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Waking to a new World 

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

Page 4 of 5

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.

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