Director of Schools Mike Harris will be attending seven graduation ceremonies last month.
Just the same, he said there was something special about the Adult Education ceremony he attended today.
“There’s excitement at this graduation that can’t be duplicated,” Harris told the graduates.
Indeed, the ten minutes or so that it took to call everyone’s name was a blur of boisterous applause and shouted nicknames.
“You went the extra mile. You didn’t have to be here — you wanted to be here,” Harris said.
Edward Harris Sr., 36, said he was picking up where he left off 20 years ago, having last attended high school in 1989. He doesn’t count 1990, when he was only there for a week or so.
“I left school on my own,” Harris said, citing bad influences and the responsibilities that come with being a young father.
Now things have changed.
“I have a granddaughter — I gotta keep myself straight for her, my children, my wife,” he said.
Harris took the GED exam in 2005, but failed one portion. Math came easily to him, but reading not so much.
Needing a GED to continue his education at the Tennessee Technology Center, where he is studying to become an HVAC service technician, Harris set his eyes on his goal.
“I taught myself,” he said. “I started reading the newspaper more, started reading magazines.”
He received notice in February that, this time, he’d passed.
“Ain’t no better feeling than once you get that paper,” he said. “I got education just like the next man.”
For more on this story, see tomorrow's Leaf-Chronicle.
Just the same, he said there was something special about the Adult Education ceremony he attended today.
“There’s excitement at this graduation that can’t be duplicated,” Harris told the graduates.
Indeed, the ten minutes or so that it took to call everyone’s name was a blur of boisterous applause and shouted nicknames.
“You went the extra mile. You didn’t have to be here — you wanted to be here,” Harris said.
Edward Harris Sr., 36, said he was picking up where he left off 20 years ago, having last attended high school in 1989. He doesn’t count 1990, when he was only there for a week or so.
“I left school on my own,” Harris said, citing bad influences and the responsibilities that come with being a young father.
Now things have changed.
“I have a granddaughter — I gotta keep myself straight for her, my children, my wife,” he said.
Harris took the GED exam in 2005, but failed one portion. Math came easily to him, but reading not so much.
Needing a GED to continue his education at the Tennessee Technology Center, where he is studying to become an HVAC service technician, Harris set his eyes on his goal.
“I taught myself,” he said. “I started reading the newspaper more, started reading magazines.”
He received notice in February that, this time, he’d passed.
“Ain’t no better feeling than once you get that paper,” he said. “I got education just like the next man.”
For more on this story, see tomorrow's Leaf-Chronicle.
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