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Waking to a new World 

Although most illiterates make do, many of them want to escape what is often a hard, back-breaking life

Page 3 of 5

Smith got married in 1967 at age 18, and over his 35-year marriage he and his wife had two kids. He worked a series of manual labor jobs at area mills and warehouses, including Specialty Dyers, where he worked for 14 years until they closed down. Today he works at Carolina Tractor, where he paints and decals trucks and vans, and does mechanical work. It was his supervisors at Carolina Tractor that encouraged him to go back to school.

"Not being able to read has really held me back," he says. "I can't do stuff like fill out the service reports; I have to get the other guys to help me."

But beyond enabling him to do more at work, Smith says he wants to be able to do everyday things, like read to his grandkids. "My grandkids will get a book down and ask me to read it to them, and I'll try, but it's tough. I have to get my wife to help me. If it wasn't for my wife I don't know what I'd do. She helps me with all my book work."

Smith has been going to the ABLE classes for nearly two years, and although it's slow going, he says it's making a big difference. "I've made a lot of progress," he says. "I'm getting to where I can read a little bit. There are still a lot of words I can't pick up, but I'm doing a lot better. I just want to try to finish school so I can make more money and make things better here at home for my family."

Playing Catch Up


At the Johnston YMCA on N. Davidson, Kim Hampton and Vickie Roseborough are also hoping that going back to school will enable them to create a better future for themselves and their families.

Roseborough's story is tragically familiar -- an unplanned pregnancy while she was a teenager caused her to drop out of high school.

"It wasn't like I didn't want to learn," she says. "I just made a mistake and tried to grow up too early. At the time the man I was with said he would be there and help me out. Eventually he went his way and I went mine. But I still had a child that I had to support. So that put me behind with my education."

Roseborough eventually got a job at a Charlotte manufacturing company, where she worked for 27 years. Although she didn't make a lot of money, she was able to put her daughter through college. Now, at a youthful-looking 48, Roseborough is enrolled in CPCC'S GED program in the hopes of bettering herself.

"I want to get into a field where I can help other people," she says. "At this point in life I need help, so I would like to be able to do the same for others."

But she's also finding it tougher than she expected. "I'm having to go back to the basics and start all over," she says. "A lot of years have gone by, but I'm just thankful I still have this opportunity. I've got the smarts, I just don't have the credentials to back me up."

Roseborough says she is particularly disturbed by all the young people she sees in class everyday. "That's what really hurts," she says. "These young kids just don't know. I tell them they better stay in school and go as far as they can, and never look back. This right here (lack of education) is hurting me. If I had my education I could be out there right now putting in resumes and I wouldn't have to feel so guilty. But I'm not a quitter. I still have goals in life."

Hampton moved to Charlotte from Philadelphia about 16 years ago when she was 20, shortly after getting married. Now, at an attractive and stylish 36, she's enrolled in the ABLE program. Although she completed 11th grade, Hampton says she "couldn't read at all."

Hampton was one of 11 siblings, and says she grew up in a dysfunctional and abusive household. "No one really cared if I went to school or not," she says. "Not my parents, not the teachers. I didn't have to show my report cards or grades to anyone, so it didn't matter. No one took the time to encourage us, or tell us how important education was. So when it was time to go back to school, I just didn't go."

Once she settled in Charlotte, Hampton worked a series of menial warehouse jobs. "That's all I could get, and I can't even get that now," she says. "I've been looking all over for a job. I don't know where else to go."

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