Libraries stress literacy's importance:They offer an array of programs for children and adults.
Press-EnterpriseL September 25, 2001 by Marilee Reyes
Without the ability to read adequately, daily living is full of obstacles.
For children, schoolwork is next to impossible. For adults, applying for a job, taking a test for a driver's license or reading the instructions on a bottle of cough medicine can be a nerve-wracking challenge.
According to Paula Owen, former branch manager at the Valle Vista Library, there are many reasons people can't read or have difficulty doing so. Sometimes the problem is physical, such as optical or neurological conditions that hamper learning. In these cases, special steps need to be taken by the person affected to try to correct the problem, Owen said.
Libraries offer numerous programs to help children and adults learn to read, she said.
Usually with adults, their inability to read or to read adequately was never addressed when they were in school, Owen said. An adult who can't read also has to deal with the embarrassment of not reading and often is too uncomfortable to ask for help to learn.
Help is confidential
One of the reasons the library tutoring programs are confidentiality-based is to encourage more adults to take advantage of the free tutoring programs, according to area literacy workers.
The Riverside County Library System branches in Valle Vista and San Jacinto and the city-run Hemet Public Library offer programs such as Families For Literacy and Adult Literacy.
At the Valle Vista branch, a phonics-based program for school-age children, Read at Last, began earlier this month. Offered Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3 to 5 p.m., it includes tutors.
Dawn Wasley, acting branch manager, said that after an initial interview to determine a child's needs, the student meets with the tutor three times a week for at least 20 minutes for four to eight weeks. There is no charge, but an appointment schedule is required. In addition, homework help is also available.
Sharon Aguagenti, branch manager at the San Jacinto Library, said the branch is putting together a program called Project Dream in conjunction with the San Jacinto Unified School District. It is expected to begin in November.
Aguagenti said students will be referred to the library after an evaluation using school district testing. The library will train the volunteer tutors and coordinate the program.
Nancy Johnson supervises the Families for Literacy and the Please Read To Me programs at the Hemet library. Please Read To Me is designed to encourage new parents to read to their babies.
"We want parents to know how important it is to read to their children from this very early age," Johnson said.
Please Read To Me is open to parents and infants born since May. The parent enrolls at the library and receives a tote bag, book and information on how to read to a child. Every six months they get an incentive gift. When the child turns 3, he or she receives a special invitation to attend the preschool story hour.
"Of course, preschool story time is a long-standing tradition," Johnson said. The program, which begins Oct. 4 at 10:30 a.m., will be conducted in eight-week segments.
Breaking non-reading cycles
Laurie Eastman, Riverside County coordinator of Families for Literacy for the county, said that ordinarily the parent is a child's first teacher.
"If they can't read, they're not modeling to their children," Eastman said. That continues the cycle of generations of non-readers, she said.
Families for Literacy is available at each library to families with preschool-age children. The parents are helped with their reading and they are given books to take home and read with their child.
"The whole point is to have the child to sit on your lap while you read," Eastman said. "And if you start with this from birth, holding your child on your lap when you read, you create a special bond, a closeness. You're teaching them a love of reading."
Monday, October 1, 2001
Hemet Library - Area libraries plan for literacy month
Area libraries plan for literacy monthPress-Enterprise: September 25, 2001 by Julie Farren & Marilee Reyes
September is International Literacy Month, during which libraries across the nation emphasize special reading programs for adults and children who have reading problems.
At the same time that schools are back in session, libraries also resume their yearly programs.
The three libraries that serve the San Jacinto and Hemet area are Valle Vista and San Jacinto, both county branches, and Hemet Public Library, a city facility. All offer various literacy programs.
Government statistics have shown that one in five adults in Riverside County cannot read and write well enough to fill out a job application unassisted, said Melodie Earickson, literacy site supervisor for the Library Adult Literacy Program, Southwestern Riverside County.
Among the programs offered countywide are adult tutoring and Families For Literacy. Several libraries have individual programs: Valle Vista Library is beginning Read at Last for school-age children; San Jacinto Library will start Project Dream in November in conjunction with the San Jacinto School District; Hemet Public Library has Please Read to Me for parents with infants.
