Learning to read as an adult changes Buncombe lives

When Elaine Young, Hank Hanshaw and Sam Williams were young, they were cheated out of one of the greatest gifts in life: the ability to read.

Now in their 50s and 60s, they have never known the power of losing themselves in a thrilling novel or absorbing current events through the pages of a newspaper. Perusing a restaurant menu or filling out a job application has been challenging or impossible.

The teachers in their young lives didn’t set out to deny them the simple pleasures and fundamental skills that most of us take for granted. But they and countless others did not succeed for a variety of reasons, including undiagnosed learning disabilities.

“They’d tell you you were mentally retarded, and they didn’t take the time to teach me,” Young said. “I just kept making Ds all through school, and they kept on passing me.”

Hanshaw, an intelligent man who decades later was diagnosed with severe dyslexia, was placed in special education classes. But his learning disability was never diagnosed and he dropped out before graduating from high school, unable to read or comprehend most words.

Williams, a star football player in high school, also had undiagnosed dyslexia and could barely read. Yet, like Young, he continued moving on to the next grade.

“I was pretty good at football, and they just kept passing me,” Williams said.

Each learned how to navigate life without literacy skills. They took jobs that did not require reading. They memorized the most essential words needed for daily life and asked for help from co-workers, family members and even strangers who might read them the name of a bus destination or a business sign at a busy shopping center.

But as the decades passed, they never gave up the dream of reading those signs themselves.

Today, Young, Hanshaw and Williams are on the path to realizing that dream, working with volunteer tutors from the Literacy Council of Buncombe County to address their learning challenges and crack the code that will open the door to the wide world of words.

“I knew all along I could do better, and now I can feel the difference in my comprehension, and my confidence in myself is getting better,” Young said. “So many people say, ‘You can’t do this, Elaine, get somebody to do it for you,’ but over the years I’ve learned I can do anything. And I’m determined.”

The Literacy Council and its many students will benefit from a spelling bee fundraiser Thursday in Asheville (see box, Page A1).

Sobering statistics

For every adult who is determined to take the leap toward literacy, there is a tutor at the Literacy Council ready to teach, said executive director Ashley Lasher.

Last year, 217 tutors — all unpaid volunteers — worked with 74 adult education students, along with 281 English as a second language students and 41 Augustine Project students, who are children from low-income families who read, write or spell below grade level.

While Buncombe County is fortunate to have the Literacy Council and its volunteers, the problem of adult illiteracy nationwide is enormous and has a far-reaching impact, Lasher said.

Those with low literacy are twice as likely to be out of work as individuals of average literacy, translating to 14.5 percent of people with low literacy being unemployed, she said, citing statistics from www.proliteracy.org.

“However, 43 percent of those with the lowest literacy rates live in poverty,” Lasher said, “and this discrepancy points to the fact that while about 85 percent of people with low literacy are employed, they tend to be the working poor.”

Lasher said 75 percent of state prison inmates and 59 percent of federal inmates didn’t complete high school or can be classified as low literate. In Buncombe County, according to census data, 12 percent of adults older than 25 don’t have a high school diploma.

“This is a widespread problem that has no easy answers, but with the commitment of generous donors, capable volunteers and our passionate, professional staff, we can impact one life at a time,” Lasher said. “Brave and hardworking people like Elaine, Hank and Sam deserve another chance at learning, and together we can give them that chance.”

Contributors to illiteracy

Lily Contorer, adult education director with the council and director of the Augustine Project, said a leading cause of low literacy is failure to address dyslexia, a learning disability in which the person’s brain sees letters differently, such as reading the word “was” as “saw.”

Dyslexia is often a familial condition, so students might have grown up with parents who also struggled with reading, perpetuating a cycle of literacy struggles, she said.

For those who “fell through the cracks,” Contorer said, “some might have performed ‘well enough’ to get passed on to the next grade, but eventually dropped out because it was just too hard.

“They might have had behavior problems that took the attention away from literacy struggles, or they might have had mental health struggles, addictions, or dropped out because of teen pregnancy, abuse or neglect at home.”

Some people with low literacy may have lived in rural areas as children and often missed school because they were needed to work on farms or in factories, and fell behind academically, Contorer said.

Contorer said older African-American students have reported that they attended school faithfully but were not provided with opportunities to learn when they were enrolled in “white schools” after desegregation.

“Some of our students have said they were told to sit in the hall rather than in the classroom during instruction time, or were given poor materials while white peers were given new books,” Contorer said.

Another key factor in illiteracy is parents who were uneducated, she said. “These were parents who were unable to assist their children with homework or reading activities, and did not model or encourage reading in the home, and didn’t value or require education for their children.”

Hope for the future

Regardless of the reasons for their struggles, the older adults who seek help from the Literacy Council are grateful for the opportunity and determined to realize their goal of improved literacy.

Young has worked hard all of her life, marrying at 18 and raising three sons, now in their 30s. She has held jobs at fast-food restaurants and in housekeeping, and always had help along the way.

“They would try to help me comprehend how to run a cash register — I can learn anything if you take the time to teach me,” Young said.

When she went to Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College last year in hopes of seeking a degree as a certified nursing assistant, she failed the admissions test and was told she only read at a fifth-grade level. That’s when she found the Literacy Council and was paired with tutor Jessica Rehfield.

