Reading Rocks!

The Jane Pauley show is winding down and I felt an overpowering urge to post my feelings about it. It's a re-run about adults who couldn't read, but learned how! Images of my friend Archie flashed before my eyes and I can still clearly recall his telling me "I'm ashamed to tell anyone I can't read." My heart hurts with the knowledge there are 90,000,000 (yes 90 million) adults in our country who cannot read!

As a college student, I was amazed and horrified at the number of recent highschool graduates who couldn't read, but were striving for a degree in their chosen fields! Proof-reading papers for these students was heart wrenching when it was most apparent they couldn't write simple sentences, much less a complete paper or report!

I can't imagine what my life would have been like without being able to read, and as a result of being able to read, write! The places I visited, the people I came to know, the things I learned to do, and the opportunity to totally become immersed in a story are experiences which cannot have a price placed on them.

From Erma Bombeck to Shakespeare - and everything in between - has been a joy for me to read. I remember as a young girl anxiously awaiting the arrival of "Mechanics Illustrated" to arrive so I could literally devour it from cover to cover! Is that magazine still being published, I wonder?

How is it possible for folks to achieve without learning how to read? Astoundingly, they do it! Most people who do achieve feel as if they don't deserve their success and that they've cheated themselves, as well as others. Lack of intelligence isn't the main factor here - as most adults who can't read compensate beautifully by memorizing, listening attentively, having others covertly do their reading for them, and many other tricks to prevent others from learning their deficiency.

When adults finally do come forward and either join a group or have a private tutor to learn how to read, they learn quickly and passionately. They have become my new heroes because they usually become reading tutors themselves!

Inspirational, to say the least!