Help for 73,000 illiterate adults

Editor’s note:(This editorial first appeared in the Lexington County Chronicle June 13, 2013)

How many illiterate adults do you know? How many who can neither read, write nor even count change? What if you were in the same fix? Imagine what your life might be like — filled with shame that even your children are learning skills that you don’t have. You can’t help them with their homework, or  read the Bible, as many of the learners we work with in the Turning Pages tutoring program are motivated to do. Adults who struggle with reading are among an estimated more than 27,000 Lexington County residents — 10% of the county’s population.

They are not alone. Richland County has 46,000 adults who read below a 6th grade reading level. That’s 12% of Richland’s population. In all, 73,000 functionally illiterate adults live in our two counties and studies indicate that  19% or more of the population are below this threshold, in parts of the Midlands. Functional literacy is the ability to read, write and speak proficiently in English, use technology, solve problems, be a life-long learner and effective in  life.

Illiterate adults are not stupid. Many have learning disabilities that make it difficult for them to read and write. Many have mastered skills the rest of us would find daunting. Some are like the short order cook who holds a dozen orders in memory and prepares them without being able to read written orders from the wait staff. Or the driver with a perfect on-time delivery record who cannot read the addresses on the packages he handles. But he can follow a map and his spatial memory is exceptional.

Last week, 60 public-spirited people came together for our first Reading Between the Wines dinner, hosted by Main Street Cafe owner George Trifos and Palmetto Wines & Spirits owner Sandi Patel. The dinner raised almost $1,500 to help Turning Pages tutors make a difference in the lives of their learners.

At the Chronicle, we were happy to be among the dinner’s sponsors with the West Metro Rotary Club, Lexington Young Professionals, AGG Advisers and Pine Press Printing. We hope to arrange a similar fund-raising dinner soon.

One mother’s story of overcoming her learning difference

Editor’s note: Today’s post is the second in a two-part series about one tutoring pair from Turning Pages. Click here to read the first one. Both articles first appeared in the Lexington County Chronicle on May 30, 2013  and are reposted with permission. Lexington Publishing Co., Inc. retains all rights.

What if you could neither read nor write? Imagine what your life might be like — filled with frustration and shame that even your children can do what you cannot do. That’s how Tammy Myers felt as her three boys were growing up, attending school and dealing with homework that she could not help them with.

Tammy is one of more than an estimated 27,000 Lexington County residents who do not read well enough even to fill out applications for the better-paying jobs they need to support their families. Tammy had trouble reading in elementary school. In third grade, she was diagnosed with dyslexia, a neurological disorder that underlies a learning difference. Because people with dyslexia process visual information differently they can experience difficulty with reading, writing, spelling and sometimes even speaking.  People with dyslexia may be of average or above-average intelligence. Dyslexia is different from impaired vision or hearing.

“Reading is difficult for me,” Tammy says. “If someone reads it to me, I can understand it. When it comes to writing, I’m lost.” Tammy’s parents were divorcing, a traumatic experience for her and her younger sister. As a result, her mother had to move her daughters repeatedly. By the time she reached high school, Tammy had attended eight different schools. Tammy’s teachers did not know how to help her, she wrote in a narrative about her life for the Chronicle, so she was put in special education classes which did little to help.

She began to suffer with pain in her knees. After three months, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a condition that results in chronic widespread pain.  Some say it is like a tooth ache all over your body.

While working at a Waffle House, Tammy was working on her 11th and 12th grade credits at an alternative school when she was told all her credits but five had been lost. Disheartened, she quit school, found another job and met her husband. Tragic as her story is, it is not uncommon among those who cannot read.

Tammy is determined to do something about it.

She meets regularly with Sandra Dayse, a Turning Pages literacy tutor at the Lexington District 1 adult learning center at the former Intermediate School on Harmon Street. Tammy has found that she can learn better when she hears than when she tries to read, a result of her dyslexia. But she has made a commitment to qualify for her General Education Diploma (GED). She wrote a four-page biography of her life using an app on her cell phone. It allows her to tell her story into the phone and convert it into writing.

She believes that will help her get a better job and help her husband with their family’s expenses. “Turning Pages and First Steps has been such a help to me,” Tammy says.  “Now I want to do what I can to help.”

To find out what YOU can do to help, give us a call at 803-782-1210.