At the same time, Adult Basic Education students are adults - they range from 18 to 70 years old and beyond. They are people with life experience. They have perceptions and a vision of what they want from education. They have chosen to return to education late in life and are making sacrifices. Because they have lived their lives without education, or without speaking English, they have developed incredible life skills to compensate.
Leadership is built.
From the first meeting, the men and women are actors. We create the arena for them to speak about education. The students teach each other. AS students speak about education, and as they hear other students expressing the same observations and feelings that they have keep inside of themselves, they learn that there is a student perspective. They learn that their ideas matter.