The Adult Tutoring Program, Read at Last and Project Dream require volunteer tutors to meet the need. A volunteer need not have a professional background. Training is provided.
The library coordinates the tutoring schedule to accommodate both tutor and student and the coordinator is available to advise the tutor and provide on-going evaluation.
For information about Hemet Library programs call (909) 765-2440; for San Jacinto Library call (909) 654-8635; for Valle Vista Library call (909) 926-2611.
September is International Literacy Month, during which libraries across the nation emphasize special reading programs for adults and children who have reading problems.
At the same time that schools are back in session, libraries also resume their yearly programs.
The three libraries that serve the San Jacinto and Hemet area are Valle Vista and San Jacinto, both county branches, and Hemet Public Library, a city facility. All offer various literacy programs.
Government statistics have shown that one in five adults in Riverside County cannot read and write well enough to fill out a job application unassisted, said Melodie Earickson, literacy site supervisor for the Library Adult Literacy Program, Southwestern Riverside County.
Among the programs offered countywide are adult tutoring and Families For Literacy. Several libraries have individual programs: Valle Vista Library is beginning Read at Last for school-age children; San Jacinto Library will start Project Dream in November in conjunction with the San Jacinto School District; Hemet Public Library has Please Read to Me for parents with infants.
The Adult Tutoring Program, Read at Last and Project Dream require volunteer tutors to meet the need. A volunteer need not have a professional background. Training is provided.
The library coordinates the tutoring schedule to accommodate both tutor and student and the coordinator is available to advise the tutor and provide on-going evaluation.
For information about Hemet Library programs call (909) 765-2440; for San Jacinto Library call (909) 654-8635; for Valle Vista Library call (909) 926-2611.
Saturday, May 1, 1999
Riverside Library - Library goes all out to promote reading
Library goes all out to promote readingPress-Enterprise: April 11, 1999 by Roberto Hernandez
Author: Roberto Hernandez; The Press-Enterprise
Riverside Public Library organizers used music, lively storytelling and a hedgehog named Gladys Saturday as part of a free program to promote the love of reading in area families at the La Sierra branch.
"Creature Teacher" Robyn Wheeler of Garden Grove, who demonstrated the spiny mammal and assorted reptiles to children, joined dozens of other performers during the Family Literacy Festival that drew more than 500 people. The goal was to help adults share the pages of a storybook with their families to ensure the quality of their communities, library officials said.
"As children read, they're learning as they go to school (and) their learning environment is expanded," literacy coordinator Janet Hoeting said.
Storyteller Mariluna Martin entertained her mostly young audience inside the La Sierra Avenue library with an imaginary fable about Tibet's first dalai lama and a group of talking mice. It is important for children to grow up appreciating books, the Los Angeles woman said.
"Literacy opens up their entire world," Martin said. "That's something that TV cannot give (and) movies aren't going to do it."
The event was also part of "Riverside Reads: A Literacy Challenge," a city program to enlist adults to pledge 1,000 hours of reading aloud to children by National Literacy Day Nov. 1.
"During storytelling we're trying to model the parents on how to read to their children," Hoeting said.
Ventriloquist Rob Hartley got the attention of more than 40 children by sculpting balloon animals in his role of bumbling maintenance man "Jerry." Sidewalk chalk drawing, face painting and sock puppet-making were part of the festival.
The event was also an opportunity to promote the La Sierra library's Adult Literacy Program, which matches volunteer tutors with area residents seeking assistance with basic reading and writing skills using books such as Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Grow" and computers.
"It is the goals of the learner we are trying to achieve and we match the curriculum to their needs," Hoeting said.
The library's message of shared storytelling was part of a tradition shared by Edna Fiero and her 6-year-old daughter, Alyssa.
"She (Alyssa) reads to me at night now," the Riverside woman said. "I don't read to her."
Luis Guzman, who enjoys reading about motorcycles and cars, said literacy is important for his future.
"You can't get a job without reading books," the 13-year-old Riverside boy said.
Author: Roberto Hernandez; The Press-Enterprise
Riverside Public Library organizers used music, lively storytelling and a hedgehog named Gladys Saturday as part of a free program to promote the love of reading in area families at the La Sierra branch.