“Jessica has helped me so much, and I’m determined to succeed,” Young said. “All my life, the more somebody told me I couldn’t do something, the more I was determined to do it. I’m going to stick with this and keep studying every week, and I know I’m going to reach my goal.”

Step by step

Hanshaw, who has multi-pronged dyslexia, has been working with his tutor, Dian Leeper, for nearly 10 years, making slow and steady progress.

A forklift driver at the Ingle’s warehouse for 26 years, married to his wife Jan for almost 35 years and father to a 13-year-old daughter, Hanshaw’s goal is to be able to read books to his child.

“Since Hank has been with Dian and the Literacy Council, he has come a long, long, long way,” Jan Hanshaw said. “The difference is like between night and day, like a light went on and all of a sudden he can read.”

Williams, now 63, said he was frustrated for years at his inability to read well and not knowing why, but he managed to serve in the U.S. Army and work in construction, food service and landscaping.

When he was diagnosed with dyslexia and found a door open at the Literacy Council, he was excited at the possibilities because “I never gave up thinking about it all these years; I always wanted to know how to read a newspaper, read my own mail.”

“I’ve been going about three months, and I’m definitely starting to see the words my tutor is teaching me, and it’s starting to come together,” Williams said. “I keep hearing that it’s never too late, and I never gave up, and I’m not going to give up.

“I just want to be able to read a book about something I want to learn about, all on my own,” he said. “And now that I know what’s wrong with me, I’m going to take all the steps to get there.”

Giving their time

None of these successes would be possible without the volunteers who give their time to offer the gift of literacy.

“Many of our tutors are retired, but a growing number have full-time jobs, and all of them make a fairly large time commitment to do this,” Contorer said.

Training consists of 15 up-front hours, with an option for monthly in-service classes. Tutors are expected to meet with a student for at least two hours each week for a minimum of nine months. All materials are provided by the council, and students and tutors decide their own schedules and meeting places.

Tutor Rehfield, an artist and former teacher, said she is amazed by Young’s commitment.

“I’m definitely a lifelong learner myself, and I find her very inspiring … it’s hard for people who’ve been reading since childhood to comprehend what it would be like to struggle on a day-to-day basis with illiteracy on any level,” Rehfield said.

“I think it’s super brave to take any kind of step to put yourself in front of what would seem like this torrent of stuff working against you and say, ‘Hey, well, I’m going to give it a shot,’” she said. “Elaine really is a good role model for anybody who would say, ‘I have too much working against me.’”

Leeper, a longtime high-school English teacher who came out of retirement 10 years ago to become Hanshaw’s tutor, said she gets joy from seeing her student progress.

“Hank is so giving and so warm and he just wants to learn, and he has so much more confidence now,” Leeper said. “He looks at signs, and he can figure out the words in the newspaper, so a whole new world has opened up for him, and that’s made him more confident in who he is as a person, a husband, a father.”

Leeper said she’s impressed with the Literacy Council’s operation, providing in-service training and any resources the tutors need.

“I’ve never been up there to pick up a book or cards or whatever that they were not really on the ball to help,” she said. “They really see their service as also for the people who are tutoring on the front lines.”

Leeper, 71, said she sees her bond with Hanshaw continuing as long as he needs her.

“I’ve told him, ‘Hank, I’ll be with you until they take me to the home,’” she said. “I’m there for him for the long haul.”

SPELLING FOR LITERACY

What: 23rd annual Adult Spelling Bee benefiting the Literacy Council of Buncombe County, with the theme “Bee in Harmony.” Teams will try to outspell each other in a spirited competition enhanced by a barbershop chorus and surprise entertainment. Audience members will be

eligible to win costume and spelling prizes.

When: 6-9 p.m. Thursday.

Where: Celine’s On Broadway, 49 Broadway, downtown Asheville.

Admission: $10 per audience member, which includes gourmet dessert.

Support a team: Donate to a team at www.crowdrise.com/BeeInHarmony.

Learn more: The next tutor orientation for

prospective volunteers will be held May 7 and 8. Learn more at volunteers@litcouncil.com; www.litcouncil.com; or 254-3442.

ADULT ILLITERACY

Nationally

• 43 percent of those with the lowest literacy rates live in poverty.

• 36 million adults in the U.S. need literacy help; only 3 million will receive it.

• 58 percent of inmates in federal prisons and 75 percent in state prisons did not graduate high school or can be classified as low literate.

• Low literacy adds an estimated $230 million to the country’s annual health care costs.

• The greatest determinant of a child’s academic success is the mother’s level of reading skill.

Source: www.proliteracy.org, via the Literacy Council of Buncombe County.

Buncombe County

• Buncombe has the 10th lowest adult illiteracy rate in N.C., at 10.2 percent (National Assessment of Adult Literacy).

• Buncombe’s high-school graduation rate is 80 percent (N.C. Department of Public Instruction).

• 88.1 percent of Buncombe County residents over age 24 are high-school graduates; 12 percent do not have a diploma (U.S. Census Bureau).

• As of January 2014, Buncombe’s unemployment rate was 4.8 percent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

• 24 percent of Buncombe County children live in poverty; and 16.8 percent of all Buncombe residents live below the poverty level (U.S. Census Bureau).