Opening the Books on Illiteracy : Programs Show Adults That It’s Never Too Late to Learn How to Read

If you are reading this now, you are probably not one of America’s most embarrassing statistics: Twenty percent of the population is functionally illiterate. That is 27 million people who lack the speaking, reading and writing skills needed to cope successfully with day-to-day living.

That means they cannot read well enough to use a reference book, understand a daily newspaper or follow directions on a medicine bottle.

They would have trouble addressing an envelope sufficiently to ensure postal delivery, writing a check without an error so serious that a bank could not cash it, figuring correct change from a store purchase, filling out an application form, opening a bank account or voting in an election.

Add to these difficulties the enormous lack of self-esteem that accompanies illiteracy, the feeling that you have “cheated” your way through life, the constant need for covering up and hiding the “secret shame” of illiteracy, and the nation has got a major problem on its hands.

So why don’t these people get help? Well, some of them do. But those who don’t say they are afraid they are not smart enough to do the work, or school was such a negative experience that they don’t want to repeat it, or they are just too old to start. But you are never too old to start, as San Diego’s extensive, impressive, countywide adult literacy program can attest.

There are about 400,000 functionally illiterate adults in San Diego County, according to the San Diego Council on Literacy. Each year, approximately 44,000 of them, including both non-English speakers and native speakers of English, participate in group literacy training programs provided in community colleges and district high schools or in one-on-one training programs that are part of the literacy council. Five programs in North County serve approximately 4,300 learners annually.

Ron Smith is one of those learners. Two years ago, he barely knew the alphabet. The 38-year-old Carlsbad house painter had gone through 10th grade in Orange County. School for him was “an endless battle.” In third grade he was held back, and “they decided something was wrong with me,” he said, so he was placed on medication, which he describes as “three uppers a day and a downer at night; I was definitely strung out.”

He remained on medication for five years, after which he suffered “serious withdrawal symptoms that affected my attitude and led to verbal violence. When I got into high school, I went straight to street drugs.”

By the time he and his wife entered a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, he was snorting about a gram of cocaine and drinking 12 to 24 beers a day. He stopped all illegal substances, lost 40 pounds, became a born-again Christian and followed a fellow church-member to the Carlsbad City Library Adult Learning Center.

“If you had told me three years ago I would be a Christian, taking in foster kids and reading the Bible, I would have laughed in your face,” Smith said. “I just stuck my reading problems in a bottle and forgot about them.”

“I have more common sense than most people. I relied on that like blind people rely on smell and touch. Sure, I faked a lot. And once in a while I would get caught, but I would just brush it off.

“I still have a tough time reading, but now I sit down and go over it till I get it. . . . Now my tutor and I are working on fractions and decimals. And we went through the DMV manual so I could take my driving test for once without cheating.”

Why couldn’t he get all this in school?

“The school system will pass you on no matter what,” Smith said. “I just don’t think anybody understood what was wrong; they didn’t take the time. I couldn’t comprehend, I didn’t understand phonics, I didn’t stop to concentrate and I didn’t have the interest.

“Once, in 10th grade, I was really humiliated. One teacher always picked me to stand up and read in front of the class. I would go two words and stumble. Finally, I got so ticked off, I threw my book at her and said ‘I’m outta here, and you are part of the reason.’ That was the day I left school.”

Now Smith can go to the video store and browse for himself. He can read his wife’s grocery list; he doesn’t have to “ask some lady in the aisle.”

He isn’t faking when he carries a newspaper. He is considering a high school education or equivalency so he can get a job with the city or state. Smith celebrates his two-year anniversary in October, for “doing a 180” with his life.

The Carlsbad City Library program that helped to change Smith’s life is part of the San Diego Council on Literacy, which was founded in 1986 by County Supervisor Brian Bilbray and publisher Helen Copley. The council is a model for cooperative programs nationwide. The participating service providers (The Literacy Network) have no annoying turf-battles. They are cooperative and non-competitive, regularly cross-referring, collaborating and sharing ideas, materials and techniques.

The council, which raises funds to support and expand literacy services, also looks for corporate and community support. They have played a major leadership role in special events such as “San Diego Reads Best,” a countywide literacy awareness day.

The council is made up of 15 countywide literacy programs, all nonprofit and many functioning with only one or two employees buttressed by volunteers. Included are six library literacy programs, three community colleges, three homeless centers, two national literacy volunteer organizations and one adult school. (For resources, see page 8).

Eighty percent of the services provided in the county and the state are used by people learning English as a second language.

“It is easier for them to call and ask for help,” said Jose Cruz, the Literacy Services Coordinator. “A native speaker just feels dumb, feels awful about it. In one year’s time, we are probably serving 3% of the English-speaking people in the county that need help.

“The three main reasons they call--when they do--is to be able to help their kids with homework, to read the Bible and to deal with job-related skills.

