Discovering joys of reading
Ventura
County Star: 10.10.2014 by Anne Kallas
It required some stealth, but Marie Martinez, 50, of Oak
View, learned a few tricks over the years to hide her secret: She couldn’t
read.
“I’d sit in the break room and wait for someone to go to
the bulletin board. Then I’d ask them to read me what it said. I’d always say I
was too busy eating and didn’t have time,” Martinez said. “When the kids wanted
me to help them with homework, I’d tell them I was too busy cleaning or
cooking.”
Now, her secret is out. But that’s OK, she said, because
she’s doing something about it, and she wants others to know there’s no shame
in seeking help.
Martinez goes on Wednesday afternoons to the Buena High
School library in Ventura, where tutor Valerie Stachkunas, of Ventura, goes
over word sounds, using colored tiles as part of a phonics lesson.
Martinez is one of about 200 people being served by READ Ventura County Library,
a free adult literacy program
offered at six sites throughout the county library system. The program is part
of California’s Library Literacy Services, which is in its 30th year both in the state and county. The occasion
was marked by Gov. Jerry Brown issuing a proclamation that declared September
as Adult Literacy Awareness
Month.
Carol Chapman, who runs the Ventura County adult literacy program, said most people who use the one-on-one tutoring
services are “people born and educated in the United States who are dealing
with all kinds of factors — emotional issues, illness, trauma.”
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“The average person who comes to this program reads at a
third- or fourth-grade level. They can read, but not well enough to improve
their employment status,” she said.
The people in the
program tend to be very intelligent, but with some type of issue that makes
reading difficult, Chapman said. READ
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