Things are winding down in the Sims Park family literacy class. Only a few days remain before the Christmas break. Kou Xiong studies a lesson on reading charts and graphs. He is puzzled about a graph illustrating the �infant mortality rate� in various countries. How is it that the infant mortality rate is so much higher in the United States than in many other countries? He is astounded by that fact, and he wants to be sure he is understanding the graph. He and the teacher engage in a detailed conversation about this issue. And what does infant mortality mean precisely? Are babies who die in the womb counted? Do miscarriages count? No, the teacher and one of the women in the class assure him, the term refers only to babies who die after birth. Thus, by questioning and pondering, Kou builds his English vocabulary and his framework for Western style thought. He tests at the fifth to sixth grade reading level and plans to enroll soon in LVA�s citizenship class.

Actually Kou�s language skills are developing quite well, as shown by his emerging grasp of English idioms. When a birthday is celebrated in class this morning, Kou asks the age of the celebrant and is told it is 46. �Ah, you are almost to the top,� he says. Then, catching his own mistake, he laughs good-naturedly, �I meant �almost over the hill.� �

Houa Xiong cheerfully assesses her progress in the class. �Last year I not speak English,� she says. �Just a little. But here the teacher help me a lot!� Houa says a friend recently asked for her help while applying for a job. �She call me and ask how to fill in application. We learn that here in class, so I tell by telephone how to do it.� The friend also asked for advice on what to do in an interview. �I tell her �Don�t get upset�and smile!� � Houa beams.

The friend got the job she wanted, as a teacher�s aid in a public school classroom. Now Houa wants to prepare for the same kind of job. She explains confidently that after Christmas Alice Schafer, her LVA parenting teacher, will help her get started in the required classes at EVTC. Houa is very happy at the prospect of doing this work, but she makes it clear, �only for pre-school, Head Start, only small children.�

LVA�s volunteer tutors are trained to make lessons of real life situations whenever possible. Mai Lee�s tutor found the perfect chance to do this when she discovered that Mai Lee was using the laundromat, at a cost of $30 to $40 per trip, to wash and dry the clothes for herself and her eight children. The tutor suggested that Mai purchase a washing machine and use that money for payments on her own machine. A few weeks later Mai asked if the tutor would help her shop for a washing machine and a dryer to be delivered around Christmas time.

This morning in class, the two women study the notes they have made during several class time �field trips� to the appliance departments at such stores as Best Buy, Sears, and Electric Avenue. During these excursions Mai has conversed in English with various sales clerks about the machines, and with her tutor about applying for credit cards, writing checks, and paying a credit card balance within a year to avoid interest. She keeps a list of the words learned, including cheap, expensive, interest, quality, cycle, and spin.

A small floral arrangement in a slender vase sits in front of Megan�s place at the horseshoe this morning. Opening the card, Megan blushes with pleasure when she reads the handwritten note from one of the LVA tutors, �Congratulations on attaining your HSED!�

All fall Megan has studied for, taken, and then passed one GED test after another . . . literature . . . science . . . health . . . civics. Math was the tough one. Last Friday Megan passed the math test�by one point. That was enough to earn the HSED and prompt her father to remind her, exasperatingly to Megan, �I told you that you should have graduated from high school a long time ago!�

Now that Megan has her diploma, she will leave family literacy. A couple of weeks ago she joined her husband as a dishwasher at Skyler�s Cafeteria, and after Christmas she too will work there full time.

She has been invited to speak next Tuesday at the LVA Board of Directors December meeting. She will tell them the family literacy classes helped her and Kimberly both, and she is glad she earned the HSED. �Always before it was other people who wanted me to do it. This time I decided I wanted a diploma.�

After about a year, she says, she wants to enroll at EVTC to study police science. �I could be a probation officer, but they have to put up with too much guff. I will probably be a corrections officer. I�d work in the jail.� With her authoritative presence, her steady-eyed gaze, and her newly developing confidence, a career for Megan Wittrock in police work may very well be in the cards.