1986 - Reading With Adults

1986 – Reading With Adults

I knocked. The door opened. There stood a middle-aged, 6-foot tall, broad-shouldered very black man with a huge grin on his face. He was my age but for a month separating our births. “I can read now.” Said Duane, beaming.

“Alright! Let’s read!” I replied with a big smile.

I met Duane several months before after volunteering to tutor non-reading adults for Project Read which was affiliated with the California Public Libraries. After a couple of weeks of training I had taken on Duane as my first student. We had spent the first few weeks going over and over (and over and over) the list of 1-letter, 2-letter & 3-letter words and after several weeks of this graduated to the 4-letter word list. This exercise was again repeated for several weeks before Duane “got it.”

Soon after we began, as advised in class, Duane and I took a walk and had lunch together. As we walked, ordered and ate we discussed the world as he saw it. The pains he went through to hide his lack of reading skills had caused him to develop some habits and behaviors that served to offer the general public the face of a typical reading adult. This was mostly smoke and mirrors as his ability to read was at the level of a 2nd-grade reader…and much of his ability was not actually that advanced.

Duane had traveled to San Diego from Atlanta, Georgia on a 1-week vacation with friends. Somehow they had gotten separated and Duane was left in San Diego to fend for himself. Of course he saw this as a betrayal by ex-friends but the complete story was one of innocent separation coupled with the inability to figure out where he was and where he had to go to find his friends. After giving it 2 extra days of searching they left without him. I learned quickly that when a non-reading person is lost and too embarrassed by their lack of skills to inquire assistance they are, quite literally, dropped into a survival situation.

Duane eventually found work but was unable to make enough to keep a roof over his head, eat and save for a return home. He had been promoted on 2-different jobs in the last 2-years and, both times quit the position and his increase in salary when he realized he would have to know how to read to follow written instructions, and write employee reviews among lots of other demands. In order to hide his lack of reading skills he made up an excuse and quit…twice.

I pointed out the street sign and he read part of it “Uhh, 40-something.”

“Street…40th Street,” I said supplying the rest of the answer. “The second word starts with an S which sounds just like the sound of the letter. Also, the S is a letter that kind of curls around like a snake which, of course, makes a hissing sound like Sssss. That’s a clue to remember about figuring out how to pronounce a word that has an S.” We proceeded on past a store with windows full of advertisements in big blue painted letters. He couldn’t identify any of the words.

“I just kinda treat them like decorations and ignore most of the words…sometimes they have pictures.”

“Hmmm. Here’s another street sign. What does this one say?” I was confident he would remember the lesson on the word “street.”

“Uhh, 41-something.” He replied.

“Ok, let’s look at the second word. It starts with that S letter, right?”

“Sssss...?”

Not a clue... Weeks later when we had advanced a bit we took a similar walk at which time Duane revealed that he had felt so uncertain during our first walk because he assumed EVERY WORD WAS DIFFERENT. In other words he was under the impression that readers simply figure out how to pronounce the word by looking at the LETTERS of the word every time a word is read and readers then, with instant recall, figure out the correct pronunciation, meaning and context. This is kind of the way a reader processes but his concept of this process was much more labor intensive then reality. This, he thought, applied to EVERY word…including one just read a minute ago as it might have a different pronunciation or meaning. This was a HUGE mental obstacle. He didn’t want to offer the word “street” because he hadn’t figured out if it was the same word this time even though it looked identical to the last. It took quite a while to change his mind-set on this issue.

…Back to our first, initial, walk…

After struggling with a few blocks of street and store signs we arrived at the restaurant, were seated and given menus. Duane studied his with great intent. I was ready to make my selection when the waitress appeared. “Ready, Hon?” She asked.

“Just a minute longer.” Duane replied. I wondered at this as his reading skills were so lacking on the street but here he seemed to be perusing the menu carefully. I said nothing and simply observed Duane without being obvious. The waitress returned.

“I’d like a cheeseburger and a Coke he said.”

“Pepsi ok, Hon?”

“Sure.” I noticed the front of the menu advertised in bolded letters: “We proudly offer Pepsi products exclusively.” I was silent on this.

We ate in peace and although I broached the subject of his reading much as I had opened the subject on our walk to the restaurant. He was obviously uncomfortable discussing this in public so I quickly dropped the subject until we’d left.

On our walk back to his apartment he said this behavior was typical. He revealed that when he chose a restaurant it was always one that would have a burger or tacos. He had been living on Tacos and burgers for 2-years. He said he usually looked on the menu for pictures and looked at them until the waitress asked for his order…he always sent her away the first time while attempting to look like he was studying the menu. When she came back he would order a taco or burger. He said he had tried to order from the pictures in the past but then a wait-person would ask further questions about accompaniments, etc. Not already having an answer ready for these questions made him feel like his inability was obvious or he would have been prepared. Consequently, now he avoided ordering anything but his customary tacos or burger. For those of who do read we are used to having to make decisions regarding style of cooking and accompaniments at the last second…we are secure in our ability to read, we just forget sometimes to look at the details of the meal. To Duane this uncertainty was a sure sign he was unable to read so any question at all put him on the defensive. To avoid this he simply ordered only burgers or tacos. He knew the answers to all of the questions that might be asked about these items.