"Creature Teacher" Robyn Wheeler of Garden Grove, who demonstrated the spiny mammal and assorted reptiles to children, joined dozens of other performers during the Family Literacy Festival that drew more than 500 people. The goal was to help adults share the pages of a storybook with their families to ensure the quality of their communities, library officials said.
"As children read, they're learning as they go to school (and) their learning environment is expanded," literacy coordinator Janet Hoeting said.
Storyteller Mariluna Martin entertained her mostly young audience inside the La Sierra Avenue library with an imaginary fable about Tibet's first dalai lama and a group of talking mice. It is important for children to grow up appreciating books, the Los Angeles woman said.
"Literacy opens up their entire world," Martin said. "That's something that TV cannot give (and) movies aren't going to do it."
The event was also part of "Riverside Reads: A Literacy Challenge," a city program to enlist adults to pledge 1,000 hours of reading aloud to children by National Literacy Day Nov. 1.
"During storytelling we're trying to model the parents on how to read to their children," Hoeting said.
Ventriloquist Rob Hartley got the attention of more than 40 children by sculpting balloon animals in his role of bumbling maintenance man "Jerry." Sidewalk chalk drawing, face painting and sock puppet-making were part of the festival.
The event was also an opportunity to promote the La Sierra library's Adult Literacy Program, which matches volunteer tutors with area residents seeking assistance with basic reading and writing skills using books such as Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Grow" and computers.
"It is the goals of the learner we are trying to achieve and we match the curriculum to their needs," Hoeting said.
The library's message of shared storytelling was part of a tradition shared by Edna Fiero and her 6-year-old daughter, Alyssa.
"She (Alyssa) reads to me at night now," the Riverside woman said. "I don't read to her."
Luis Guzman, who enjoys reading about motorcycles and cars, said literacy is important for his future.
"You can't get a job without reading books," the 13-year-old Riverside boy said.
Thursday, April 1, 1999
Santa Paula Blanchard Library - Great dreams require sacrifice
Great dreams require sacrifice
Ventura County Star: March 10, 1999 by Sandra Nieto
I remember the day when my husband and I chose to start a new life in the U.S. I was pregnant and we were full of hope to find an opportunity of a better kind of life for my baby. I think it is the principal reason of our people. That's why we leave our countries parents family and friends.
We sacrifice to live away from the things we loved to follow the American Dream our dream.
Nothing is really easy either here in the land of opportunities. You have to learn the language to work and raise your kids. Sometimes life's duties make you feel overwhelmed and we're needing our families close to us but they're so far. It makes us to know the loneliness.
But we confront all for only one motive the biggest one -- our own family our sons and daughters looking for a brilliant future in this wonderful country. Someones reach it someones not.
It is the sad thing. I saw how some parents works the whole day under the sun in the fields to bring some food to their homes and to keep the dream alive. The kids not always respond in the way we wanted. They enroll in gangs instead of school they carry guns instead of books and the worst thing is they feel it is right. It's cool!
This way goes to two final destinies: jail or death.
This is not our longing dream. I really feel so sorry for those parents who can't see realized their hopes for whom the insane desire for the drugs and the bad companies broke the illusion.
We have to check our family daily and ask them always if they're doing their part to realize our dream.
Never is it too late to recognize and restart the way to be -- the winners who our parents a long time ago dreamed of.
-- Sandra Nieto of Santa Paula was tutored for two years at Blanchard Community Library's literacy program with her husband Augustine. She is now taking English classes at Ventura College and has a 3-year-old son Fabean and 10-year-old daughter Stephanie.
Notes: (Sandra Nieto wrote this essay as one of her assignments for the Family Literacy: Aid In Reading-Families For Literacy program at Santa Paula's Blanchard Community Library. She is still learning English so we have reprinted her essay as it was written.
Ventura County Star: March 10, 1999 by Sandra Nieto
I remember the day when my husband and I chose to start a new life in the U.S. I was pregnant and we were full of hope to find an opportunity of a better kind of life for my baby. I think it is the principal reason of our people. That's why we leave our countries parents family and friends.
