Tenacious Tutor

A mathematician, teacher and retired military reservist, Charlie Tubbs, 81, has an odd distinction: His work has made life harder on Saddam Hussein and has taken a bite out of illiteracy.

Tubbs, a 1960s civilian employee of the U.S. Navy at Point Mugu, tested the computer model precursor to cruise missiles, the computer-guided weapons that pounded Iraqi targets during the Persian Gulf War.

Now he puts his tenacity to work teaching Southern California kids to read and believe in themselves, both goals of the tutoring center he runs for Project Understanding at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Oxnard.

Students at nearby Kamala Elementary School can get help at the tutoring center. Teachers decide which students need assistance, making recommendations to parents and to Tubbs.

If the parents agree, the child enters a two-room, after-school world of encouragement and one-on-one help. Children are paired Monday through Thursday afternoons with a tutor with whom they can build trust.

“The greatest thing is to see a tutor and a child develop a warm, loving relationship,” Tubbs said. “It’s pure joy.”

Tubbs’ 21 tutors are volunteers, including his wife, Dorothy. The tutors range from a 16-year-old high school student to an 81-year-old former executive secretary. Several are former teachers, Tubbs said, but all share a love of success.

Lila Carpenter, 81, a retired secretary for Edison International, said she volunteers to tutor whenever in town because she enjoys seeing children make progress.

Many of the kids want to learn, she said, but they are shy and vulnerable. On this day, though, her student, a young girl, conquered one of the trickier words to spell: “laugh.”

“We’d laugh, and then I’d make her spell it,” Carpenter said. “One of the most important things is to have fun while learning, because these kids have already been in school before they come here, so they need a learning environment without pressure.”

When representatives of Project Understanding first came to St. Paul’s looking to start a tutoring center, Tubbs thought he would be a tutor.

Only after he volunteered, in 1998, did he learn the group needed someone to organize the center. They looked to him, and he said yes.

Tubbs started by asking his pastor about the church space he would need. Once Tubbs got the space, he started collecting donated books and school supplies from Project Understanding and church members.

In mid-1998, he began building cubicles for the classroom where six to eight children are tutored each day that the center operates. The cubicle areas are reminiscent of elementary schools of yesteryear, surrounded by globes and stickers, with shelves stacked with Babysitter’s Club and Curious George books.

Drawings of people from different professions, such as a policewoman and a doctor, adorn the walls and the center smells of old books. After winning several community service awards, including one last month from The Times, Tubbs has added several computer stations, each with CD-ROM drives for learn-to-read software such as the animated “Reader Rabbit.”

Edgar Calixto, 8, can run through the reading program by himself. Although his regular tutor was absent that day, nothing could keep Edgar away from the center. His favorite part, he said, while smiling shyly, is “reading.”

Tubbs has occasionally been slowed by blood clots, said his wife Dorothy, but when he comes to the center, his eyes light with an “ambitious” fire.

“I think he likes the stimulation,” she said. “He feels badly when there’s a child too hard to reach, and he absolutely loves when one is reached.”