He remarked his microwave oven worked but it never cooked correctly. According to him it hardly cooked anything at all leaving the insides of frozen dinner’s cold. He said if he gave it extra time he said the microwave always overcooked everything. He had stopped using it for this reason as he said he tried to get used to undercooked food but he suspected that sometimes it made him sick so he stopped using the microwave at all. I took this as a sign that because he was unable to read he was unable to follow the directions. He said he kept peanut butter, jelly and bread at home and drank mostly tap-water as he could afford very little and kept PB & J on-hand in case he got hungry or was broke a couple of days before payday. Mostly he ate in restaurants so this also cut into his available cash. I usually brought a couple of Cokes along to share but learned early on not to leave the remainder of a six-pack behind for him as it would still be there the next week. He was adamant about not needing “hand-outs.” Even when the hand-out was a 6-pack of Coke. Duane was as honest as the day was long and I never heard a cross word, or curse-word. There’s no way I would call him a gentle-giant but he was always courteous to me and with those with whom I saw him interact.

Besides the lists of words we eventually graduated to reading stories as well. We had completed our first very short book and had moved on to a second book. This was his favorite so far and titled Jane The Trucker. I learned in classes that Readers Digest issues copies of their monthly magazine in different levels of reading skills so slow-reading or still-learning adults don’t have to read kid stories. This reinforces learning by keeping the subjects more interesting and not just Dick, Jane and Spot. This book was not a Reader’s Digest item but the intent was the same. These little books also very purposely used non-child-like subjects or story lines. When Duane met me at the door telling me he could read we had been working about a month on chapter 1.

We sat and Duane began to read. “This is Jane. This is a truck. This is Jane’s truck. Jane is a trucker.” We were through page one and two…perfectly. Duane read on flawlessly until page 4. At page 4 he read the entire page perfectly and then began reading the words on page 5…unfortunately he hadn’t yet turned to page 5. Busted! Duane admitted that his study partner, his next door neighbor who was helping him study, had helped him memorize the words which he associated with the picture on the page. This tactic was also typical of non-readers. I was a bit disappointed but tried to hide my frustration by laughing with him about the deception. He had been making good progress lately graduating to 5-letter words while still practicing some of those 4-letter words. We had graduated to a Jane The Trucker but hadn’t gotten very far. He was somewhat proud of his achievements thus far but knew he had a long way to go.

We left not much later for another meal. I noted with pleasure he actually read the menu asking me for advice on a couple of words. It was a San Diego Taco Shop and there were lots of Spanish words on the menu. His understanding had evolved to the point where these words were no longer complete mysteries as they had been in the past where any word of any language was equal to a word written in his native language. He now saw a difference even though he didn’t know why. He was making good progress but still had a ways to go. He had become so proud of his ability and everyone around him had reinforced his effort to a great extent. He was still a bit embarrassed by his reading skills but was even prouder of the bravery it took to admit his problem and the fact that he was doing something positive about it. I was fairly bursting with pride as he slowly gained a level of confidence I had not observed before. His neighbor had made similar observations.

The next week he was a no-show.

The following week he opened the door again to “Larry! I can read!” His excitement was palatable.

“Yeah, sure, Duane. I’ve heard this before.” I said with a smile.

We sat. Duane began to read. “This is Jane. This is a truck. This is Jane’s truck. Jane is a trucker.” Again, we were through page one and two…perfectly. Duane read on flawlessly completing the chapter with only a few pauses and questions. He was doing fantastic. He had obviously been practicing…or so I thought…now came the real test…”Alright, Duane, lets go on to the next chapter.”

A look of panic crossed his face. “But I didn’t practice the second chapter! I won’t know how to read all of the new words!”

“No problem, Duane. The words in the second chapter are exactly the same as the words in the first chapter; they’re just in different order. If you could read the first chapter you should be able to read the second.”

“But…” he protested. We proceeded. “Jane has a load. Jane will take the load to town. The town is not far.” He looked up, “I can read these words, too!” Now he was really excited! We finished the chapter with very few interruptions. Duane had made amazing progress in the last two–weeks. Very impressive. We went to dinner. I watched with pride as Duane picked up the menu and we began to discuss the selections. He had become very familiar with the words on the menu including some words that were multiple-syllabic. He was doing fantastically. When I left that day I felt like a proud papa.

The next week Duane opened the door with “I won’t need you anymore after this week.” I was a bit taken aback. We had made good progress but Duane was not even close to where he wanted to be.

“Whoa, Duane, we’re not done yet. This is no time to stop.” He held up a hand.

Big smile. “Last Wednesday I read the bus schedule and went downtown. You wouldn’t believe it,” he said, “I went to the Greyhound station and I was able to read the whole schedule.” He looked at me with tears at the corners of his eyes. “I have been able to save enough money in the past few weeks to buy a bus ticket back home.” His big smile couldn’t hide the single tear that dripped down his cheek. “I’m leaving next week. I called my mom a little while ago and told her. She was really happy.” I’m sure a tear had appeared in my eye because I now felt it trickle down my cheek. Duane looked uncertain, tentative while fairly vibrating in place. I took his hand in a grip of congratulations. Upon my touch he broke down and tears began flowing freely down his face. “I’m so grateful. You’ll never know how much I thank-you for all your help.” He hesitated…then as if a mutual message had passed between us we hugged each other self-consciously. It was an awkward hug between two unrelated men but our joy had required it of each of us. We talked and discussed his possibilities that day and I don’t believe we read anymore about Jane or reviewed any word lists. I took the borrowed books with me when I left although I left “Jane” on his kitchen table and paid the $5 for it the next week when I showed up at the library to obtain a new student.

I never saw or heard from Duane again. Just one of those people that pass through your life leaving no trace except a sense that something good has happened and the hope that his life continued on the upswing we had started. I’m sure he appreciated our efforts and my part in this effort…he probably has no idea how profoundly he also affected my life by simply opening me to wider and wider experiences through working together to overcome his self-imposed lack and he helped change my arrogance regarding those who do not read. My mind is a lot more open to endless possibilities where dedication and will-power can overcome huge barriers.

Where ever you are Duane – here’s to you. My very best.