We sacrifice to live away from the things we loved to follow the American Dream our dream.
Nothing is really easy either here in the land of opportunities. You have to learn the language to work and raise your kids. Sometimes life's duties make you feel overwhelmed and we're needing our families close to us but they're so far. It makes us to know the loneliness.
But we confront all for only one motive the biggest one -- our own family our sons and daughters looking for a brilliant future in this wonderful country. Someones reach it someones not.
It is the sad thing. I saw how some parents works the whole day under the sun in the fields to bring some food to their homes and to keep the dream alive. The kids not always respond in the way we wanted. They enroll in gangs instead of school they carry guns instead of books and the worst thing is they feel it is right. It's cool!
This way goes to two final destinies: jail or death.
This is not our longing dream. I really feel so sorry for those parents who can't see realized their hopes for whom the insane desire for the drugs and the bad companies broke the illusion.
We have to check our family daily and ask them always if they're doing their part to realize our dream.
Never is it too late to recognize and restart the way to be -- the winners who our parents a long time ago dreamed of.
-- Sandra Nieto of Santa Paula was tutored for two years at Blanchard Community Library's literacy program with her husband Augustine. She is now taking English classes at Ventura College and has a 3-year-old son Fabean and 10-year-old daughter Stephanie.
Notes: (Sandra Nieto wrote this essay as one of her assignments for the Family Literacy: Aid In Reading-Families For Literacy program at Santa Paula's Blanchard Community Library. She is still learning English so we have reprinted her essay as it was written.
Monday, March 31, 1997
Los Angeles Co Library - LIBRARY'S VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR FIGHTS FOR LITERACY
LIBRARY'S VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR FIGHTS FOR LITERACY:
SANTA CLARITA WOMAN TUTORS READING
Daily News of Los Angeles: March 9, 1997 by Victoria Giraud
Kathleen Sterling has donated 5,000 hours of her time to the Santa Clarita Literacy Program, and for her dedication is the Public Library Volunteer of the Year.
``I'm really honored,'' Kathleen said, ``but I was simply a conduit to bring literacy to the forefront. There's a real need out there.''
With 1.8 million English-speaking adults in Los Angeles County who cannot read or write beyond the fourth-grade level, Kathleen sees a need to offer support and guidance. It's tough, she said, to be illiterate while struggling to work and raise children.
``They're not stupid. These are people with average to superior intelligence who didn't make it in a typical classroom setting,'' Sterling said.
Kathleen was living in San Diego three years ago when the Northridge Earthquake hit, the distant jolts awakening her and opening an opportunity to head north to work as a volunteer. She joined Volunteers In Service To America and found herself working to re-establish and expand the local literacy program at the quake-damaged Valencia Library.
After two years of service, she became a literacy outreach specialist and is now paid for her part-time work.
Among her many responsibilities, Kathleen recruits and trains tutors, and she has expanded the program to include English as a second language tutoring and Spanish literacy.
Kathleen recruits for and facilitates the Families for Literacy Program, which enables entire families (the only qualification is that they have one child under the age of 5), to learn and improve reading and writing skills. She does monthly family literacy workshops, teaches an ESL class, and has helped develop a group tutoring class for adults with learning disabilities.
As an example of how the program helps, Kathleen cited the case of a man in the adult basic English program. The man loved geology, and so she matched him with a tutor who worked for the county's Building and Safety Department. In addition to improving his literacy, the man learned to read topographic maps, got his truck driver's license and is now considering pursuing a college degree.
Before getting interested in literacy, Kathleen spent more than 20 years in the health and medical care field. She can relate to people struggling to better themselves. As she comments, ``done that, been there.''
As a pregnant, unmarried 18-year-old in the 1960s, Kathleen was on welfare, a ``very humbling'' experience. ``I could see how welfare workers treated you. They don't treat you very kindly,'' she remembered. ``I was a good student; it made me a survivor.''
She received medical training that got her off welfare and sparked a lifelong interest in health care. In the 1970s, Kathleen moved to Lake Tahoe and got involved organizing the Rural Health and Welfare Rights grassroots advocacy and consumer education group. Later, she was part of a task force on fraud and abuse of the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, and went on to get involved in California's efforts to reform Medi-Cal as the consumer representative for the Advisory Committee of Health and Medical Care Services.
