It's 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday, and Gladys Tomlin enters her classroom at Glades Central High School. Her hair is perfectly coiffed. Her outfit includes a belted sweater and matching layers. Her nails are hot pink, her ring fingers have an accent of silver sparkles. A gold cross hangs from a chain over her turtleneck.
Ms. Tomlin pulls out her heavy GED prep book and dozens of tattered and bent sticky notes peek out from the pages, holding her place on important lessons. She has been working all day, like her fellow classmates, but they go to class nightly during their Adult Education class to prepare for the GED tests that will earn them high school diploma.
This scene is repeated by hundreds of students throughout the Adult Education programs in Palm Beach County schools every evening. So what makes Ms. Tomlin any different from her peers? Born in 1932, Ms. Tomlin is 85 years old. And she is determined. Read more...