Rewarding courage

Opening a book can take a reader to another world. But for some adults, the pages might as well be blank.

Illiteracy is more than just deciphering the letters on a page. Adrienne Marshall of the Literacy Council of Central Alabama said they see people struggling with all types of literacy issues walk through their doors.

“Some of the folks who come in don’t know the sounds and names of all their letters, and then some people can read everything you and I can read. But if you ask one question about it, they may not know what you’re talking about. So they may not remember or understand it,” Marshall said.

Statistics on literacy vary depending on how narrow a definition of reading level and comprehension is used, but the National Center for Educational Statistics estimates about 15 percent of Alabama is “functionally illiterate.” A 2013 study from the U.S. Department of Education reports that 14 percent of Americans are below a basic reading level.

For many adults, illiteracy and problems with reading comprehension feel like an embarrassment they have to hide. Marshall and Literacy Council Vice President of Communications and Development Missy Burchart said people come into the center who have hidden their literacy issue from spouses, bosses or other family members. A few have even put their own kids through college, while having to rely on others for simple things such as reading the mail or filling out paperwork at a doctor’s appointment.

“You just don’t know it because some people are experts. Imagine becoming an adult with this problem since you were a child, and you’re out here functioning in the world. You kind of become an expert at hiding this thing,” Marshall said. “They’re out here working, and working just as hard as the person next to them.”

The Literacy Council serves about 100 people in its adult literacy, English language and GED programs in its downtown location at 2301 First Ave. N., #102, and around 3,000 in all five counties it covers in Central Alabama. That includes students from 19 years old all the way up to 87-year-old Fred Oliver, who is taking classes so he can write his life story “that you will never believe.”

“The majority of them, no matter what they’re coming here to seek, it’s really a second chance,” Burchart said. “A second chance at gaining their sobriety, a second chance at moving up in their job or just getting a job, getting a better job, finally being able to read to their children.”

David Hayes moved to Birmingham a few months ago, and his classes at the Literacy Council are part of a second chance not only in education, but in life. He’s currently a resident at the Brother Bryan Mission downtown, as he recovers from drug addiction.

“I did graduate high school, but I feel like I was just basically given a diploma. My reading level was more on a sixth- or seventh-grade level, I would say, before I got here. This place right here has really helped me a lot,” Hayes said. “I used to hide my reading problem, didn’t want nobody to know about it.”

He comes to the Literacy Council three days a week. Those classes have allowed him to spend more time reading the Bible and participating in activities at the mission, even volunteering to stand up in a group and read verses without feeling embarrassed.

“I feel like, more than anything, it’s given me more confidence that I can get in front of people and not trying to hide my reading problems. I noticed I’m picking up better words,” Hayes said. “My sentences are getting better when I start to read. That’s just amazing to myself.”

The Literacy Council, which is affiliated with United Way, started out in 1991 as a referral service connecting people with city programs that served their needs. The number of calls they received showed there was a need for reading and tutoring services, but often the places they recommended would not be open when people needed them.

“Someone who struggles with reading and has had an illiteracy issue through their lives, there’s a lot of shame that’s involved on their end. They’re very embarrassed by it. So it takes a whole lot of courage just for them to pick up the phone and call us. So if they call us, they found that courage and we send them somewhere where there’s yet another dead end, it’s just not good. It’s demoralizing to them, and we’re not serving our purpose,” Burchart said.

Since 2012, the Literacy Council has provided its own tutoring services in-house. Burchart said they choose locations, such as their downtown office and the Kingston Community Center, to be easily accessible by pedestrians, bus lines and drivers. They regularly have learners from shelters such as the Jimmie Hale Mission, Firehouse Shelter and Aletheia House. It was also important to the council, she said, that their services be free.

“A lot of our folks are working very hard and every penny that they earn, they need to focus on their family. We don’t want the cost of the program to be another impediment for them not to get what they really need,” Burchart said.

Marshall started as a volunteer in 2012 before becoming the director of adult literacy programs in 2013. Their tutors typically try to find reading materials that will interest individual students, such as newspapers or particular topics, to make lessons more fun. One of Marshall’s regular students, Tyler Compton, loves volunteering at the zoo and wants to improve his reading level so he can do volunteer training and tests independently. 

Right now he is reading Jack London’s “Call of the Wild,” a novel about a wolf, since it fits so well with his interests.

“I can see you making progress already,” Marshall said to Compton, who has been attending tutoring sessions for a few months. “There will be no gaps in his knowledge as we build up and make his foundation more solid.”

There are some success stories that stand out to Marshall and Burchart, like a mother who completed her GED and now felt like she could tell her children about the importance of doing well in school.

“It was really important for her to be a role model to her children,” Marshall said. “When you talk about breaking a cycle, she was really intent on doing it.”

Birmingham native Callie Rena Bell was able to read, but not “on the level that I wanted to.” She recalled trying to read books but struggling with comprehension and words she didn’t understand. She’d keep stopping to look up words.

“I would get frustrated,” Bell said. “Then I wasn’t interested anymore.”

When she had some time off from work in 2013 due to an injury, Bell began taking classes at the Literacy Council. She had gone to other tutoring services before, but she saw more progress with the hands-on approach the Literacy Council tutors took.

“It was just a different experience. … To me, for somebody to take their time out and volunteer and help me learn, is awesome,” Bell said. “I came a long way, doing it that way.”

That tutoring means Bell is no longer nervous about reading in front of others at work, church or in other situations.

“I have more confidence in myself now,” Bell said. “I don’t feel like I’m going to mispronounce a word. In the past, I was real shy about reading in front of people.”

It also means books hold a newfound interest for her.

“I can sit down and read now and don’t get bored. I still look up words, but not as much as I used to,” she said.

Illiteracy “really kind of forces you on this path where you’re retreating” from the world and not seeking out new experiences, Marshall said. Reversing that path can set off a chain reaction. 

Burchart recalls one woman who took classes at the Literacy Council and read her first novel, Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Reading the book prompted her to see the play. The woman asked her tutor for more nutrition-related reading, which encouraged her to start healthier cooking and join a gym.

“These are all things she would have never done,” Burchart said. “She said it was like a door opened, and once she went through, she couldn’t go back.”