As a single mother, Kathleen raised daughter Heather, now 27 and a mother of two, to be a critical thinker. ``She came with me and saw her mom develop public policy,'' Kathleen reminisced. Heather is such a believer in literacy that she started reading to her babies while they were still in the womb, a practice that Kathleen says is a valuable one. ``A child will advance much more quickly with cognitive abilities.''
``I've fulfilled three fantasies'' from childhood, Kathleen explained enthusiastically. She wanted a college education - she got her bachelor's degree from Pitzer College in Claremont - and she also wanted to attend the University of Oslo. In 1992, she was asked to represent the U.S. as a consumer advocate along with 20 health care professionals from developing countries to evaluate Norway's medical and health delivery system, which was held at the university.
Her third wish was to volunteer for VISTA or for the Peace Corps, and in 1994 she accomplished that dream in Santa Clarita.
Although Kathleen's work with the literacy program is very fulfilling, she is only employed part-time. Financial challenges have recently been complicated by her car breaking down. As she admits ruefully, ``I would love to have money coming in so I can continue working with this community. I need to widen my opportunity horizon: Have literacy, will travel.''
SANTA CLARITA WOMAN TUTORS READING
Daily News of Los Angeles: March 9, 1997 by Victoria Giraud
Kathleen Sterling has donated 5,000 hours of her time to the Santa Clarita Literacy Program, and for her dedication is the Public Library Volunteer of the Year.
``I'm really honored,'' Kathleen said, ``but I was simply a conduit to bring literacy to the forefront. There's a real need out there.''
With 1.8 million English-speaking adults in Los Angeles County who cannot read or write beyond the fourth-grade level, Kathleen sees a need to offer support and guidance. It's tough, she said, to be illiterate while struggling to work and raise children.
``They're not stupid. These are people with average to superior intelligence who didn't make it in a typical classroom setting,'' Sterling said.
Kathleen was living in San Diego three years ago when the Northridge Earthquake hit, the distant jolts awakening her and opening an opportunity to head north to work as a volunteer. She joined Volunteers In Service To America and found herself working to re-establish and expand the local literacy program at the quake-damaged Valencia Library.
After two years of service, she became a literacy outreach specialist and is now paid for her part-time work.
Among her many responsibilities, Kathleen recruits and trains tutors, and she has expanded the program to include English as a second language tutoring and Spanish literacy.
Kathleen recruits for and facilitates the Families for Literacy Program, which enables entire families (the only qualification is that they have one child under the age of 5), to learn and improve reading and writing skills. She does monthly family literacy workshops, teaches an ESL class, and has helped develop a group tutoring class for adults with learning disabilities.
As an example of how the program helps, Kathleen cited the case of a man in the adult basic English program. The man loved geology, and so she matched him with a tutor who worked for the county's Building and Safety Department. In addition to improving his literacy, the man learned to read topographic maps, got his truck driver's license and is now considering pursuing a college degree.
Before getting interested in literacy, Kathleen spent more than 20 years in the health and medical care field. She can relate to people struggling to better themselves. As she comments, ``done that, been there.''
As a pregnant, unmarried 18-year-old in the 1960s, Kathleen was on welfare, a ``very humbling'' experience. ``I could see how welfare workers treated you. They don't treat you very kindly,'' she remembered. ``I was a good student; it made me a survivor.''
She received medical training that got her off welfare and sparked a lifelong interest in health care. In the 1970s, Kathleen moved to Lake Tahoe and got involved organizing the Rural Health and Welfare Rights grassroots advocacy and consumer education group. Later, she was part of a task force on fraud and abuse of the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, and went on to get involved in California's efforts to reform Medi-Cal as the consumer representative for the Advisory Committee of Health and Medical Care Services.
As a single mother, Kathleen raised daughter Heather, now 27 and a mother of two, to be a critical thinker. ``She came with me and saw her mom develop public policy,'' Kathleen reminisced. Heather is such a believer in literacy that she started reading to her babies while they were still in the womb, a practice that Kathleen says is a valuable one. ``A child will advance much more quickly with cognitive abilities.''
