Adults struggle to learn to read
By JACKIE BORCHARDT - Star-Tribune staff writer
How do you know who to vote for?
Did you study candidates’ platforms outlined on fliers delivered to your door? Did you learn about their personal lives, their families from their websites? Did you read newspaper stories about where they stand on hot topic issues?
Or do you go into the booth and vote for recognizable names?
None of these methods are options for adults who can’t read. An estimated 30 million Americans read “below basic,” or no better than the average elementary student, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Reading and writing form the base of several types of literacy — reading literature, filling out credit card applications, deciphering medical prescriptions, using instruction manuals.
More than 1,000 Natrona County adults seek reading help every year from the Adult Basic Education/GED Center at Casper College. Their ability levels range from early primary grades to high school.
About 200 earn their GEDs each year. The rest continue or leave only to return, said Lisa Mixer, program coordinator at the ABE/GED Center.
“All or most people who don’t complete K-12 do come back and get some sort of education,” Mixer said. “To say that population doesn’t value education isn’t true.”
Barriers to success appear outside the books — jobs, family emergencies, transportation. The center ebbs and flows with Wyoming’s boom and bust cycle, said Mixer, who has witnessed patterns in her 22 years at the center. Students can’t afford to pass up $25-per-hour jobs.
“Because we’re voluntary, we’re the first things that often drop off the list,” Mixer said.
Self-motivation can be the largest barrier of all. Official gains are only recognized after students increase two grade levels. An hour of tutoring each week isn’t enough time to make up the loss.
Not everyone finishes.
“We’re going to take them where we find them, and we’re going to provide them whatever appropriate instruction we can,” Mixer said. Many adult learners have disabilities that weren’t addressed when they attended school, Mixer said.
Volunteer Paula McDaniel meets with her three “gentlemen” readers once a week in the library at Casper College. All three read at elementary levels. All three are dedicated to learning to read.
McDaniel fits as much material as she can into one hour — phonics, prefixes, compound words, vocabulary, reading short passages and answering questions, discussing a short novel. They decode sentences to find meaning in words and practice reading smoothly.
McDaniel’s students want to read to their children, to enjoy books. They said they’re not ashamed they can’t read — it’s just the way it is and they’re dealing with it.
“There are days when everything clicks, and there are days when things come more difficultly,” McDaniel said.
Read more: http://trib.com/news/local/article_692375e9-44de-565d-86c4-d00cada88170.html