Learning to Teach 2

Posted on June 24, 2005 in Tutoring

They told us that we have to keep a journal and not-so-very-smart me mentioned that I had a blog. “You blogged about us?” came the cry from the librarians and volunteers who educated us in the ways of teaching adults how to read. The team leader told me that my blog entries would count towards a journal. I just had to bring in copies of the pages. Oh boy. Now I have to be nice nice nice.

Or do I? Actually, I do like the course and have obtained many insights into the problem of illiterate adults. Most folks expect them to be dyslexic or slow. Few would expect that to meet people with prolific vocabularies. The illiterate can cover for themselves quite nicely until they are presented with the problem of writing reports for the boss or going down to the polling place. As long as they don’t have to face subtitles, they can enjoy the movies. In restaurants, they simply ask for the special of the day or say “I’ll have what she is having.”

When they find themselves being had by the less scrupulous of the literate or just get tired of moving around in a world filled with hieroglyphics, they decide to fill in the blanks between the words they do know. They go to someone, like me, to learn.

I like the technique we’re asked to use. It was developed by a New Zealand school teacher who was faced with the challenge of showing Maori children how to read. Her charges seemed unusually resistant to the usual methods, devised for children who grow up among adults who read books, write notes, and post the alphabet on the wall. The Maoris came from a culture rich in oral tradition. The teacher could see that her students were intelligent and possessed a keen sense for the spoken word. So she asked them to tell her their stories. She wrote them down exactly as they were told to her, then used the texts to show them the relationship between the spoken and the written word.

The success in showing Maoris how to read undoubtably contributed to the success of New Zealand’s bicultural society. It gave them a ticket to power. And that is what I am trying to do when I teach any adults who come to me. I am giving themselves self-command and the ability to live as full persons in our literature-based society.