``I've fulfilled three fantasies'' from childhood, Kathleen explained enthusiastically. She wanted a college education - she got her bachelor's degree from Pitzer College in Claremont - and she also wanted to attend the University of Oslo. In 1992, she was asked to represent the U.S. as a consumer advocate along with 20 health care professionals from developing countries to evaluate Norway's medical and health delivery system, which was held at the university.
Her third wish was to volunteer for VISTA or for the Peace Corps, and in 1994 she accomplished that dream in Santa Clarita.
Although Kathleen's work with the literacy program is very fulfilling, she is only employed part-time. Financial challenges have recently been complicated by her car breaking down. As she admits ruefully, ``I would love to have money coming in so I can continue working with this community. I need to widen my opportunity horizon: Have literacy, will travel.''
Saturday, December 31, 1994
Burbank Library - CONQUERING ILLITERACY - COMPANY PRESIDENT LEARNS TO READ
CONQUERING ILLITERACY - COMPANY PRESIDENT LEARNS TO READ
Daily News of Los Angeles: December 16, 1994 by Betty Kwong
Through perseverance and hard work, Chuck Prentiss climbed from glass cleaner to owner of a company that makes mirrors for special effects and satellites.
He is an artist and a past president of the Burbank Rotary Club, and he has put both his children through private schools. Prentiss himself graduated from private schools and spent 1-1/2 years in college.
For most of his life, he has managed to keep a secret from most people he encountered.
He could barely read.
Now, at 52, he finally is beginning to learn.
About a year ago, Prentiss said he saw a simple notice in an electricity bill about the Burbank Public Library's literacy program - and decided that maybe it was time he learned to read well.
Once a week since then, Prentiss has met with a volunteer tutor at the library, where he painstakingly works on skills he should have acquired in grammar school.
"A simple word like 'laugh,' I had a hell of a time with that. I was in the 'la' part of the dictionary . . . 'laf.' It's frustrating," Prentiss said, from his corner office at Keim Precision Mirrors Corp. in Burbank.
Prentiss squeaked by in school with barely passing grades by reading and re-reading only the simplest words in a sentence and then guessing at its meaning.
"I could read most of the words, except for those over six or seven letters," he said.
Prentiss is hardly alone in being a latecomer to literacy.
A 1992 State Adult Literacy Survey showed nearly one in four Californians age 16 and older have trouble comprehending a simple paragraph.
. . .
For information on literacy programs in the Los Angeles area, call the Literacy Referral Line at (800) 707-READ. READ MORE
Daily News of Los Angeles: December 16, 1994 by Betty Kwong
Through perseverance and hard work, Chuck Prentiss climbed from glass cleaner to owner of a company that makes mirrors for special effects and satellites.
He is an artist and a past president of the Burbank Rotary Club, and he has put both his children through private schools. Prentiss himself graduated from private schools and spent 1-1/2 years in college.
For most of his life, he has managed to keep a secret from most people he encountered.
He could barely read.
Now, at 52, he finally is beginning to learn.
About a year ago, Prentiss said he saw a simple notice in an electricity bill about the Burbank Public Library's literacy program - and decided that maybe it was time he learned to read well.
Once a week since then, Prentiss has met with a volunteer tutor at the library, where he painstakingly works on skills he should have acquired in grammar school.
"A simple word like 'laugh,' I had a hell of a time with that. I was in the 'la' part of the dictionary . . . 'laf.' It's frustrating," Prentiss said, from his corner office at Keim Precision Mirrors Corp. in Burbank.
Prentiss squeaked by in school with barely passing grades by reading and re-reading only the simplest words in a sentence and then guessing at its meaning.
"I could read most of the words, except for those over six or seven letters," he said.
Prentiss is hardly alone in being a latecomer to literacy.
A 1992 State Adult Literacy Survey showed nearly one in four Californians age 16 and older have trouble comprehending a simple paragraph.
. . .