“There are so many facets to this adult literacy problem,” Cruz said. “This is a country where you assume that everyone can read. But we have the highest illiteracy rate of all the industrialized nations. It is a double-edged sword: No one else even considers the possibility of illiteracy, and the low-level reader thinks he is the only one in America who can’t read.

“And most of them are not illiterate. They are functionally illiterate,” Cruz said. “It is a relative term, depending on the reading, writing and math skills needed by that individual. If you are looking for people who are still signing their names with Xs, you are going to miss it.”

The literacy council publishes guidelines for helping people in the workplace identify functional illiterates. Usually, they either show up for appointments with someone else who does the reading and writing for them, or they make excuses: “I don’t have time to read this; fill out this form; I’ll take it home”; “My husband-wife does all the paperwork in our family.”

Or they get you to do the work for them: “I hurt my hand (forgot my glasses, have bad handwriting-spelling), so could you fill in this form (read this information, tell me what it says)?”

The literacy council suggests that if you want to help someone like this to get assistance in learning basic skills, you need to exercise sensitivity. If you are an authority or power figure, you may be the wrong person. Suits, ties, direct eye contact, institutions, educated people, business offices and evidence of wealth are often intimidating to those with reading problems. The most important thing is establishing rapport and trust.

e council recommends “opening comfort lines,” such as, “Let me know if you need any help,” or “A lot of people say this is a difficult form to fill out.”

There is also a long, useful list of don’ts: Don’t treat the problem as a crisis; don’t suggest that the person needs to learn to read; don’t put the person on the spot by initiating a contact for help without the potential learner’s permission. What is more beneficial is to be matter-of-fact, indicate that the person might need help with reading, emphasize that this is a common problem and stress the fact that the person is a competent individual with many other skills and abilities, the council recommends.

Once learners are linked to one of the volunteer programs in the county, they meet with a variety of tutors. Lynda Jones, director of the Carlsbad City Library Adult Learning Program, said that to be a tutor, “the personal element is more important than any formal education or training; the ability to respond to another adult, be a good listener, be able to key into another person’s life and needs, to be creative and flexible.”

Most county programs require only that tutors possess a high school education, be at least 18 years old and be comfortable with their own reading and writing skills.

And how rapidly can a learner progress? Kris Chandler, program assistant at Read/2000, the Escondido Public Library’s Adult Literacy Program, estimates that, at two sessions per week, a learner can usually advance one grade level in six months. One Read/2000 learner actually advanced six grade levels in one year.

In San Diego, most of the learners in the one-on-one programs are in their 30s, though the tutors tend to be over 55. Tutors are predominantly Caucasian, learners predominantly Latino. Learners are almost equally split between males and females, but tutors are overwhelmingly female.

Jones of the Carlsbad Library program said “many learners prefer older tutors. It gives them security and avoids embarrassment. Sometimes, a surrogate parent relationship develops. Some men prefer a female tutor. It is kind of a ‘macho thing,’ not wanting other men to know their weaknesses. Plus, there is the stereotype that women are more patient. Learners often imagine a little white-haired grandma taking fresh-baked cookies out of the oven.”

The literacy council’s network participants are trying to remedy some of the tutor-learner imbalances in age, sex and ethnicity. Last month, a statewide multimedia blitz was launched to recruit tutors of various ethnic backgrounds. The campaign emphasizes that volunteer tutors are contributing to their own community, but the underlying message is that, in helping someone to read, you change a life--either your own, someone else’s, or both.

June Silverman of Rancho Bernardo learned that firsthand last May when she became a tutor through the Escondido Library Read/2000 program.

“I wanted to do something a little more meaningful and also a challenge to me,” said the 44-year-old sales representative. “I just began to realize that without being able to read and write, there is such a low level of esteem, such a dependence that one must feel.

“I never thought of illiteracy as a problem among intelligent adults,” she said. “I thought it was only dropouts, failures, those who didn’t want to learn. I didn’t realize how many bright people have masked their inability to read.”

Silverman tutors an intelligent, 33-year-old Asian who is literate in her own language, but who reads English at a fourth-grade level.

“She has low confidence,” Silverman said. “She doesn’t feel very bright, because she doesn’t speak English well; people have trouble understanding her. She has a 10-year-old child who reads at a higher level than she. What does that do to a person’s self-esteem?

“With an adult, you have to make the learning relevant. Together we filled out an application for new dental patients. We worked on survival words, from prescription bottles to danger and warning signs. We went to register her to vote. Now we try to keep up on the campaign through use of a brief, weekly newspaper for adults, written at a fifth-grade level.

“It is really exciting when I see her making headway and feeling more secure about being an independent human being. I have great pride. I feel what I am doing is worthy. I also feel frustrated that there are so many more learners that need tutors.”

