Since 1989, The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) has worked with millions of families, professionals, and communities to establish a national network of people working towards their mission of eradicating poverty through education solutions for families.
(Retrieved from https://familieslearning.org)
My four children and I were students of the 1988-1989 pilot project in Madison County North Carolina.
As a child, my response to stressful situations was to disappear, blend into the background. When I had children, I tried to step out of the shadows. Looking back, I realize that I tried to teach them to blend into the background also. Not completely as I did, but they needed to be prepared to step back at a moment's notice. That's how I would protect them. That's how I would make sure no one died on drugs or went to prison. My measure of success was to make their childhoods better than mine.
I pretended that what I was doing was completely natural. That I had a right to displace the air around me, around us. But inside, I was still afraid. Still ashamed. I curled my toes in my shoes as I always did when I needed to disappear, but I stayed with my children and continued my work of looking after them by making sure they didn't wander too far into the open.
Then a woman in Kentucky named Sharon Darling, believed I wanted what was best for my children, so she bridged the gap between no hope and opportunity with a program called the Kenan Family Literacy Project. My three-year-old, RL enrolled in the pilot program in the summer of 1988.
We joined Mike, Misty, and Megan at the bus stop. RL and I sat in the front seat, Misty and Megan sat two rows behind us, and Mike the oldest, a few rows behind them.
Mike, Misty, and Megan got off the bus at Marshall Elementary School and RL and I rode on to Walnut Elementary School a few miles away.
My three-year-old, RL, learned to "plan, follow through, and review". This new concept serves him well as a NC Licensed General Contractor building new homes and remodeling existing homes.
Mike, Misty, and Megan are leading lives that wouldn't have been possible without the Kenan Family Literacy Program.
We've faced challenges that might have derailed us if not for the time, energy, and love of those who supported us in the family literacy program.
I managed to carry much of my own load and not leave it all for my children to bear. Their loads were heavy but still lighter than mine.
My grandchildren began life from the shoulders of two generations who benefitted from the tools of family literacy. Their loads are lighter still.
I just became a great grandmother so stay tuned as the story of the third generation of our family literacy journey unfolds.
Updated: 9/15/2022
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