Kou and Houa Xiong, Southeast Asian refugees, are enrolled in the Sims Park family literacy class primarily to improve their English language skills. They are Hmong, born to farmers in the mountains of Laos, to families caught up supporting the Americans in the maelstrom of the Viet Nam war. When the war ended and the Americans left, the Hmong, no longer safe in their own communist-controlled country, filled refugee camps in Thailand. Many have since emigrated to the United States, with a sizable number now living in Chandler.

Kou and Houa appear to embrace Americanization. They let it be known they did not want an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) class for either themselves or their four-year-old daughter, Gootsang. So downstairs Gootsang is not enrolled in the bilingual class but rather is a classmate with Kimberly in the LVA daycare. Parents of five children, ranging in age from high schoolers to four-year-old Gootsang, the Xiongs are an athletics-absorbed family. �My children all play soccer,� Houa�s face is radiant. �My husband is coach, and he referee. I drive my children to soccer games.� She grins when someone suggests she �get one of those �Mom�s Taxi� bumper stickers.�

Kou�s English is better than Houa�s, as is typical in the Hmong families living in Chandler. Soon after immigrating, many of the men learned English at school and work while most women were at home raising large families. As the children grew up, some of the women began attending ESOL classes. Now with welfare reform impacting even on those with refugee status, more of the women are required to attend school and get jobs. Since the Hmong culture in Laos is primarily a �preliterate agrarian� society as agency reports are wont to phrase it, many of the Hmong women who attend classes in programs such as LVA family literacy are coming to school for the first time in their lives, although the Xiongs are more advanced. During the morning session, Kou and Houa work continuously from 9 to 12 o�clock, interacting individually with a teacher or tutor or working alone on various reading, writing, and math assignments. They do not stop to chat. At 10:15 they do not leave the room for a break but continue at their work, apparently in complete absorption.

Kou is attentive and polite during class lecture or discussion, a friendly man, but not afraid to be assertive. If he can�t read the writing on the chalkboard, he says so, or gets up and walks to the board adjusting his spectacles as he goes. One morning he surprised the group when they talked about school being canceled for a day the second week in a row. In tones that made it anybody�s guess to what extent she was kidding or dead serious, Megan began to whine: �Oh my god, do I have to have my kids home all day again. What are they trying to do to me?� Suddenly Kou cut her off.

�If you don�t want them, don�t have them,� he thrust the simple words across the horseshoe. �If you want fun,� he stretched out his hands palm upward, �don�t have kids.