Life without Literacy
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But if, by the age of 30, words and sums meant little to you, how far from home could you get without becoming completely lost?
A few years ago, one of the men from Tindall House went to an unfamiliar shopping centre and spent the next 10 hours searching for a home he’d lived in for years. It was a foggy day so familiar landmarks were obliterated and he missed the only bus he recognised. He didn’t know a single phone number, and he’d spent the last of his money so he wouldn’t have been able to make a call anyway.
Someone beyond school age who hasn’t mastered reading or mathematics will probably spend their life as vulnerable as a child, open to exploitation and lacking confidence and independence. There is a single, unlikely “unless”: unless someone makes a long-term commitment to overcome the challenges that learning disabilities and a missed education present.
Learning to learn
Nearly three years ago, a group of retired people in Leeds made that commitment to those in CFL’s care who lack some fundamental skills. These volunteers haven’t been discouraged by the slow nature of their work; their weekly, one-on-one meetings pay dividends in unusual but priceless ways.
Michael gives Wilf a lesson in geometry.
Wilf, 45, is unabashedly enthusiastic about the lessons he has with Michael Coles, who initiated the scheme in 2002.
“It’s absolutely brilliant,” he says. “I’m finding it hard, but I’m getting through it. I can pick a book up now; before, I couldn’t be bothered.”
Michael is equally enthusiastic about Wilf’s progress, singling it out while he talks about the often-imperceptible progress of the past few years.
“It’s just been a pleasure to see his confidence improve,” Michael says. “He left school not being able to read, or do much else really. He’s made tremendous progress.” Now Wilf can read slowly but steadily.
Working on Wilf’s mathematics skills has also paid off, since he sorts and counts hundreds of eggs a week. “It used to be a nightmare counting them all,” he says. “I couldn’t remember how many were on a tray.” Wilf and Michael’s studies now cover more varied subjects; Michael showed him a topographical map, (which for those who aren’t aware shows contours of land), for the first time recently, and Wilf quickly caught on to what he was looking at. “I surprised myself,” Wilf says. “I were looking at a map, and I said, ‘That’s going uphill.’”
One young lady aged 17 when she moved into Wendy Margaret Home needed much care and protection as a young child. She had learned to read at a basic level but was never made to use the skill; according to Colette Crossen, her tutor, she had “buried the ability completely in her mind.” But a few months after Colette started working with her, she surprised everyone at the Christmas party. She got up and, with some whispered help, bashfully read the entire account of Jesus’ birth. For her, this was a massive accomplishment, and for many in the audience it was the highlight of the day.
She isn’t an easy student. Just ask her if she likes the books Colette has her read: “No,” she answers without hesitation. She pauses long enough to blink. “Well … sometimes.”
Her confidence is growing. She read again at last year’s Christmas party and, although being in the spotlight makes her uncharacteristically shy, she says that it’s something she will do again.
Danny, 30, finds some subjects much easier than others. He enjoys language and making quick-witted plays on words, but maths is a different story. “It winds me up when I do maths,” he says.
Danny and John are working on subtraction, a subject Danny had never learned. His reading has also improved; he has read several books now and discovered new words – “like ‘hypocrite,’” he says, offering a new favourite.
Joan Turner, right, reads along with one student.
How volunteers tackled the challenge
Most of the tutors are members of the Headingley Rotary Club, which began its association with CFL five years ago. The club invited Esther Smith to speak about CFL at a lunch and afterwards Michael, as upcoming president of the club, talked with her about ways they might be able to help CFL. Two opportunities seemed obvious: The fledgling conservation project and the Tindall House refurbishment. “As luck would have it, we were getting a new kitchen,” Michael recalls. “So I said, ‘Would you like our kitchen?’ That’s how it started.”
So the Coles’ kitchen moved to Tindall House and several Rotarians began visiting the farm to invest much energy into the conservation project. There they got to know those involved in the farm projects.
Michael says that the question of adult literacy came up after that. He had been head of English at Priesthorpe Comprehensive School in Pudsey, and his fellow Rotarians include former teachers and lecturers. Michael asked CFL’s Executive Committee if the Rotarians’ experience could help those at the farm, and they gave him a green light to work with anyone who wanted to participate.
The six original volunteers, who all needed to be officially approved, brought a wealth of experience to the scheme, but none of them had worked one-to-one with their pupils before. Nor had they experienced the unique combinations of educational difficulties.
“We didn’t quite know what was going to happen,” Michael says. “We weren’t quite sure if any of them were going to make any progress.” The only way to find out was to try and see. “I must admit that sometimes it’s been like the blind leading the blind,” he says. They pooled their know-how and each committed to a bimonthly visit, determined to provide as much continuity as they could.
