Lifelong learner gets GED(r) diploma at 96

LaGrange, GA - Thurman Barnes, clad in his graduation robes, walked a little slowly to get his diploma Monday, December 12, 2005. He needed some help -- he's 96 years old.

More than 80 years after failing to complete high school, Barnes has received his General Education Development credential. Friends and family, as well as state and national officials, gathered at the Callaway Conference Center at West Georgia Technical College to see Barnes receive his long-awaited diploma.

Michael Vollmer, head of the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Educational Commission, whose agency manages Georgia's Adult Literacy Program, presented Barnes with an official letter, notifying him that he had earned his GED credential, a framed GED diploma and a very special third gift. The state of Georgia gives every recipient of a GED credential a HOPE education voucher for $500 for further education.

"Give me a year or two and I'll try to use that," Barnes told Vollmer as the agency head handed him the voucher.

Barnes seemed genuinely moved by the ceremony, but maintained his sense of humor.

"I'll try to do a little like Abraham Lincoln, and I'll try to wear the same size hat when I leave here as when I got here," he said. "This is proof of what an Arkansas farmer can do if he keeps trying, I guess."

As Vollmer moved Barnes's tassel at the end of the ceremony, Barnes said, "This makes me feel smarter already."

The saga started back in 1926 in Arkansas, where Barnes failed a Latin course in his senior year in high school. A makeup class scheduled for that summer was canceled because of lack of students, so he never finished hiss high school coursework and never got his diploma. He went to work, got married and started a family. But that elusive diploma bothered him. His family encouraged him to take the GED Tests and they contacted West Georgia Tech.

Kevin Cain, director of adult literacy at WGTC, called Barnes the consummate lifelong learner. He said he was contacted in the summer about a woman who wanted help so that her 96-year-old father could get his GED credential. At first, Cain was excited but then started to worry that Barnes wouldn't show up or be able to pass the test. But after a week, Barnes appeared with his daughter, Joyce Freeman.

A teacher read aloud to Barnes from his textbooks because his eyesight was so poor, asking him questions and recording his answers. His five-part GED Test was administered over several days. Because of his vision, Barnes listened to an audiocassette of the test. Everything was done verbally, and Barnes had to do everything from memory, Cain said.