by Victoria Rose Perkins

Created on: March 10, 2008   Last Updated: December 22, 2008

Having been on welfare with four children and only a 10th grade education, I know for a fact, one can set and achieve learning goals in an adult educational system. I am only one example of how it can happen.

The desire to better one's lot in life is the starting point. In my case, I wanted to better my life for my children, set good examples for them and hoped they would have a better life than I had. This is no different than most parents dreams.

First, it did help me immensely that I was an avid reader. Reading and comprehending what you read is the key to opening the door to further opportunities.

If your reading skills are poor, improve them. Read, read and read. When you come across words you do not know the meaning of, look them up and start using them!

Our State of NH had a program to help low-income mothers further their education and I took advantage of that. It was difficult, I had no transportation and lived in a rural area.

At first, s social worker was kind enough to drive me to classes three nights a week at a local high school. When personal problems prevented her from helping me for more than the first few weeks, I asked the school if I could take the books home with me to study and prepare for my GED exams.

After some discussion with the school officials, they agreed. However, they did not think I would succeed without classroom instruction. I poured over those study books every night after the children were in bed. I spent four hours every night for the next 3 months studying and learning.

My math skills were very poor. I enlisted the help of a neighborhood 8th grader to help me get the basics.

Three months later, I took the GED exams over a period of two days. I passed everything with an A-B average. The math....I just made it over the passing grade.

OK. I was proud of my accomplishment, but knew I needed more education to get ahead. I checked any and all resources the State had to offer. At the time, I was fortunate enough to enroll in a technical college to learn "business occupations" to prepare me for office work.

The State gave me an aptitude test and paid for my one year college program. Please know these were called "accelerated courses", meaning the class was getting 9 months of learning crammed into 3 months time! How?

We students attended the college full-time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Along with this, it was absolutely required to complete 2 to 4 hours of homework nights and weekends.

The selectors only chose the very motivated because

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