Volunteer Tutors Go One-on-One With Slow-Reading Adults

In a glass-enclosed cubicle at an Irvine prison honor farm, Linda Light teaches a 37-year-old oil field worker, serving time for drunk driving, to read better.

“Not being able to read past a third-grade level may be one of the reasons he drinks in the first place,” said Light, a Huntington Beach mother of two.

“Being a poor reader is embarrassing to him, and now he’s trying to solve both problems.”

And a 25-year-old Brea construction worker, who requested anonymity, is being tutored at the Placentia Library to raise his reading skills beyond the second-grade level.

Although he was graduated from Esperanza High School in Anaheim, he said he cannot read a restaurant menu.

“I know I’ve got to learn how to read better if I want to get a better job,” said the worker, who added that he never enjoyed school.

“What’s the use of school when you can’t read and know you’re going to flunk every test?”

The men are two of an estimated 100 Orange County residents getting free personal tutoring twice weekly from Literacy Volunteers of America, a New York-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to combating adult illiteracy.

The 23-year-old organization claims 20,000 volunteer tutors. Through that group and $90,000 of a $5-million federal Library Services and Construction Act grant, issued last year, the Placentia Library has set up seven affiliate programs in Orange County communities.

An estimated 100 tutors are teaching a like number of adults, on a one-to-one basis, to read better.

The affiliate groups, beside Placentia, operate from libraries in Fullerton, Orange, Newport Mesa, Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.

At the Huntington Beach library, the students include a graduate of San Diego State College who is trying to improve his reading.

“I knew if I tried to get a job as a teacher,” said the 24-year-old former physical education major from Huntington Beach, “I probably would lose out because I’m such a slow reader.”

He said he had received good grades throughout high school and college, but he added, “it always took me so long to do my school work.”

Pat Trumpoldt, coordinator of the Placentia Library affiliate, which serves as a prototype for the others, said there are all kinds of reasons people cannot read, including gaps in schooling due to childhood illnesses, frequent transfers, poor attention in class, poor teaching and dropping out of school.

“But the one thing consistent with poor readers is they all have a horrible self-image,” she said, “and that’s 50% of the problem in getting them to read better.”

She said it takes a fifth-grade reading skill “just to get by in today’s society, and all that means is being able to read maps, freeways signs and a prescription on a bottle.”

Light, president of the Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley affiliate begun last June, estimated that 25% of the public needs help with reading. Most of her students read below third-grade level, even though many are successful in work or business.

“We don’t care why they have problems with reading,” she said. “We’re trying to strengthen their weak points in reading, while being patient and respectful of their efforts while they’re doing it.”

Each prospective student must agree to receive 100 hours of tutoring, which is given over six months.

“We don’t want to spend time with someone not serious about improving his reading,” she said. “We have too few tutors and too many who want help.”

A volunteer tutor must pay $15 for 18 hours of training in six sessions, and must arrange to use a neutral meeting place, such as a library. None receives any pay.

“Many of the adults have a lot of experience with words they use in whatever work they do,” Light said.

“But people have gaps when it comes to talking about things other than work, and that holds them back.”