On Mission

Summer 2016 • Volume 15, No. 2
Welcoming the Stranger
IHM Family Literacy Center
This program is beautiful for me!
Sister Bernadette
Hiester, Director
of the Family
Literacy
Program, enjoys
teaching English
language classes
to moms while
their children
attend pre-school
classes with Miss
Priscilla in
another room.
When the doors of the IHM
Family Literacy Center open,
the hallways become charged with
life! Twenty or more women, many
of them holding the hands of young
children, ascend the stairs chatting
excitedly in both English and Spanish.
The children are dropped off in their
pre-school class, the class that will
prepare them, if they attend regularly
for two years, to enter kindergarten
speaking English and not requiring an
ESL program. The mothers proceed
to the “break room” where they leave
their coats and other possessions in
order to get ready for their morning
classes. This is a special day,
however, and the regular routine is
suspended for an hour. There is a
visitor and Sister Bernadette and
Sister Jean invite the women to sit in a
circle and share their stories.
Before they begin, Sister Jean
introduces Isa, who will serve as
translator for this session. Isa came to
the USA from Mexico ten years ago
and has been in the Family Literacy
Program for two years. Her progress
has been so great that she is able to
speak English fluently and translate
for the other women. Isa describes
how the program has “changed her
life.” She portrays her pre-program
self as a mother who attempted to
control her children by yelling. She
had established no family routines.
Her children went to bed whenever
they wished; they spent all of their
free time playing on tablets. Often
they were not ready for the school bus
and had to leave for school without
eating. There was no supervision of
homework. Since she has been in the
program, all of these issues have been
resolved. Her children go to bed on
time each night and get up on time
each morning. The girls’ tablet use
has been limited to one hour on
weekends. Isa is now able to help
them with homework and read to
them before they go to bed. In fact,
when the children misbehave, their
consequence now is “No Storytime.”
She cannot say enough about the
benefits of the program for her, both
in her mastery of English and in her
enhanced parenting skills.
Isa’s praise for the program is echoed
by all of the women. As they go
around the circle telling their stories,
(which they are free to do in either
English or Spanish) each woman
speaks of how much she has learned
about the importance of developing a
family schedule and sticking to it, of
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