Volunteer Literacy Program Turns Page on Its First Year

Rita Lopez will not be called stupid anymore, and William Orr will now be able to fill out an application for a job as a computer technician.

Lopez, 17, and Orr, 32, are two of the 400 functionally illiterate people the San Diego Public Library is currently helping to help themselves through the READ/San Diego program, which will celebrate its first anniversary today.

A year ago, Lopez read at a kindergarten level. She could not read street signs, much less take a test to obtain her driver’s license. Today she is able to read simple books to her sister every night.

Favorite Magazines

Orr, who graduated from high school in Albuquerque, N. M., was incapable of filling out job applications. He had a third-grade reading ability, but today can read his favorite sports magazines.

Although they are at different levels of illiteracy, Orr and Lopez share membership in the group of 350,000 people in San Diego and 4.5 million people in California who cannot read and write well enough to meet everyday needs and pursue professional goals.

The READ/San Diego program is one of the more than 70 free literacy programs offered by public libraries in California for English-speaking adults 16 and older. Its one-on-one approach to tutoring is what makes it a good program, said Valerie Hardie, field representative for the program.

“The one-on-one seems to make a big difference,” she said. “That person (the tutor) is not just building skills, (but) is also building self-esteem.”

Lopez and Orr agreed that the approach is what makes the program unique--and successful.

The program works, Lopez said, because students can set their own pace, and do not have the pressure of keeping up their grades.

“I like that it’s one-on-one,” she said. “If a teacher has 30 people, she can’t help you as much.”

Not the First, but the Best

This is not the first program for Orr, but he’s convinced it is the best.

“I’ve had this problem for a long time. I tried to get help before, but the program in a class with people with the same problem (did not work). You get more attention in a one-on-one (program).”

Lopez never learned to read because she went to school for only three years, sixth through eighth grade, and her teachers ignored her, she said.

“School was hard because the rest of the kids could read and I was in a kindergarten level,” she said. “They would make fun of me, and they would say, ‘Don’t put her to read; she’s too slow.’ They would shout out the words.

“At school, they would give me crossword puzzles when the other kids got to work,” Lopez said.

Orr said that, although he has a high school certificate, he received help with his reading only up to the sixth grade. After that he was passed from grade to grade.

“I used to hide (my illiteracy) a lot,” he said. “I’d wear glasses so if I couldn’t read I would say, ‘I can’t read this without my glasses.’ ”

Although Orr, who is self-employed, is not completely illiterate, he wanted to improve his reading to find a better job, he said.

Conchita Gutierrez, a volunteer tutor in the program, said many people who are illiterate are afraid to come forward because they are often ridiculed by their families and peers.

“It takes a lot of courage to come forward, and (illiteracy) is no indication of a lack of intelligence. But it comes to a point when they can no longer bluff it,” she said. “If there’s something (tutors) learn in this program, it is tolerance and humility.”