Pamela Brooks-Waters

Resource Specialist

(559) 675-4425, Ext 117

To first share a midpoint of my teaching journey, I will talk about my teaching ESL evening classes some 15 years ago. I will then travel back in my timeline. This experience only deepened my respect for our Adult Education Students. Many of these individuals traversed an arduous life of working long hours, launching their day long before dawn only to journey through a backbreaking day in the field under an unrelenting sun. These same workers then entered my classes now as students with exuberance and eagerness to learn, knowing full well that the time they spent in my class was their family time and, for many, their sleep time. Despite this sacrifice, they were committed to dedicating this time to furthering their education to make a better life for their families. As a society, it is so easy to take for granted what most feel or consider common modern-day provisions like education. Diametrically opposite, education is a luxury for many others, and providing for a family, even with meager means, is not only paramount but basic survival. While getting to know and teach these individuals who were struggling to make ends meet financially while tenaciously reaching for something better for themselves and their kin, I had the opportunity to better understand, respect, and honor them with a compassionate heart. This was among my first years of teaching at Madera Adult School. During the day, my Special Education student population was attending Madera Adult School; MAS was one of the sites where I supported my Special Education students with other schools I was serving. I have two separate credentials that lent me the opportunity of serving in two varied teaching environments during separate times in the course of a day. This experience also truly opened my eyes to see their struggles (with many being both Second Language Learners and having a learning disability). Both teaching domains have made me grateful and, at the same time, mindful of the opportunity to mediate their educational goals.

One of my sons attended Madera Adult School. After a lengthy medical health experience, his senior year did not include graduation. Madera Adult School’s principal, staff, counselors, and teachers were nothing short of positive and encouraging. Because of their amazing organizational mediation, he was lifted from his quagmire of depression and low self-esteem. After his GED, he moved on from Madera Community College to an Interior Design College in Los Angeles. He is now a practicing architect in Seattle and covers the West Coast for his company. Humbly, I first thank God, second Madera Adult School for being there for my son.

Compassion, dedication, and deliberate, intentional focus are how I perceive and know Madera Adult School. We are a school that embraces diversity and fosters growth (meaning that there is always room for improvement based on current data and research findings). We practice strength of integrity (following state, district, and professional mandates). We collectively value, validate, and welcome our diverse population to embody a true humanitarian learning environment. While my experience as a child growing up through adulthood going to school, to then later attend college and university was lacking in many ways, reflecting the previous description, I want to literally “pay it forward,” possibly an overused term, but nonetheless viscerally applies to my vision and as my mother taught us that everyone has value. Rather than judge, just help because we really do not know what another human is going through until we have walked a mile in their shoes. So here I am. I just want to help provide a learning path whereupon for them to journey to open new and exciting opportunities to see themselves in a new light. For our students to be liberated and move toward goals that once may have seemed unobtainable are now a reality. A journey that is valued because they are valued.