As Michael coordinated this project in 2002, he came into contact with Colette, who had worked with him at Priesthorpe as the special needs coordinator. She added her expertise to the effort and also began tutoring the growing number of ladies attending the farm projects, visiting every week. In 2004, about the time Wendy Margaret Home reached its capacity of eight women, Joan Turner joined Colette. She is also a qualified former special needs teacher.
Colette coaches Carl in word recognition.
What went right
Now, early in 2005, there are 10 volunteers. They include former businessmen, doctors and church leaders.
Colette’s experience addressing special needs helped them get off to a good start. “There are all sorts of problems, the biggest problem being confidence,” she says. By the age of 15, most people have already had “lots of work done on them – English and reading and writing mean failure to them, so that’s a big hurdle for them to get over.”
The tutors must lower this hurdle while addressing the reasons for past failure. Health problems such as severe epilepsy and some aspects of autistic spectrum disorder, can be are among the problems that contribute to a difficulty in learning, whilst a very significant factor is an unhappy childhood, a lack of school attendance or a lack of support by parents/carers. While these can’t be reversed, and prior education had little success, Colette says that they don’t rule out new breakthroughs. “Somebody else comes along, and it’s just the right time for them,” she says.
Carl, 23, is new to the farm. He spends five days a week with the agriculture team and started spending a session each week with Colette a month ago. His biggest accomplishment so far is learning to spell his full name.
He hardly spoke on his first visit to the farm, held back by shyness and a speech impediment. But this morning he is the first to arrive at the farm’s Centre, and he chats non-stop while he sets the tables with the staff member preparing breakfast. He pauses at the hatch to look at the lunch sign-up sheet, then points to five letters underlined at the top of the page. “What’s that say?” he asks.
This is the right time for Carl. Since he joined the projects at Crag House Farm he has made a number of friends and learned productive skills – new experiences for him. His eagerness to participate in everything spills over into his literacy studies. “Carl’s enthusiasm is hugely important; that will carry him through,” Colette says. He even takes his notebook and pen home to go over what they’ve been studying in his own time.
One day, Colette asked him to think of words beginning with each letter of the alphabet. She thought it was significant that most of the words he chose were names of people he works with at the farm. “He managed to do nearly all the letters of the alphabet,” she adds. “His mind was not set on anything but people at the farm.”
Colette says that the attention they give their students, relating to them on a personal level, also helps motivate them. She finds the attention is reciprocal, too; when she arrives at the farm, someone always spots her and calls out warm greetings.
Kelly reacts to some hints from Joan.
The progress these students make is usually slow and hard to gauge, so the tutors find it particularly important to encourage them along the way. Sometimes they create projects to be displayed. Kelly’s tutor, Joan, helped her write a “newspaper” – an A4 sheet divided into columns for her to write about the guinea pig show, the Christmas party and other news of the farm. It was a tedious job for Kelly, on par with a dissertation. But once it was completed and posted up in the Centre she proudly herded people around it and hovered nearby, beaming infectiously as they read it.
The tutors also present certificates to all who participate in these voluntary sessions at the end of each year’s work. The value in terms of sheer motivation to receive a certificate is evident when you speak to those involved.
The tutors expect as much as possible from their students, but Michael says that the question isn’t whether or not they will achieve great things in literacy or maths. “We’re not trying to get them to pass exams,” he says; “we’re trying to get them to develop as much as they can as individuals.”
Two young ladies who both read and write reasonably well are interested in learning about childcare, so Joan and Colette found coursework on the topic. All of the tutors personalise the studies to capitalise on what each person is naturally interested in, and in this case the information may help the ladies develop useful skills beyond literacy.
As for the man who once lost his way back to Tindall House, he has made progress and developed some ambitions of his own. He enjoys office work; he has a typewriter in his room to practice on and he wants to learn how to “use the phone the right way.” He explains that this takes “manners” and the ability to write down messages for people. This goal is anything but insignificant; it is one of the reasons he perseveres.
From the pupils’ perspective:
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K. (20): “I read four books and I’m on my fifth book.” G. (38): “I can read now, but before I couldn’t. I couldn’t write letters before. … I can read the easy books but not the hard books – I’m learning on to them.” D. (30): “I like reading the best because of one reason – you don’t have to think.” A. (32): “I like a bit of reading and a bit of maths.” J. (32): “I’ve learned a lot – how to read properly, and writing.” One of Joe’s projects is writing about his life. D. (39): “I enjoy it very much indeed.” David likes researching topics on the Internet and reading animal stories. W. (45): “They’re fantastic guys – just put that in your report.” |
We would like to thank all our literacy group teachers for their work. With special thanks to: Mike Coles, Collette Crossen, Joan Turner, Gordon Boasman, John Buckler, Ed Dodman, Alan Griggs, Peter Morris, Geoff Steel, Philip Sunderland & Michael O'Donnel.