This week the Illinois State Library spotlights Tolton Center in Chicago. In Mexico, this student only advanced to the third grade. When she moved to Chicago, she began English as a Second Language classes to learn to read and write Spanish and to speak, read, and write English. She and her four-year-old son walk over a mile to class in all types of weather. Although the woman, her husband and their four children live below the poverty level, she manages to feed, clothe, and keep her children in school.
Learning English has allowed her the opportunity to talk to people in stores, ask questions at her children’s school, and help her children with their homework. She and her family regularly visit the local library. This student has overcome her shyness to become an active and confident mother, employee, and neighbor.