For information on literacy programs in the Los Angeles area, call the Literacy Referral Line at (800) 707-READ. READ MORE
Thursday, September 30, 1993
Chula Vista Library - Chula Vista literacy team opens new worlds for adults and kids
Chula Vista literacy team opens new worlds for adults and kids
San Diego Union-Tribune: September 22, 1993 by Pauline Repard
Donna Colson never liked books and certainly never liked libraries.
She graduated high school barely able to read or to write more than her own name.
"I kept it a secret for as long as I could," Colson said. "It bothered me all my life. It was embarrassing to me to go and do anything about it."
But do something about it she did. She gathered her courage and joined a local adult-literacy program that now has her plowing through her children's books, as well as romance novels.
"I'm 33 years old and I never thought I could feel this good about myself," Colson said at her Chula Vista apartment yesterday. "I'm eager to learn. One day, I want to write a book on literacy, to encourage others."
The family-oriented reading program that has helped to improve Colson's life got its own helping hand yesterday from a state grant that will ensure its existence for a third year.
The City Council voted last night to accept a $23,000 state Families for Literacy grant for use by the Chula Vista Literacy Team. Funds will go for books and also cover the salaries for a part-time program coordinator, clerk and library associate.
A separate, federal grant of $34,845 also was accepted by the council for the literacy team, which will use it to pay a part-time instructor to teach spelling and writing to adults. Both programs will be in English only.
The city library's Chula Vista Literacy Team offers various programs for adults and children, including a family program at eight Head Start preschools around South Bay, and a new program to identify and assist those with learning difficulties caused by dyslexia.
Meg Schofield, literacy team director, said the chain of illiteracy often is passed through generations of a family, and, in order to break that chain, both children and parents must be helped.
"Children who are not read to, exposed to books or role models who read the papers are at a disadvantage in schools," said Schofield. "Our Family Reading Program provides every family with a beautiful collection of books and magazines that they select each month."
Tutors then work one-on-one with the adults. They work in six-month stretches that may cover years before the learner is confident and competent at reading at about an eighth-grade level. About 40 families participated last year.
Schofield said the program needs more volunteer tutors who can devote two 90-minute sessions each week to adult pupils. Tutor-training sessions begin in early October.
Schofield also is taking applications for the part-time writing instructor's job, which involves small groups of adults in weekly meetings. About 60 adults are expected to sign up for the eight-week courses, which repeat throughout the year.
Nestor resident Mae Traeger, 67, knows the thrill of helping open up someone's world through reading. The retired Sears sales clerk was just named Tutor of the Year for her work in the program since 1988.
"The thought of not being able to read -- that's a fate worse than death," said Traeger. "I thought if I could teach someone to read, that would be the most wonderful feeling. Books were my window to the world. A lot of things that I didn't see, I knew about. "
Each of her three students is a family man over 40 holding a blue-collar job. She proudly noted that one gained the confidence to write memos to his boss, while another found the joy of traveling to places he was able to read about.
Traeger said adults use a number of tricks to hide their inability to read or write. "They are good at bluffing and have terrific memories, or they say they forgot their glasses, could you read this," she said.
She encouraged others to volunteer as tutors, relying upon patience, good humor and a good phonetics reading guide to overcome inexperience. Traeger noted that she never wanted to be a teacher. Indeed, though a straight-A student, she quit high school at 17 to marry.
Colson earned a Learner of the Year award this year for her persistence and achievements. She not only reads to son William, 9, and daughter Michelle, 2, but she finished a Danielle Steele romance and is working through Bill Cosby's "Fatherhood."
She graduated from high school, she said, only because the teachers were tired of her fighting and troublemaking.
"I didn't like books, I didn't like libraries," Colson recalled. But about three years ago, she decided she would have to learn to read if she wanted a better life for her children. Since then, she said, she has read more than 175 books.
"I'm not ashamed that I've been illiterate. I'm doing something about it," said Colson.
Where to call for reading programs
Adult literacy programs in the South Bay:
ENGLISH ONLY
Chula Vista Literacy Team, 691-5760.
Project Read, National City, 474-2129.
Chula Vista Adult School, 691-5760.
Sweetwater Adult School, National City, 691-5725.
