John Brannon Messenger Staff Reporter
Posted: Monday, June 22, 2009 9:03 pm

By JOHN BRANNON
Messenger Staff Reporter
So many graduates, so much happiness.
A crowd of about 300 — families, friends, well-wishers galore — packed the commons area of Obion County Central High School Thursday evening to witness the graduation of 95 students enrolled in the Obion County Adult Education program. Through the program, they each earned their General Equivalency Diploma (GED). (See related photo, Page 8.)
Obion County Director of Schools David Huss was there, as was the Obion County School Board — chairman Roger Williams and members Jimmy Smith, Brian Rainey, Glynn Giffin, Diane Sanderson, David Lamb and Susan Williams. So, too, was Sharon Connell, who supervises the program, and GED instructors Ann Moore, Danny Ams, Charlotte Hampton, Gilbert Parnell, Emily Haynes and Joe Smith.
A belated graduation it was. All but one of the 95 graduates should have gotten their high school diplomas years ago but did not, for whatever reason. The intervening years had been less than kind. Without a diploma, they felt incomplete, as if deprived of a part of body and soul. In terms of potential for earning a living, they felt disqualified and penalized. Job-wise, their peers, those who had been so fortunate as to stay in school and graduate, seemingly went to the head of the line.
But with programs such as that administered for the Obion County School System by Ms. Connell and a staff of part-time teachers, they get a second chance.
Huss knows. As director of schools, he has a crow’s nest view of public education, local and otherwise.
At 7:37 p.m. Thursday in the commons area, with a packed gallery watching and the black-robed GED Class of 2009, each wearing a traditional mortar-board with tassel, standing before him, he formally pronounced them graduates of the Obion County Adult Education Program.
There followed a spontaneous and great cheer from both gallery and graduates, and some mortar-boards were flung high overhead.
“They have taken advantage of a second opportunity to get their high school equivalency diploma. It opens a lot of doors for them,” he told The Messenger. “We just want to recognize their dedication to education and what they’ve accomplished.”
Happy talk
In Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Broadway musical, “South Pacific,” of yesteryear, the words of a song are a precise fit for the jubilation — handshakes and hugs and the flash of photo-taking — expressed Thursday evening: “Happy talk, keep talking happy talk. Talk about things you’d like to do. You gotta have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”
Case in point: The happy talk of Dean Lockridge of Union City whose sister, Teresha Harrell, 20, was among the 95 graduates. “I’m so proud of her! My baby sister graduated!” he declared, drawing her close with a hug. “I’ve been pushing her a long time to go for it.”
Ms. Harrell said she did it for her daughter and herself and that it took her a year. “I dropped out of Tupelo (Miss.) High School in 2007. I didn’t feel right. All my friends back home and here had graduated. I felt left out,” she said.
Now that she has her diploma, she said, she can qualify for enrollment in a cosmetology course and someday be a hair stylist.
Three speakers
Three students in the program were guest speakers at the ceremony. Terry Dunn graduated in 1978 but recently realized he needed additional education to enhance his job prospects. Vickie Pettigrew and Joe Stephenson received their diplomas Thursday evening.
• Dunn enrolled in the program in September 2008 after being laid off from a job he’d had 13 years. “At that time, no jobs were available,” he said. “I had had management training and took some courses, but no jobs were available. So I went to see the adult education center. They got my academic level up to where it needed to be. With their help I entered the Tennessee Technology Center in McKenzie and went into industrial maintenance. When I finish this course, there will be several job openings I can fulfill. I’ve completed (courses in) safety, electrical principles and motor controls, and I’m currently in PLC programming. “I urge each of you to further your education. Push as hard as you can. In this day and time, no matter how much training you have, it’s never enough.”
• Mrs. Pettigrew said GED graduation is “the proudest day of my life.” She said she was encouraged by management at Lennox Hearth Products to get her GED. She said that because she’d become a mother at an early age, she went through difficult family problems and dropped out of school.
“I went through life thinking I couldn’t accomplish my goal or fulfill my dream, and I just gave up,” she said. “But thanks to the staff at the adult learning center, I was able to reach my goal, and I’m going to fulfill my dream. I have submitted applications to several colleges and universities.
“So I encourage everybody, young and old, to never give up. Never give up on your dreams. Take the first step and then one day at a time. Remember that with God, all things are possible.”
• Stephenson was laid off from a part-time job he had at a plant in Martin. He realized the only way he could get a full-time job was to get his GED.
“My wife and I discussed it. We had an agreement. She goes back to nursing and I get my GED and a better-paying job,” he said. “So I did. I’ve got my GED now.”
“It’s not easy going back to school at age 45. But it’s well worth it,” he told the graduates. “I passed my tests in September. I’m proud of that. My son tells me he’s proud of me for passing those tests, getting my GED.
“You have to have a high school education to get a good job. This program is very, very important.”
Heroes
The school board chairman said the several teachers in the GED program are “the real heroes.”
“We are certainly grateful to have so many good instructors,” Williams said. “Most of them have about 30 years’ experience each. They are a valuable asset to our county.”
One such teacher is the venerable Ann Moore, who began her teaching career in 1960 at the newly-constructed Obion County Central High School and who taught English until her retirement in 1999. She had been teaching night time GED classes 10 years before she retired. She has continued teaching on a part-time basis.
The GED program, she said, “is a wonderful program.”
“We’re putting these people back into the work force, back to paying taxes, back to living productive lives,” she said. “And we are helping build their self-esteem. The smiles you saw tonight weren’t there when they first came to us, and the GED they earned is not a given. It has to be earned. It’s hard work.
“We teach four days a week.”
And how long will Ann Moore keep on keeping on?
“Oh, maybe there’s a year or two left in me,” she said.
General Sessions
Smith, who will leave his school board seat July 1 when he’s sworn in as General Sessions judge, said he plans to incorporate the GED program into the court system.
He said everyone on probation in the General Sessions court system will be asked if they have a high school education. “If they don’t, the folks at adult education have agreed to sit down with them and determine how they’ll benefit by going through the program,” he said. “Mrs. Connell and David Huss have both agreed to be active participants with the court to improve the lives of probationers.”
Special awards
Several students in the adult education program were awarded plaques for achievements, including:
• Carol Haynes, language arts/reading;
• BreeAnna Watson, writing skills;
• Jennifer Tarkington, mathematics;
• John Wilson, sience;
• Joe Stephenson., social studies;
• Andrew McMillan, highest overall score;
• Danyaile Powell, most improved.
And two — Austin Reed and Nicholas Frazier — were recognized as having achieved the highest overall and second highest, respectively, in the GED Exit Option.
Published in The Messenger 6.22.09