A Success Story:
"Edward" (not his real name) was a 38 year old husband and father of two. He had a son in his teens, and a 3 year old daughter. "Edward" dropped out of high school in grade 10 because he wasn't able to keep up with the reading requirements. At the time there were no “special ed” classes. "Edward" worked hard and owned a nice home. His wife handled the tasks that required reading and legible handwriting. "Edward" had never written a check.
"Edward" would often "read" a six-page book to his daughter. Occasionally, he held it upside-down!. (He couldn’t actually read the book – he had memorized it.) The day his 3-year old asked him why the book was upside-down was the day he walked into the local literacy council, admitted he couldn’t read and asked for help.
After two years of tutoring, "Edward" reads newspapers, writes checks and was promoted to a supervisory position within his company. Perhaps most importantly, he was finally able to read to his little girl, by then in kindergarten. His family was very grateful to the tutor and literacy agency that helped bring about his success. |
Most adult non-readers tend to be older. Many have managed to hold jobs, (usually on the lower-end of the economic earning scale), while raising their families. Non-readers can be very resourceful at hiding the inability to read, often from their own families.
Many will ensure that their children get good educations before deciding to come to an agency such as the Collierville Literacy Council .
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Just imagine, as a non-reader, the types of critical written information most older people face on a daily basis – prescription labels, bills and product label warnings, to name but a few. |
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