SPANISH OR ENGLISH
Montgomery Adult School, 691-5670.
San Ysidro Center, 691-5667.
San Diego Union-Tribune: September 22, 1993 by Pauline Repard
Donna Colson never liked books and certainly never liked libraries.
She graduated high school barely able to read or to write more than her own name.
"I kept it a secret for as long as I could," Colson said. "It bothered me all my life. It was embarrassing to me to go and do anything about it."
But do something about it she did. She gathered her courage and joined a local adult-literacy program that now has her plowing through her children's books, as well as romance novels.
"I'm 33 years old and I never thought I could feel this good about myself," Colson said at her Chula Vista apartment yesterday. "I'm eager to learn. One day, I want to write a book on literacy, to encourage others."
The family-oriented reading program that has helped to improve Colson's life got its own helping hand yesterday from a state grant that will ensure its existence for a third year.
The City Council voted last night to accept a $23,000 state Families for Literacy grant for use by the Chula Vista Literacy Team. Funds will go for books and also cover the salaries for a part-time program coordinator, clerk and library associate.
A separate, federal grant of $34,845 also was accepted by the council for the literacy team, which will use it to pay a part-time instructor to teach spelling and writing to adults. Both programs will be in English only.
The city library's Chula Vista Literacy Team offers various programs for adults and children, including a family program at eight Head Start preschools around South Bay, and a new program to identify and assist those with learning difficulties caused by dyslexia.
Meg Schofield, literacy team director, said the chain of illiteracy often is passed through generations of a family, and, in order to break that chain, both children and parents must be helped.
"Children who are not read to, exposed to books or role models who read the papers are at a disadvantage in schools," said Schofield. "Our Family Reading Program provides every family with a beautiful collection of books and magazines that they select each month."
Tutors then work one-on-one with the adults. They work in six-month stretches that may cover years before the learner is confident and competent at reading at about an eighth-grade level. About 40 families participated last year.
Schofield said the program needs more volunteer tutors who can devote two 90-minute sessions each week to adult pupils. Tutor-training sessions begin in early October.
Schofield also is taking applications for the part-time writing instructor's job, which involves small groups of adults in weekly meetings. About 60 adults are expected to sign up for the eight-week courses, which repeat throughout the year.
Nestor resident Mae Traeger, 67, knows the thrill of helping open up someone's world through reading. The retired Sears sales clerk was just named Tutor of the Year for her work in the program since 1988.
"The thought of not being able to read -- that's a fate worse than death," said Traeger. "I thought if I could teach someone to read, that would be the most wonderful feeling. Books were my window to the world. A lot of things that I didn't see, I knew about. "
Each of her three students is a family man over 40 holding a blue-collar job. She proudly noted that one gained the confidence to write memos to his boss, while another found the joy of traveling to places he was able to read about.
Traeger said adults use a number of tricks to hide their inability to read or write. "They are good at bluffing and have terrific memories, or they say they forgot their glasses, could you read this," she said.
She encouraged others to volunteer as tutors, relying upon patience, good humor and a good phonetics reading guide to overcome inexperience. Traeger noted that she never wanted to be a teacher. Indeed, though a straight-A student, she quit high school at 17 to marry.
Colson earned a Learner of the Year award this year for her persistence and achievements. She not only reads to son William, 9, and daughter Michelle, 2, but she finished a Danielle Steele romance and is working through Bill Cosby's "Fatherhood."
She graduated from high school, she said, only because the teachers were tired of her fighting and troublemaking.
"I didn't like books, I didn't like libraries," Colson recalled. But about three years ago, she decided she would have to learn to read if she wanted a better life for her children. Since then, she said, she has read more than 175 books.
"I'm not ashamed that I've been illiterate. I'm doing something about it," said Colson.
Where to call for reading programs
Adult literacy programs in the South Bay:
ENGLISH ONLY
Chula Vista Literacy Team, 691-5760.
Project Read, National City, 474-2129.
Chula Vista Adult School, 691-5760.
Sweetwater Adult School, National City, 691-5725.
SPANISH OR ENGLISH
Montgomery Adult School, 691-5670.
San Ysidro Center, 691-5667.
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