When she first learned she would be teaching a class at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, Linda Winston was nervous.
She was used to working with students who had behavior and personal problems from her role as a GED teacher at the Greater Columbus Learning Center, but this was new. She began her class by telling convicts this: You may have just signed up for this to get out of your cell for a few hours, but while you are here, you might accidentally become interested in learning.
A lot of them have, she said. And she learned something, as well.
“They’re people just like everyone else,” she said.
She quickly assumed the role of more than a teacher for her students in prison.
She’s also a confidant, a counselor, a cheerleader, and even a mother, as evidenced by the cards they made her this year for Mother’s Day. She smiled at the memory.
“They were really nice cards.”
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The drive from Fayette, Alabama, to the Greater Columbus Learning Center takes 53 minutes.
Linda Winston makes the drive every morning coming to work, and every evening going home, but she makes good use of the time.
“I use talk-to-text,” she said. “So I’ll text students and say, ‘Why haven’t you been in class? Is there anything I can do to help you?’ One lady came back the other week and I said, ‘I know why you’re back, you’re tired of me texting and asking where you are.'”
Winston has worked at the Learning Center for the last three years. However, it’s not just her students in prison that reap more than academic benefits from her. She said she tries to fill whatever role each student needs. Darren Jordan, the center’s executive director, said her dedication to her students is amazing.
“If they need food, she’s going to feed them. If they need clothes, she’s going to clothe them,” Jordan said. “It’s just one thing after another.”
Working with GED students presents unique challenges. There is no single age group, gender or ethnicity to cater to. Winston has helped teenage mothers and grandmothers. She once lent books to a young farmer so he could study them while on a tractor. She helped an athlete pass his test so that he could play at the collegiate level.
Each student is different, but as she gets to know them Winston asks each one the same question.
“I always want to know, ‘What brought you here?'” she said. “You have to try to look for the good in a person, and if you do you will find it.”
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It takes about 7.5 hours to complete the GED test’s four sections. Students must receive a 150 out of 200 on each section to pass. Winston said this strict criteria makes it even more of an accomplishment for students that pass the test.
“You can halfway go to school, halfway pay attention, halfway do your work, and you can probably graduate,” she said. “But you will not halfway get a GED. Nobody’s going to give you anything.”
For this reason, Winston is constantly impressed by her students’ bravery. When they finally do pass, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing their look of accomplishment, according to Winston. She remembers one student who became a mother when she was 13 and came to the learning center at 17.
“She came to me and said, ‘I can’t do this,'” Winston said. “And I said, ‘Well, why not?’ And she said, ‘Because I cheated all the way through high school!'”
Winston worked with her, driving her home when she needed a ride, taking her out to lunch when she did not have food, giving her advice when she asked for it. Now, that student has her GED and is enrolled in college.
“She actually took me out to lunch a couple weeks ago,” Winston said. “She was so proud that she could do that.”
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At a conference for the Northern Mississippi Association of Adult and Community Educators last week, Winston won the Teacher of the Year Award. Her students wrote nomination letters that made her cry when they were read on stage.
“I nominate Ms. Linda Winston for teacher of the year because she inspires me and all of her students to do better for ourselves.”
“Ms. Winston deserves so much more than she’s given, but she wouldn’t expect any more.”
“She makes me feel loved and hopeful.”
Winston said the work done at the center is a group effort, and that she’s lucky to have coworkers like Jordan who support her and treat her the way she treats her students. Jordan said the decision to nominate Winston was one made by the whole center — teachers and students alike.
“We are so fortunate and blessed to have her. We wouldn’t take anything for her,” he said. “It’s kind of like having a Maserati versus having a Toyota Corolla.”
“Hey,” Winston interrupted. “I have a Toyota Corolla.”
“I know,” Jordan said, laughing.
To Winston’s students, a GED is more than a line on a resume or a piece of paper. It is proof that they are not failures, that they have accomplished something. Winning the award is a similar concept. More than the paper itself, it’s proof Winston is making a difference in lives.
“It can be trying sometimes,” she said. “I’m not saying that every person that comes through that door is genuinely concerned about doing better in life. But when you come in that door, that’s when I’m going to believe.”
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