Library classes providing path to citizenship

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » The instructor stood at the back of the room facing a bright projection screen while the students sat in two rows of desks placed on either side of the projector’s bright light.

There was warm conversation and good natured ribbing going on between instructor and students but there was also homework to be handed in and questions and vocabulary to be covered for the test.

This was not a middle school, high school or even a college course. This was much more serious. This was a class for those living in the U.S. who want to become U.S. citizens.

The Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library offers two citizenship classes that started last month. One meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays and the other at 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays. Both classes meet in the library and both are free.

“The last time we offered the classes was in 2011,” said Lou Ann Stewart, the library’s director of Adult Services and Reference. “But the southern Saratoga County community has changed so much since then we were getting requests for it. A lot of those requests were coming from the people taking the English Language Learner classes that are being taught here.”

Stewart noted that GlobalFoundries is still drawing a large influx of people, a situation that didn’t exist the last time the citizenship class was taught.

“With the levels we’re seeing in the ELL classes it’s clear the population has changed and that’s where the demand was coming from,” Stewart said. “We respond and react to the public. That’s why we’re here and when the public asks us for things we try and meet the demand.”

The Wednesday evening class held its first session Jan. 10 and instructor Owen Greenspan admits most of the students, which number around eight, were rather shy and quiet for the first few classes.

By the fourth class they were much more comfortable and talkative. Their lack of knowledge with some of the topics didn’t appear to bother them, at least outwardly, and they worked together to overcome any language barriers. The in- formation poured out of Greenspan and was quickly absorbed by the students.

“Someone tell me what they’ve learned so far,” Greenspan said as he gently moved into the night’s topics.

“There’s three branches of government,” said Robin Fraser, a Canadian. “There’s a Congress and it has a Senate and a House of Representatives.”

When Greenspan asked if she or anyone else knew how many seats there were in each political body, Fraser hesitated and then dove in getting the numbers correct, 50 Senators and 435 Representatives.

Wednesday’s class has two students from Canada, three from Mexico, one from China, one from Venezuela, and one

from Guinea. As Greenspan went deeper into the review the questions were more pointed.

“When was the Constitution created,” he asked almost conversationally, “how about the Declaration of Independence?”

Once the questions were answered correctly he asked what the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution were called.

“The Bill of Rights,” answered Guoning Liao, a native of China.

The citizenship test will be based on an interview with each candidate. During the interview the candidate must show they can speak English, read English, and write English. There are also 10 questions, six must be answered correctly.

Since President Trump had given his State of the Union address the night before Greenspan used that to further discuss the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“Which is higher, the Senate or the House,” Fraser asked.

“They are co- equal branches of government,”

Greenspan said before launching into how a bill becomes a law.

As practice for their verbal skills Greenspan asked the students to explain how American government is different from the one in their native country. After the Canadians had described the differences there, Greenspan calmly got each of the others to describe the workings of their homeland governments.

After a further discussion of how long the elected representatives from the different countries serve in office, Greenspan asked the students to write the answers to seven questions. The assignment was meant improve their writing skills and the required vocabulary.

“Who is one of New York’s two U. S. Senators. Why does the flag have 13 stripes? Name an American Indian tribe. What are two rights from the Declaration of Independence,” he asked.

When the night’s classroom session was completed the students, all of whom are here legally, were asked why they want to become U. S. citizens.

Some like Fraser and Lucio Cruz from Mexico have been in the country more

than 25 years. Most said they wanted the right to vote. When pressed the issues were deeper.

Fraser, who is married to an American, said she was advised by an estate planner that it would make things easier for her should anything happen to her husband if she was an American citizen.

“Plus, it’s easier if you’re a citizen,” she said. “Even with a green card I can go to Canada to see family and coming back a border guard might tell me I can no longer enter the U. S. and that’s it. “

For Cruz it was getting the right to vote and joining his son, who was born in the U. S., as a citizen.

Liao, who is a researcher at Albany Medical College, has been in the U. S. 14 years and says he enjoys it.

Originally from central China where it is very hot, something that makes him uncomfortable, he has found a home in Clifton Park.

“I really like it here,” he said. “I like the weather and I like the area. I like that you can get to big cities like New York, Boston and Montreal in three hours. I can go there and come back in one day to here, where it’s not like a city.”