Brandon Twp.- Louise King never learned to read as a child.
She wanted to learn, but says she was too nervous and teachers didn’t have time for her. She endured her fellow students making fun of her, and in sixth grade, told her mother she wasn’t going to school anymore.
King, now 71, spent decades as an adult unable to read or even recognize letters of the alphabet. She recalls working at a foster care home and the owner of the home telling her she couldn’t learn how to read.
Now, with the help of a tutor who made time for her, she has proved him wrong.
‘I told myself, ‘I don’t want to be dumb all my life,?? says King. ‘It’s terrible not knowing how to read… I was sad and missing everything.?
King’s friend Norma Clore helped her find a tutor, Vivian Wheeler, two years ago. The pair have met at the library on a weekly basis ever since.
‘She needed some tutoring for sounds and to learn how to comprehend what she’s reading,? says Wheeler, 84. ‘She’s done wonderful. She has progressed to reading the Bible at church and goes to a camp to help disabled children and reads to them… She has turned into a more outgoing person and I am just amazed at how she’s done. She developed her own self-esteem.?
Now, library staff and the Oakland Literacy Council hope to be able to offer at the library the free class in which Wheeler became a qualified tutor. The library needs 15 volunteers in order to be able to offer the class, consisting of a six-hour Saturday workshop and a pair of two-and-a-half-hour weeknight sessions. Upon completion, volunteers will be qualified to tutor English as a primary or secondary language to children or adults.
The tutor training workshop, the only class the non-profit Oakland Literacy Council offers, provides training, strategies and free materials to volunteers with which they can provide one-on-one tutoring. Tutors make a 1-year commitment to meet with students once a week for an hour-and-a-half to two hours.
‘We have a desperate need for tutors,? said OLC Director Cathryn Weiss, who notes that between 13-37 percent of the American adult population is considered low-literate, perhaps with some knowledge of reading, but below a seventh grade level. ‘We have more than 100 students waiting for tutors. Some of our tutors have said this is the most rewarding thing they’ve ever done… You don’t realize how rewarding it is for you, as well as the person you are helping.?
Wheeler has been an active volunteer for many years, with Scouts, Vacation Bible School and the Parent Teacher Association. She learned of literacy volunteers one day from an article in the newspaper and decided she was capable of being one.
‘I loved the class,? said Wheeler. ‘If volunteers only did an hour a week, it would open the world for that person. It makes the world large and widens the scope of their thinking and comprehension. It changes people. It’s worth the effort.?
King sits in the library now, demonstrating her new ability as she reads aloud a list of words and sounds out sentences she has written in careful script in a journal.
She has a keen interest in autobiographies and biographies and has read books at a fifth and sixth grade level about George Washington Carver and Helen Keller. She also enjoys ‘The Little House on the Prairie? books and reads some newspapers and magazines, her church hymnal and Bible, and ‘signs on the road.?
‘I feel happy,? King says. ‘I like knowing how to read and not watching everyone else read. I’m going on a trip to Washington, DC in October and I can read what stuff there is to do. I can read on TV, and play games on the computer and do word search puzzles. I’m not sad now.?
For more information on the tutor training workshop and becoming a volunteer, call (248) 627-1462.