Education Matters--Adult Community Education

Evening classes for adults through Fairfax County Public Schools have been around for 51 years. Beginning in 1955 with an enrollment of 108 learners, Adult and Community Education (ACE) today serves about 61,000 students yearly in 229 schools and community facilities. ACE employs more than 1,000 instructors while more than 900 volunteers support programs that range from accounting to writing, animal studies to watercolor. ACE is recognized as one of the world's largest and oldest adult and community education programs administered by a public school system.

Despite its name, ACE also offers classes for children as young as five years old. As part of Fairfax County Public Schools, ACE provides pre-kindergarten through 12th grade education programs, including summer school, after-school remediation, SAT preparation, drivers' education, foreign language and enrichment instruction. If you didn't receive a high school diploma, the Adult High School Completion Program will help you earn that sheepskin. For newcomers to the county who are not native English speakers, the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program offers beginning through advanced-level instruction. ACE's class catalog "Classes, Etc." encourages students to "Refine Your American English" and "Move up the career ladder with improved English. NOW".

Two years ago, I taught an adult ESOL class through ACE. Recently a smiling woman approached me in a bank, saying she was a former student. I asked whether the class had helped her. She said yes, waving an important-looking clipboard. See? She was no longer cleaning offices. A Fairfax County librarian took beginning Spanish, then progressively more advanced Spanish classes to help her serve the growing population of Spanish speakers. Now her vacations in Central and South America are enhanced by her knowledge of the local language.

Our multi-cultural county's needs are reflected in classes offered. Residents can learn drywall, painting and waterproofing; door lock installation and repair; electrical maintenance; and plumbing. Spanish speakers can learn the basics of carpentry, electricity, plumbing and blueprint reading in Spanish.

Language classes on many levels teach students Farsi, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese, and American Sign Language. Are you a traveler? Try French for Travelers, Italian for Travelers, Spanish for Travelers, Chinese (Mandarin) for Travelers, Czech for Travelers. Bridge the gap between speakers of different languages through an ACE Spoken Language Interpreter Certificate Program.

Do you like to cook? ACE offers French-A Culinary Introduction for Beginners. Bon appetite! Culinary arts classes also include cake decorating to anti-aging meals, Chinese One Dish Meals, and Caribbean, Indian, Japanese, and Lebanese cuisine, all of which are taught in English.

You can learn about flowers. You can trace your roots with beginning genealogy. You can learn about poetry, screenwriting or writing your memoirs. If your muse leads you to the visual arts, classes are offered in calligraphy; drawing; painting in oil, acrylic, watercolor; and photography.

At first, only business classes were offered. Jan Hagin taught business classes in 1968. She remembers her students as being easy to teach because most had college degrees in areas such as the arts, but employment in these fields was hard to find. "They came back to the classroom and took classes to prepare for jobs in the government," says Hagin. ACE has met the community's changing needs ever since. Business education classes now include classes for the non-native speaker of English in American English pronunciation and business writing.

According to Director Dr. Bonita Moore, "ACE has always been, and will continue to be, an innovator and an incubator, launching and developing (and then often spinning off) new programs and new initiatives to meet the needs and interests of those who live and work in Fairfax County. Classes delivered in languages other than English and classes online help us meet those needs."

Veterans can use their educational benefits to pay for 45 ACE classes in computers, business, apprenticeship, health/medical, trade and industry. Low-income adults who are eligible to work in the United States, who live or work in Fairfax County and wish to enhance their careers, may apply for ACE scholarships. Most classes are supported by user fees and grants and are not funded from the school system's operations budget.

Believe it or not, there are many more classes than those described here. To find out what they are, call Bryant Adult Center at 703-660-2065, or Centreville Adult Center at 703-227-2220, or visit www.fcps.edu/DIS/OACE/classesetc.html.