BY ROD HANSEN
The Goffstown Adult Education Program is set to return for the 2007 spring semester with a new director and the continued goal of providing lifelong learning opportunities to area adults.
The program offers three primary areas of learning for students 16 and older in the greater Manchester area. These include a curriculum for students seeking a high school diploma; a program to prepare students for the General Education Development (GED) test and an adult education program with enrichment courses in subjects such as business law, women’s self defense and gardening.
Ray Dumais has taken the GAP director’s position left open by Tess Marts, who founded the program four years ago.
A longtime technology teacher at Goffstown High School, Dumais also has experience running adult education programs in his native Maine. He holds a master’s degree in adult education from the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.
“I love the feeling of adult education,” Dumais said. “The enrichment courses are a great service to the community, to let people keep their minds active and to pursue lifelong learning and really bridges the community.
“If a person’s course of education was interrupted when they were in high school, the diploma program allows them to get their high school credentials and move on with life. In today’s society, the workforce requires at least a high school degree or its equivalent,” Dumais said.
The GAP’s adult diploma program meets on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 6 to 9 p.m. at Goffstown High School, 27 Wallace Road. The spring semester will begin the first week in February and end in May.
Participation in the program requires students to submit all their previous high school records to Dumais, who then works with the students to create an individual education program.
Dumais recalled one student who earned her diploma after starting at GAP last fall and is now enrolled in a local college.
“This program does allow people to get their high school credentials and move along with their education,” Dumais said.
Another GAP program offers preparation and evaluation for the GED test. That test covers areas including social studies, science, mathematics and separate language arts elements of reading and writing.
The class runs 15 weeks, meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays evenings from 6 to 8 p.m., at a cost of $50. The course concludes with a pre-test to predict success on the official GED test.
While the diploma and GED programs focus on specific education goals, the enrichment courses bring students of all ages together to learn new skills and and areas of interest. One such course, a newly offered class on business law, is scheduled to be taught by Goffstown District Court Special Justice Mike Ryan.
Other enrichment offerings include a gardening course taught by horticultural consultant Paula Kovecses and a dance class taught by Paper Moon Dance Studios.
“The enrichment classes are for everybody. It’s never to late to return to your education,” Dumais said.
Goffstown School Board Chairman Keith Allard said he attended a recent GAP graduation ceremony, and was impressed by the diversity of students and the meaning it had in their education.
“I think it’s a wonderful addition to our program in Goffstown. You have people (participating) from their late teens to early 60s. Some were people who had left high school recently, and other already had families but were coming back,” said Allard.
More information about the GAP is available through the program’s Web site at www.goffstown. k12.nh.us/GAP or by calling 497-4841, ext. 356.