Pin It
Submit to Reddit
Favorite

Waking to a new World 

Although most illiterates make do, many of them want to escape what is often a hard, back-breaking life

Johnny is a big, bulky man who, despite his imposing size, evinces a gentle disposition with an easy-going laugh. After a lifetime of working with his hands and back, he radiates an effortless strength and power. He can tell you all about getting up at 4am and working in the fields until sunset. He can tell you all about hauling freight up and down the southeastern United States. And he can tell you about the challenges of raising five kids. But when talk turns to reading and writing, this big man who's done so much suddenly starts to avoid eye contact, talks in a soft whisper, and squirms in his chair with unease and embarrassment. Johnny never made it out of grammar school. "I just gave up," he says. Now at 60, he's taking basic literacy classes at the Dowd YMCA in hopes of escaping a kind of prison in which he's been trapped his entire life.

He's not alone. North Carolina has the nation's third highest percentage of illiterate adults. An estimated 20,000 Mecklenburg County adults have less than a 9th grade education. Even more disturbing is that many of the folks interviewed for this story -- despite the fact that many of them attended some high school -- still don't have the basic skills necessary to read the daily newspaper. It's a devastating shortcoming that can impact almost every aspect of life -- from landing a decent job and getting a driver's license to being able to order dinner from a restaurant menu. It's a life that is often wrapped around the illiterate person's "secret." It's something that takes enormous amounts of inner energy and alertness to conceal from literate society. Human ingenuity being what it is, however, many people who are illiterate learn to "make do." Amazingly, most of the people in this story, with the help of friends, family, plain old luck and gritty determination, have managed to adapt and, at least to some degree, overcome their lack of education. They held down jobs, raised families, and otherwise went about the business of life. But they say it was an uphill struggle -- one they're now hoping to ease by hitting the books. People Can't Say Nothing Then
Johnny grew up in Charlotte's SouthPark area back when it was just farmland. He never knew his father and, along with his seven siblings, was raised by his grandfather and mother.

"I come up real poor, and didn't have fitting clothes to wear or any of that," he says. Like the rest of the boys in the family, he was expected to work on the farm, which took priority over school and education. "My people, when I come up, all they knew was work. At 4 in the morning I had to get up and milk the cows, then I was in the fields all day. On Saturday you didn't play, you cut wood. Then on Sunday you go to church. On Monday it would start all over again."

What little schooling he did receive left much to be desired. "Back then, if you were a slow learner, they would just put you to the side and teach the others. I was one of the slow learners, and the others would make fun of me. The teachers just passed me on. If you didn't learn nothing it didn't matter to them."

Johnny was 12 when his grandfather died, and he and his little brother moved in with his recently married sister. By this time Johnny was working on the farm all day, and school was long forgotten.

He eventually fell into a series of construction jobs, then in his early 20s started driving an 18-wheeler, hauling freight up to New York, Boston and Maine.

"When I first went to get my license, I had to go back two or three times to pass the test," he says. "What I would do is get someone to read the book to me, and I'd put the answers on my hand and study them -- like A, B, C and D -- and memorize the order of the questions."

While Johnny managed to get a license, navigating his way around the interstates and city streets proved to be a bigger challenge than he had anticipated.

"It bothered me for awhile when I first started running up in New York," he says. "You really have to know your streets and turns -- where trucks can go and where trucks can't go."

To find his way, Johnny would often call the phone number on the freight bills and ask directions, but instead of street names, he would ask for buildings, gas stations and other landmarks to help him locate his destination. While it seems that not being able to read road signs would have been a recipe for disaster, or at the very least cut short a career as a truck driver, Johnny did it for 37 years.

During this time he got married, and he and his wife had five kids. At first he kept the fact that he couldn't read a secret from her. However, he knew he couldn't keep it a secret forever. "How she found out was that she would leave me notes telling me stuff to do, and when she got home from work I hadn't done them. That's how she found out I couldn't read. But I wasn't embarrassed with her. She's really helped me out."

His company eventually found out he couldn't read or write after they were bought out, and all the employees had to fill out new applications. But Johnny says that after so many years of service, they knew he was capable of doing the job. "They didn't really care. They knew I could go out there and get the job done."

Last year, though, a lifetime of hard work caught up with him, and he had to have surgery on his knee, which put him on disability. After being productive for so many years, it was a hard adjustment, and he soon started going stir crazy. It was, he realized, the perfect time to go back to school and learn to read.

In January he started going to the Dowd YMCA on Morehead, one of several Charlotte locations where Central Piedmont Community College offers its Adult Basic Literacy Education (ABLE) program. The program is designed for persons who lack basic educational skills, and provides reading, writing and math instruction as the foundation for additional studies, such as General Educational Development (GED). Johnny attends classes four days a week from 12noon to 4pm, during which time lab facilitator Norma Jean Arey helps guide him through a series of lessons.

