Why Do We Not Know Who Our Heroes Are?

Why Do We Not Know Who Our Heroes Are?

I interviewed Dana yesterday before class to find out what a student had to do to be lucky enough to be accepted into the LaGuardia Community College GED Bridge to Business and Health Program.  She explained that when they receive a call from a potential student, they steer applicants to an online registration from which they get about 600 applications.  They ask these students to come in for 3 days prior to entering the program, and if the student can be present for the 3 days before admittance, then they are in.  The first day the students are given a TABE, which is a reading assessment and writing exercise.  The test is constructed in such a way that the student first takes a TABE pre test, from which the instructor discerns whether they should get either one of the 3 booklets marked E, M or D (Dana thought this might stand for Easy, Medium or Difficult).  From there the results indicate whether the student is eligible for the Bridge program, which requires a 5^th grade reading level and above.  If they are below this level, then they are invited to join the BE2 (Basic Adult 2) program, which can get the student up to the level of the Bridge program.  Of the 600 applicants, about 200 students make it to the 3 day registration.  I noticed about 36 students at the beginning of the class that I participate in, of which there are about 26 students left.  Of the people that initially join the class, 63% percent receive their GED and about 65% of these students go onto college.  Although the students are admitted tuition free, Wynne states that the cost per student is probably around $3000.

Our culture seems to think that it is ok to worship glitterati, or people that have come to national and international attention that do not merit, or barely merit, the accolades bestowed on them.  And yet the designers, implementers and users of the LaGuardia Bridge program go unnoticed outside of the academic community.  It is programs like these that make America awesome and they are world demographic shifters, giving people reasons to come to the United States.  The Bridge program allows unlimited chances for an adult to receive an education, and this kind of opportunity is internationally rare.  It was the adult schooling opportunities that my French mother took advantage of when she first got here 54 years ago.  She earned her PhD. in neuropsychology and I watched her go to classes throughout my teen years.  I know what a LaGuardia Bridge student has to go through to earn their academic successes, and the students that take advantage of an incredible product offering are incredible themselves for knowing what they need to do and making it happen.  It is the designers, the implementers and the students of this and other like programs that are our real national and international heroes.