Making it in the System
Anonymous

BILL: It all started when I was young, I lost my mother when I was thirteen, umm, I was in school and then it seemed like everything stopped. Even my comprehending words that I know that I shouldn't know but I did. Then as time went on I started going to school and was scared to read because some kids make fun of you if you miss a word or didn't pronounce a word right and it was kind of shameful and then I realized that I wasn't the only one in the class that had that problem. Then I had to go to special class when I was in the seventh grade and one time I had a person ask me what was a word and I said I didn't know it and then they looked at me funny. But as time when on, I started getting a tutor that showed me and teached me how to read and I started to understand what the words were even some words that are easy to say but some words are not but you gotta keep trying and I believe now the teachers that I had when I was coming up, was back in the 50's, and I had to kind of get books that show pictures and the words that you learn and you look at them same as a child when they're beginning to learn how to read but then I had a teacher tell me that when you're reading, read something that you like to read and the way you prove yourself and I didn't have teachers back then that were too interested in me reading because, not to be cutting them down, it was like if you get it, you get it, if you don't then that was your loss but that hurts a person when another person makes fun of them because I've seen it when I was in class. Myself, I even sat in the back because that was a person's defense when someone asked them to read they would clam up or they go ahead but they wouldn't look back up - I noticed that when they finished reading. But now to me if a person gets themself a tutor, that will help them out a whole lot because reading is really important in this world today. I even start feeling better about myself when I saw an article about a girl who couldn't even read signs and then that made me look at myself and I noticed that God had showed me, hey you can read signs so where is your handicap at? And that's good but I can only say, get one on one to show people how to read and the word "literacy" sometimes offends some people because I noticed that in the years I have led; never let no one, even if you're in class, never let a student make fun of someone else because that does a devastating thing, that stops the person from wanting to learn. So get a book that you can really read, it's easier, and stick to it because that's how I did it and when you do that you'll see for yourself, even when you're going places, even when you're looking at signs, it will come to you because that's what I've done. I used to be scared to drive out of town because I would feel like I would forget which street it was until I start beginning to look at the street and read it and that's what I've done, to learn to read myself. The system right now, today, is really hurting. It's not only in poor neighborhoods, it's in rich neighborhoods. I even see how on the job some guys cannot comprehend how to read on the computer and I was scared because I figured I would mess up but then I started to learn it, it was easy and then I started to read things, it wasn't no big fabulous words, it was just regular, common words. With a computer you just copy down what you want and I thank God for that now and even passing your driving test they have certain driving tests for people who can't comprehend things on the test. I'm not ashamed of it, I flunked it two times - third time was the charm. I thank God for that but they need to find out where a person stands when they come in for a test is to see where they're at with understanding the test and stuff and making sure they learn how to spell as best they can - that's another thing kids should be taught. I wasn't as fortunate as some people are now but God has brought me a long way and I thank God for that and I had a couple of tutors to help me out and that's the key too is to have tutors one on one to help me a person when they are struggling with words and don't let them be discouraged and always tell them to read a nice book that you like and understand and that will help improve and even watching television with certain programs and stuff, there's nothing wrong with it. I'm not ashamed of it, I even watched children's programs when I was coming up and that helped me out too even watching that. So that's all I have to say but I hope they change that word "literacy" because some people are offended even if they are older people, they feel like they don't want to do that.