students speak English fluently. So, if we taught X, Y, and Z in Spanish, would they be able to go out and work and get a job with an employer? I don’t know. It depends on the reception of the real world when the students get there.” As we spoke on “real world” problems, we transitioned into a conversation regarding how the world sees her students. I asked Michelle: what is one thing you wish people outside of your program understood about the ESOL program? “Well, I think there are a couple of assumptions,” She said. “I think that a lot of people assume that you have to speak the student’s language to communicate with them. It’s often possible to communicate in English. Most students know a few key words and phrases and you can build on that, depending on what you need to convey. I think that people look at
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