THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408260614
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
While area children prepare for a new school year, 29 older students jubilantly brought their studies to a close Thursday night.
In a special kind of graduation ceremony, the students marched across the stage of a high school auditorium to celebrate earning their General Education Development certificates.
The certificates mean that although they never completed high school, they passed a five-part test measuring skills they would have acquired in school.
Questions have been raised in recent years about whether the GED should be considered equal to a high school diploma, which requires years of study.
Still, the students who attended classes at Virginia Beach's Adult Learning Center to prepare for the test are convinced that the GED will create opportunities for them.
``They should feel just as proud about what they got as somebody who got a high school diploma,'' said Robert L. Clark Jr., principal of the Adult Learning Center.
The students have only to look to Barbara Ciara, a local television news anchor who earned a GED and spoke at Thursday night's ceremony, for proof.
``I just kind of think people ought to come out of the closet about it,'' Ciara said. ``I mean, I have some friends who dropped out of high school and got their GEDs but they don't like to talk about it, like it's not something to be proud of.''
She praised the GED recipients during the ceremony.
``You have the fortitude, you have the strength,'' she said. ``You have the wherewithal to say, `I can.' Too many people today are saying, `I can't.' ''
Rebecca D. De Long, a 17-year-old who left school in ninth grade to be taught by her mother at home, plans to parlay her GED into success, similar to Ciara.
De Long, a partner in a home catering and baking business operated by her mother, will attend Johnson & Wales University of Culinary Arts in Norfolk this year. The school requires its students to hold GEDs or high school diplomas.
``I do think that public school is important,'' she said. ``But it just wasn't something for me. I think everybody has a different way for them in life. Just like some people choose to be doctors and lawyers, for other people maybe a private way of studying is better.''
It took 37-year-old Tina D. Adams nearly two decades to decide to finish her schooling.
``My daughter quit school in the 10th grade,'' Adams said. ``I quit school in the 10th grade to have her. And then my son started having trouble in 10th grade.
``So I thought that in order to break the cycle, I had to go back to school.''
Adams' 19-year-old daughter, Tammy, joined Adams in the GED classes. Tammy Adams had taken the GED test twice before and failed. With her mother's help - the two read their lessons to each other - Tammy Adams earned her certificate this time.
The two plan to enroll in classes at Tidewater Community College this winter. Tammy Adams would like to enter the U.S. Coast Guard. Tina Adams wants to become a physical therapist.
``It's so much emotion,'' Tammy Adams said. ``It's something I've been trying to get for years. And then finally getting it. And seeing my mom get it was nice.'' by CNB