Thomas Merton Adult Learning Centre helps students turn their lives around

We do a million different things here’ Thomas Merton Adult Learning Centre helps students turn their lives around

Principal John Quinlan walks into a classroom and asks what the students are learning. The class erupts in laughter. Teacher Patricia McCabe says they are having a grammar lesson.

“English grammar is so difficult,” says Quinlan. The chatter in the class suggests they would agree.

“I can’t even understand it,” he jokes. The class erupts in laughter again.

The laughter is not that of rebellious teenagers mocking their elders, but of students eager to learn.

The class is one of many English as a Second Language (ESL) and Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) classes at the Thomas Merton Adult Learning Centre.

“We do a million different things here,” says Quinlan.

Run by the Halton Catholic District School Board, the centre offers a wide range of programs from an adult high school, ESL/LINC courses, international languages classes, and literacy and basic skills for special needs adults.

The adult high school credit courses are for anyone who hasn’t completed their Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Quinlan calls many of their students “refugees from a traditional school system,” adding they might have had problems with attendance, lateness or discipline.

“We basically run three semesters in one,” says Quinlan. “We teach the kids just like you would in a normal school, except everything is really accelerated.”

Read full article here: OakvilleBeaver.com: News: Story: ‘We do a million different things here’.