Thursday, June 01, 2000
Perseverance reaps pride as grandmother graduates
By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer
After watching all eight of her children earn their diplomas, and four of them go on to earn college degrees, Janice Faulkner is finally donning a cap and gown herself.
“I'll probably be boo-hooing all the way down the aisle,” said Mrs. Faulkner, a 61-year-old O'Bryonville resident who will be one of 13 students of the East End Adult Education Center receiving a diploma at a graduation ceremony tonight at the Columbia Center, 3500 Columbia Parkway. “I've done pretty well with my life, but I've always felt this hole. Now it will be filled and I can go on with other things.”
Center director Adele Craft said 23 students passed the GED exam this spring to receive their diplomas, including three others older than 50.
Joining Mrs. Faulkner are Charles Raymond, a 51-year-old maintenance worker who worked for 10 years toward his diploma, overcoming severe dyslexia; 53-year-old Elizabeth Lindsey of Hyde Park, who works with senior citizens, and Pat Huskey, 57, who is forgoing her graduation ceremony to see her granddaughter get her diplo ma.
“We usually have one or two who are older, but this has been an unusual year,” said Mrs. Craft, whose center has been offering free tutoring for 27 years to those interested in getting their diplomas. “And at 61, Janice has been unusual. But she's been great.”
Beginning in 2002, the GED test will get tougher, and Ohio residents who haven't passed the test by the end of 2001 will have to start over. But Mrs. Craft isn't concerned about possible effects on the center.
“We teach them more than they need to know anyway, and don't teach to the test,” said Mrs. Craft.
Mrs. Faulkner dropped out of school in 1956 after getting pregnant during her senior year. She says that when she tried to re-enroll to finish school and get her diploma that school officials wouldn't take her back because she was too old.
She soon married, and had eight children. After her youngest was in school, she went to work at the Internal Revenue Service's Covington service center as a data transcriber, and later became a supervisor.
Mrs. Faulkner said that because she wasn't able to finish her education, she made sure that her children did.
“Oh heck, yeah, I was a stickler for that,” said Mrs. Faulkner, who now has 13 grandchildren, the oldest of whom is a freshman at Central State University.
“She stressed education in all her children,” said her youngest daughter, Nancy Lynn Bonner, herself a Central State graduate. “She pushed us all through school, and never let us quit.”
While she had always wanted to earn her diploma, Mrs. Faulkner said she got serious soon after she retired from the Internal Revenue Service, where she had worked her way up into management.
The lack of a diploma “didn't stop me from getting ahead, but there was only so far I could go,” said Mrs. Faulkner. “Then when I stopped working, I needed something to do. And what better thing to do than finish something you started?”
She said that even working for the IRS didn't prepare her for the math portion of the test, which was “by far the toughest.”
Mrs. Craft said that in the past, some older students have not come back to the center because of culture clashes with younger students. But this year, all the students got along and learned from one another, with Mrs. Faulkner playing a big role by remaining open-minded.
“We like to think of ourselves as a little red schoolhouse that is open to all ages,” Mrs. Craft said. “And Janice really got along with everybody.”
Mrs. Faulkner doesn't plan to stop with her diploma. She's interested in taking college classes, especially in computers.
“I'm one of 11 children myself, and only two of us got college degrees,” Mrs. Faulkner said. “Now, I can shoot for that.”
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