Johnny admits that he was embarrassed when he first started coming to class, and he was more than a little reluctant to talk to Creative Loafing.

"When I first came here, I wasn't very confident. I've had people make fun of me and stuff like that. That's what I thought you were going to try and do."

Although he finally agreed to be interviewed, he asked if we would refer to him as Johnny Dollar, not his real name. "I'd be ashamed for people to know too much about me," he says. "Maybe after I learn to read you can interview me again and use my real name. People can't say nothing then."

Bill, 53, has been enrolled in CPCC'S Basic Skills Program at the Dowd YMCA since last June. Bill grew up in Buffalo, NY, and although he finished high school, he says he never learned to read above a 4th grade level. "A lot of teachers back then didn't have any patience," he says. "They didn't really take time to work with me. They just passed me along." Bill said he hid the fact that he couldn't read from his friends, but when it came time to get his driver's license, he had to reach out to someone. Bill went to Catholic school, and he asked one of the nuns -- who carried plenty of weight in Buffalo -- if she could help him. The sister called the driver's license bureau and convinced one of the instructors to read the questions aloud to Bill for his test. "That's how I got my license," he says.

Later, he enlisted the help of his father to fill out a job application at Rich's Products in New York, and for the next 23 years that's where he worked, stacking boxes inside giant freezers. The hard work took its toll, and Bill had to take an early retirement after two back surgeries.

In 2000, Bill and his wife moved to Charlotte. Now, he says, after he finishes the Basic Skills program, he plans to earn a GED, then go on to college.

"I think I'd like to eventually open up my own business," he says. "I don't want to work in no plant no more. I would rather have something of my own."

Another ABLE program student, Bobby Smith, 53, lives in Mt. Pleasant. Smith grew up in Concord and, as in Johnny's case, education was not a priority at his house. "When I went to school I was just kind of laidback; I guess you could say I was too sorry to really try. I had a problem reading, and I never did get any help at home. My dad drove a truck and he stayed gone all the time."Smith dropped out of Concord High School in 9th grade to go to work. "I couldn't read nothing," he says. "They just passed me along. They didn't care if I could read or not."

Smith got married in 1967 at age 18, and over his 35-year marriage he and his wife had two kids. He worked a series of manual labor jobs at area mills and warehouses, including Specialty Dyers, where he worked for 14 years until they closed down. Today he works at Carolina Tractor, where he paints and decals trucks and vans, and does mechanical work. It was his supervisors at Carolina Tractor that encouraged him to go back to school.

"Not being able to read has really held me back," he says. "I can't do stuff like fill out the service reports; I have to get the other guys to help me."

But beyond enabling him to do more at work, Smith says he wants to be able to do everyday things, like read to his grandkids. "My grandkids will get a book down and ask me to read it to them, and I'll try, but it's tough. I have to get my wife to help me. If it wasn't for my wife I don't know what I'd do. She helps me with all my book work."

Smith has been going to the ABLE classes for nearly two years, and although it's slow going, he says it's making a big difference. "I've made a lot of progress," he says. "I'm getting to where I can read a little bit. There are still a lot of words I can't pick up, but I'm doing a lot better. I just want to try to finish school so I can make more money and make things better here at home for my family."

Playing Catch Up


At the Johnston YMCA on N. Davidson, Kim Hampton and Vickie Roseborough are also hoping that going back to school will enable them to create a better future for themselves and their families.

Roseborough's story is tragically familiar -- an unplanned pregnancy while she was a teenager caused her to drop out of high school.

"It wasn't like I didn't want to learn," she says. "I just made a mistake and tried to grow up too early. At the time the man I was with said he would be there and help me out. Eventually he went his way and I went mine. But I still had a child that I had to support. So that put me behind with my education."

Roseborough eventually got a job at a Charlotte manufacturing company, where she worked for 27 years. Although she didn't make a lot of money, she was able to put her daughter through college. Now, at a youthful-looking 48, Roseborough is enrolled in CPCC'S GED program in the hopes of bettering herself.

"I want to get into a field where I can help other people," she says. "At this point in life I need help, so I would like to be able to do the same for others."

But she's also finding it tougher than she expected. "I'm having to go back to the basics and start all over," she says. "A lot of years have gone by, but I'm just thankful I still have this opportunity. I've got the smarts, I just don't have the credentials to back me up."

Roseborough says she is particularly disturbed by all the young people she sees in class everyday. "That's what really hurts," she says. "These young kids just don't know. I tell them they better stay in school and go as far as they can, and never look back. This right here (lack of education) is hurting me. If I had my education I could be out there right now putting in resumes and I wouldn't have to feel so guilty. But I'm not a quitter. I still have goals in life."

Hampton moved to Charlotte from Philadelphia about 16 years ago when she was 20, shortly after getting married. Now, at an attractive and stylish 36, she's enrolled in the ABLE program. Although she completed 11th grade, Hampton says she "couldn't read at all."

