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Show Adult Education Fills Big Need in Grand County If you were one of those high school dropouts and wish to do something about it, why not drop back in-to the adult and community high school classes. class-es. Mr. Jim Walker, the adult and community education director di-rector for three years, summarizes sum-marizes the purpose of the program as "to serve the people who see the need of furthering their education." The adult and community education program is really two separate agendum that are joined together for easier correlation and greater benefits. bene-fits. The adult education classes have basic high school curriculum - social studies, English, math, science - and is aimed toward helping adults get credits for high school completion. Anyone that wants to take the classs can do so without paying fees if they are working for a high school diploma. The community education classes are provided for people in the area who want to take special-interest courses. They must have at least 10 students involved for the class to be taught, whereas, the adult high school classes require fewer persons. Besides receiving credit from just their basic adult high school classes, a student working for a diploma can receive credit through the community classes. Using these courses as electives they obtain credit. The classes offered for this semester under the adult and community education schedule were a sewing class, wood finishing, driver's education, cake decorating, dec-orating, an amateur radio operator class, and business classes. Another way you may obtain credits is by taking the Graduate Equivalency Diploma Di-ploma (GEA) test. A tested student can gain up to five credits from this examination. Also, by playing on an organized sports team, such as the city's volleyball team for women or the men's basketball basket-ball team, a pupil can get P.E. credit. Guidelines established by the State School Board also provides credit for military service. The students attend their classes three nights a week for 3 hours each evening. Anyone can take the community com-munity classes ot the high school classes for interest or brush-up work if they pay the required fees. The adult education students stu-dents receive their diplomas at the same time as the high school students at the graduation gradua-tion exercises. The only difference is that they don't go through the cap and gown ceremony. Both diplomas are of equal value, both signifying that the student has met state and Grand County High School graduation requirements. There are about 10-12 graduates every year. The oldest person in Moab to receive a diploma was in her early 50's. It has only been in the last two years that people over 30 have been able to get a free high school education. There is an average of about 10 teachers per semester teaching the classes. Getting a high school education can be of invaluable worth. Mr. Walker related a story of a man (who we'll call Mr. X) who failed to get a higher position in his business because of not receiving a high school diploma. Mr. X trained and supervised ,a novice employee who later advanced to a higher position to become the supervisor over Mr. X. This was caused only because Mr. X didn't have his high school diploma. The most annoying part came when the same thing happend two more times. Being upset by the situation Mr. X decided to go back to high school and obtain his diploma, which he did with success. If you feel a need in your life to improve your skills or get a diploma, drop back into school like many others in our community are doing. I '' ' |