Yesterday, after a reading class I teach at a local university, I found one of my newest students waiting for me in the parking lot. She asked if I could help her find a way to teach a 16-year-old high school boy how to read. I was almost speechless! Apparently, he found out she was going to college, even though she had scored so low on reading that my course is required. He revealed to her that he does not know how to read and asked for her help. Indicating that she is the first person he has told, he said he was very embarrassed and didn't want any of his friends to know.
I had no idea what to tell her! Local literacy programs exist for adults, but this student is surrounded by teachers -- they just don't know his secret. I told her to give me a week to do a little checking around, but meanwhile, I suggested, "tell him that if he's fooled everyone around him, he must not be too stupid!"
After teaching English here for so long, it is difficult for me to imagine how a teacher couldn't know if one of his or her students could not read. Shameful! Yet, I know how impossible it can be to manage six classes a day of forty kids each, day after day. The cracks are too big--and we are often too tired to keep putting our fingers in the dike.
I'm going to try to find out if there are materials she could use to help him. Maybe someday, she'll look back and tell the story of how she decided to become a teacher. Wouldn't that be something?
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