In the fall of 1971, I needed a part-time job. My wife was pregnant with our oldest son and had resigned her teaching position the previous spring in anticipation of full-time motherhood. I wanted to supplement my salary as a reading teacher at one of the two local high schools. A staff member of the Department of Education told me about a new community project working with adults who had not graduated from high school. I knew nothing about ABE, but hoped my experience teaching reading and English would enable me to help. We started as Project LEAP (Learning Experiences for Adult Performance).

I stayed because I found teaching and advocating for adults very gratifying; it was always changing as new needs and students came. I soon realized that I enjoyed it more than my full-time job. As the project filled a need in the community, and the opportunity to work full-time became available when the project expanded, I seized it. This was in 1976 -- fairly early on in the development of the ABE system in Massachusetts.

It was an exciting time. After much lobbying, the school system, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to sponsor the project. I was able to hire eight part-time staff members, and we moved to a storefront in downtown Pittsfield. We officially became the Pittsfield Adult Learning Center.

My staff and I were better intentioned than we were experts, but we seized every opportunity to improve our knowledge and our ability to teach adults with varying educational needs. We added an ESL program as the immigrant population began to grow and change. First there were Portuguese speakers from Angola and Mozambique, then came the Cambodian and Vietnamese populations, followed by refugees from the Soviet Union, and most recently, a growing community of Spanish and Chinese speakers. We have since expanded our program and offerings, including GED and a special program to serve adults with learning disabilities.

Though it has been a constant challenge, I feel grateful and privileged to have been able to spend most of my teaching career working with adults. Adult educators do not always get the respect they deserve from other educators, but this does not stop it from being exciting and important. Adult students have not always been given the opportunity to improve their basic education, but the last 25 years have been very positive. The money for ABE has increased manyfold and programs have become more available and more professional. I have never regretted my choice to be an adult educator.

William Stickney is the director of adult basic education for the Pittsfield Public Schools. He can be reached by email at: wstickney@pittsfield.net