.. and had nothing to do with the story, it is sweet and worth re-telling so I will share it here. I went to the 'thank you' lunch for the tutors. Us folk who volunteered to go into several elementary schools and devote an hour each week to reading with four year olds. Demonstrating/modeling how one goes about reading a book, with age appropriate materials. Talking about what we were reading, looking at the illustrations and getting 'clues' for what was going on in the story, learning about front to back and left to right, colors, counting, following instructions - all the things they need to master as pre-literacy skills.
The actual reward won't be seen. But that's not why we do it. Helping them to inch upward in there abilities, and improve incrementally with the basics as they develop and grow. Hopefully the time spent reading a different book each week over the two months was beneficial to those little people. And they will have adults or older siblings in their home life who will continue to read with them, and devote time to helping them improve even more. The coordinator of the program somehow measures progress and reported they averaged an improvement of about seven months in language skills.
The story she told of some adults who attend a literacy program two afternoons a week was really profound. I assume the goal is to get to the point of having the skills to take the GED. One woman had been struggling, feeling like she was not progressing, and reportedly frustrated by thinking she was not having success. The instructors/tutors noticed the woman had not been attending, so someone contacted her. She reported she had applied for a job and been hired. A fully grown adult, getting her first ever paying job. That would have to make everyone involved in the program feel so gratified. And give them such a sense of success, even though she was a dropout. Be encouraged to be encouragers, help others to learn and to believe in their ability to reach their goals.
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