Library Services

Chris
April 1997

She wanted to help adults learn to read. She had come across the literacy program Project Read in Dayton when looking for an opportunity to share her joy of reading with others. Chris, who had recently gone back to college to study film making, used her volunteer experience in the reading program as a subject for a documentary film. The tutor she was filming was not very stable and suddenly disappeared from the program and left the community. In contrast, the learner had been successfully supporting a family with a full time job for some time.

Chris has been a tutor with the Mansfield Library Literacy Connection for about two years now and has worked with three different learners. The first was a woman who could read some. In addition to wanting to improve her reading, she wanted to learn to pronounce words correctly for her new job working with the public. Chris said she progressed marvelously and with her families support and encouragement, decided to take the skills she learned and study own her own.

Her second learner whom she met with twice got a full time job that interfered with her scheduled time to read. Chris also felt the time might not be right for this learner due to some personal problems she needed to resolve that she had shared with Chris.

For the past year, Chris had been working with a woman whom she describes as very smart, very perceptive and very interesting … we will refer to her as Beth. Beth had seen an ad for the program on TV and came to the Library with her husband's support. Moreover, he taught her the alphabet the evening before her first lesson. Beth and her husband work at festivals and fairs from May to October all over the Midwest which translate into a lot of traveling out of town. Thus, Chris and Beth can only get together during the other half of the year.

Chris indicated that she and Beth seemed to enjoy each other from the beginning. Beth said she was tired of having to lean on her husband so much and wanted to be able to read the Kroger ads in the paper, labels at the grocery store, the Bible, and pass a written driver's test.

Beth has been progressing well.

Chris remembers soon after Beth learned the sounds of the alphabet she began to put them together to read words. In this very special moment, Chris was emotionally overcome. Beth acknowledged her success as the first full step down a long path. She asked "What can we read next?" with the impatience of someone who senses the enormity of their task and just wants to keep on moving. Chris said that Beth is really tough on herself. Chris stated she has seen Beth putting words together from sounds; the effort and accomplishment has brought tears to her eyes.

Chris indicated it is not all easy. Sometimes at the end of a session, which might go on for a couple of hours, Beth will be exhausted from having put in so much effort.

Chris and Beth will pass notes back and forth like two school girls in the back of the class for writing practice. Also, Chris will ask Beth about her experiences on the road. She indicated that this can be particularly motivating for a person to be able to read "their own story." They often will play scrabble together and have gone to bookstores for a change of venue. While having lunch together one afternoon, Chris said it was exciting to watch Beth begin to be able to read the menu. These experiences with Beth in the community have helped Chris realize how important "everyday reading" is. She also has seen how an illiterate person can disguise their "handicap" with phrases like "Oh, I don't have my glasses. What does this say?"

Chris said she had learned how circumscribed Beth's life must be not having access to things like phone books, maps, or even information about a chronic health condition she has. Meanwhile, Chris certainly seems happy to be able to help improve her reading.

At times, Beth will get discouraged but Chris will remind her that when she signed up to volunteer with the program, she indicated she wanted to work with a sharp person and that she did get what she asked for!

Interview by Tom Tappan