But, Silverman added, “It is a tremendous time commitment, two times a week for at least six months, plus monthly meetings.” At least two meetings per year are required, and training tutors takes anywhere from 12 to 20 hours.

“Now I understand why so many retired people are tutors,” she said.

The San Diego chapter of Literacy Volunteers of America tracks literacy demographics, and Executive Director Nancy Sylbert said she has started to see a change in the tutors. Most of their 250 tutors last year were white and affluent, and the majority were employed full-time.

“The old style of volunteerism,” Sylbert said, “was retired women who didn’t work outside the home. Now that is changing nationwide. These are busy people with careers and families who want to feel more fulfilled.”

The chapter has also been involved in the national “Give Five” Campaign, a public-relations promotion for charitable giving and volunteerism. Locally, it is the most broad-based nonprofit collaboration in the community’s history. The standard for giving and volunteering was set nationally at 5% of income and five hours of volunteer time each week to the causes of your choice.

On the basis of a recent survey conducted by the Social Science Research Laboratory at San Diego State University, individual volunteerism in San Diego county increased 18% from 1990 to 1992. The average for county residents is 17 hours a month.

At the corporate level, some companies are tackling both literacy and volunteerism head-on. For example, Southwestern Cable, a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., uses the parent company’s 7-year-old literacy program, “Time to Read.” Volunteer tutors from Southwestern Cable team up with learners from the United Domestic Workers of America, who provide home care for the elderly. Time, Sports Illustrated, Life or People magazines are used as “textbooks,” and each learner receives two free magazine subscriptions.

The program is not exclusive to Time Warner affiliates.

The Southwestern-Domestic Workers collaboration, on hold for the past year, is gearing up again this month. In the past, the tutors and learners came together for a joint orientation, and each pair was asked to make a commitment to one weekly session for one year. Some of the teaching sessions took place at McDonald’s restaurants, which, through their McRead program, made space available and included a free drink during off-peak hours.

The community colleges in North County have plenty of literacy students, but some groups are still underserved. Roberta Macfarlane, head of MiraCosta College’s 650-student Community Education Program, is focusing on native speakers, particularly disadvantaged workers, whom she recruits through corporations and churches.

“Rather than suggesting generic help, something like, ‘We’ll improve your reading,’ we are trying to recruit people for specific purposes, such as passing the written forklift test, or gaining acceptance to Eldorado College, a private Oceanside-Escondido vocational school that requires a seventh-grade reading level for admission,” she said. “Companies are now hiring us to go into the workplace and run customized, work-related ESL (English as a Second Language) classes on site. Our hope for our learners is that ESL will lead to ABE (Adult Basic Education classes), which will eventually lead to a high school diploma and college course work.”

MiraCosta is beginning to collaborate with the Carlsbad Literacy Program, starting with one-on-one training, and then setting goals for further classroom education.

“When learners are at the fifth- or sixth-grade reading level,” said MiraCosta’s Macfarlane, “they are ready for group learning.”

Stan Levy, director of Reading Services at Palomar College in San Marcos, estimates that more than 28% of college students cannot read at an 11th grade level. For that reason, he said, his program is “highly sought after.”

With a new $100,000 grant, Palomar College, like the Escondido/Read 2000 program, now has a comprehensive, self-paced lab program appropriate for virtual non-readers through the 11th-grade level.

“But we need more community support,” Levy said. “Newspapers, bookstores, publishing companies--these organizations should be at the forefront of the literacy effort. They have the most to gain from it.”

An estimated 60% to 80% of people in adult literacy programs have learning disabilities. According to Brita Miller, Adult Issues Chair of the San Diego chapter of Learning Disabilities Assn. of California, there are perhaps 50 different types of learning disabilities, one of which is dyslexia. All involve people with average or above-average intelligence.

“Each person is different,” said Miller, herself a learning-disabled adult. “Each has a different combination of learning difficulties, and a different learning style. That is the problem with the school system; it can’t accommodate to that.

“One of the big misconceptions about learning disabilities is that you can outgrow them; you can’t. But you can learn to compensate for them by capitalizing on your areas of strength.”

“We do a much better job of diagnosis now than 25 years ago,” said Linda Altes, President of the San Diego County branch of the Orton Dyslexia Society.

“Some adults perceive their own problems when their children are found to have a learning-reading disability. They may say ‘Maybe that is why I can’t read,’ and they seek help. Learning disabilities tend to run in families, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that if you have a learning or reading disability, your child will, too.”

One good thing a parent may pass along, however, is a characteristic common to illiterate and learning disabled adults: They tend to be creative problem-solvers with good coping strategies.

There is, perhaps, no greater example of creative coping than John Corcoran, one of the most dramatically successful graduates of a volunteer adult literacy program (see Page 6).

“People ask me, ‘Why did I wait so long to come forward?’ ” said the 54-year-old, who has been reading functionally for only six years. “My question is: Why did you guys wait so long to offer these programs?”