Hampton was one of 11 siblings, and says she grew up in a dysfunctional and abusive household. "No one really cared if I went to school or not," she says. "Not my parents, not the teachers. I didn't have to show my report cards or grades to anyone, so it didn't matter. No one took the time to encourage us, or tell us how important education was. So when it was time to go back to school, I just didn't go."

Once she settled in Charlotte, Hampton worked a series of menial warehouse jobs. "That's all I could get, and I can't even get that now," she says. "I've been looking all over for a job. I don't know where else to go."

Hampton says that over the years she's tried to teach herself to read. "I would buy the daily paper and if I didn't know a word I would look it up in the dictionary. I also bought a Scrabble game, and I try to buy a lot of books. Whatever would help encourage me to keep trying."

But Hampton says that it was once she started stressing the importance of staying in school to her kids -- ages 17, 14, 13, and 9 -- that she seriously started thinking about returning to school herself. "I took a look at myself and thought, "How can I encourage my kids to do something that I haven't even done?' I told them, "Take a look at me, if I had stayed in school I wouldn't be in this predicament. No one's going to hire you if you haven't even finished high school.'

"By me being behind, it put my kids behind," Hampton continued. "They're playing catch up, especially my oldest daughter. I just didn't realize how important school was, and I didn't instill that in her until it was too late."

Armed with a renewed determination, Hampton started attending classes last month. She ultimately would like to be a social worker, but says that right now it's an uphill struggle. "Now my husband is the only one working so I can go to school, and it makes it hard on everybody. We have to stay on a certain budget. There ain't no spending sprees."

And like Roseborough, Hampton has a few words of warning for younger kids who might not be taking their education seriously. "They need to take a look around in this room, and see that there's a bunch of older people sitting up in here. They don't have to go through what I'm going through. You don't want to be my age and going back to school. And a lot of these kids are sitting around like it's a joke, like it's a hangout spot where they can meet girls. Pretty soon they're going to be up there in age, and it's going to be like, "Now what am I going to do?' Momma ain't going to take care of you forever."

Contact Sam Boykin at 704-944-3623 or sam.boykin@cln.com.

Literacy: Read All About It

According to recent adult literacy surveys:
1 million North Carolinians can't read well enough to hold a job.

In Charlotte Mecklenburg, more than 22 percent of adults have extremely limited literacy skills.

Over 72,000 adults in Charlotte-Mecklenburg do not have a high school diploma or a GED.

A child who grows up in a home with at least one illiterate parent is twice as likely to become an illiterate.

According to national surveys, roughly one in five American children grows up functionally illiterate.

Each year in Charlotte Mecklenburg, more than 4,000 children begin kindergarten with little or no exposure to books, poorly developed language skills, and other deficits that undermine their ability to learn.

Research shows that three quarters of all children who cannot read by the end of grade one never catch up with their peers.

Only 32 percent of the nation's fourth-graders read at grade level.

Only 39 percent of parents with children under the age of 3 read to them daily.

Nationally, the hospitalization rate is 50 percent higher for adults with inadequate literacy, and it is estimated that the excess health costs associated with low health literacy are over $70 billion. -- Sam Boykin

Local Literacy Resources

CPCC'S Basic Literacy and GED programs are offered at most Charlotte-area campuses, as well as at most Charlotte YMCAs. Computer technology, tutors and instruction are provided. For more information, call 704-330-6125. CPCC is currently in need of volunteer tutors for the ABLE and GED programs. If interested, call Lynn Stevens at the Johnston YMCA at 704-716-6350.

Time Warner's Time to Read is the largest corporate-based literacy program in the nation. It is a tutoring and mentoring program offered at numerous Charlotte-area schools, colleges and community-based sites. Volunteers help teach people how to read and write using various magazine subscriptions as well as other activity books and learning material. For more information, contact roberta.farman@twcable.com

Charlotte Reads. The Charlotte Chamber's Charlotte Reads program seeks to fill in gaps in literacy education throughout the Charlotte region. It is a community initiative designed to make literacy programs and services more accessible to those who need them most through advocacy, fundraising and promotion. For more information, you can email Rebecca Anderson, director of Charlotte Reads, at randerson@charlottechamber.com, or call her at 704-378-1338.

The Urban League's Basic Skills Literacy Program offers computer-assisted courses in reading, writing, math, language and spelling applications. It also offers 101 tutoring, which allows people to enter a 12-week computer training program. For more information, call 704-373-2256, and ask for Sheila Funderburke at ext. 209, or Kimberly Munn, at ext. 212

Bridge Jobs Program: Serving those 16 and up with basic literacy and job training programs, GED completion, and English as a second language. For information, call 704-377-5371.

United Way 211: For more information about any of these programs, or to volunteer, simply dial 211 to reach United Way's 24-hour health and human services resource center.

-- Sam Boykin

Pin It
Submit to Reddit
Favorite

Calendar

More »

Search Events


© 2019 Womack Digital, LLC
Powered by Foundation