In commemoration of City Weekly's 40th anniversary, we are digging into our archives to celebrate. Each week, we FLASHBACK to a story or column from our past in honor of four decades of local alt-journalism. Whether the names and issues are familiar or new, we are grateful to have this unique newspaper to contain them all.
Title: House of Words
Author: Elizabeth Ramadorai
Date: Feb. 13, 1990
"A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day." —Emily Dickinson
She might have added that a word also begins to live the day it is read. Emily Dickinson wrote those simple lines more than a hundred years ago and yet, to many people, they are as fresh today as they were then. There are people living in Salt Lake City who wouldn't have much of an opinion about that, though. That's because, for a variety of reasons, they wouldn't be able to read this short poem. Words that come to life the moment they are read are, for some of us, completely lost.
They are people who are illiterate. They have great difficulty getting licenses or jobs better than minimum-wage labor. Although obtaining a driver's license is not impossible without being able to read, it can involve learning the manual by rote from a friend who can read and filling out the test with the help of someone else.
"I am very smart," one man explained. "I must be; I fooled my employer and drove a truck for him for six months before he found out I couldn't read and let me go."
To avoid embarrassment, the identities of individuals who have come forward looking for help is protected, but they have expressed some of the difficulties that people who are illiterate experience. Things that most of us take for granted, such as U.S. citizenship or even the simple pleasure of reading stories to children, are entirely out of their reach.
"I am a woman, I'm 28, and I have a new baby girl. I want to learn to read so that I can read stories to her when she's older. I will be very ashamed if she finds out that I can't read."
People who cannot read in our society, (which depends so much on a constant flow of abstract thoughts conveyed by written words) are isolated, usually low on self-esteem, frustrated in achieving their goals in life, and frequently dependent on welfare.
"They are also dangerous," states Mary Hausen.
Hausen is the director of Literacy Volunteers of America, Wasatch Front (LVA-WF), a two-year-old organization that has taken root here in Salt Lake City and grown by leaps and bounds. An energetic, dedicated organizer, Mary and her husband, Don, have been hard at work to combat illiteracy in the area. She is deadly serious as she speaks.
"Just think what can happen if a person who cannot read has a janitor's job in a building. Suppose that person cannot tell the difference between cleaning detergent for the floors and the hand soap supposed to go in the restroom dispensers? Or what would happen if someone were on an airplane seated next to the emergency exit and, because they could not read, would be unable to open the exit during an emergency?"
The problem of illiteracy is a national one, and Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. has as honorable chairwoman no less a person than Barbara Bush. It started twenty-seven years ago with one determined tutor and one frightened, confused student in Syracuse, New York. Now the organization begun by that tutor, Ruth Colvin, boasts over 275 active affiliates in more than thirty-five states, including the newly-recognized chapter in Salt Lake City.
Just how many people are there out there who cannot read?
"The national average is about one in every five," Hausen explains. "As in other things such as cancer, drugs and alcohol abuse, Salt Lake City is a little lower than the national average. That means that every fifth and a half person you meet on the street here is illiterate. We haven't yet determined if it is the top or the bottom half of a person that is illiterate..."
If you don't look quickly, you just might miss the twinkle in her eye as she says this. She is using as a guide the official state figures of between 50 and 60 thousand people in Utah who cannot effectively read, although she and others familiar with the problem think that this figure is too low and will very soon be out of date.
Hausen became involved in LVA while she was living in Danbury, Connecticut. When Don, a highly-respected mineralogist, was transferred by his company to Salt Lake City, she barely paused long enough to find a house and unpack before she was setting up tutoring sessions for people who needed to learn how to read.
That was in July of 1988, and the first volunteer tutor training session was held in October of the same year. But demand in 1989-90 has increased so much that more help is needed. Tutor training has become an ongoing, once-a-month function. Groups of about ten volunteers spend nine hours together with Mary to learn the techniques of tutoring before they are matched with their students.
"You need to be able to spend two hours a week with your student," she tells a prospective volunteer over the phone. "You can meet here at the center, at the home of the student, in the library, or in your home—whatever feels the most comfortable for you."
At a recent training session, the urgent need for reading tutors is underscored as Mary informs her new tutors that, "We used to say the student is the most important ingredient in this process, but now we must say that the tutor is. If there is any request in matching that you have, or anything that we can do to help you, please let us know."
She stresses that a new tutor will not simply be turned loose and left to fend for him or herself while teaching. Careful monitoring of progress and continuous support for both students and teachers are important functions of LVA-WF.
It would be nice to be able to say that each tutor is matched to one student but, more often, learning how to read has become a family task. Refugees from Poland, Russia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are entering Salt Lake City, sponsored by churches and refugee organizations such as the New Hope Refugee Center, and the Tolstoy Foundation. All of them, from grandmothers to elementary school-aged children, need to be able to read and write in English before they can survive with dignity and independence in their new country.
While Mary is busy introducing students to tutors, Don is giving a lesson on the names of the oceans to a Vietnamese family of four. He has on the desk a globe, and his students carefully imitate his words as he speaks.
If the students cannot speak English at all, the first lesson includes the presence of an interpreter so that expectations such as prompt, attentive attendance at sessions are clearly understood. Most of the Southeast Asians have already had several months of spoken-English coaching, but the East Europeans typically have none. What do you do when your student, who is barely able to make himself understood, indicates that he wants to go to college?
"You start by determining your student's competency level," Mary pragmatically urges her trainees. "Once that is done, find out what they need to learn and help them reach that goal. If they need to learn how to handle money, have them practice using it during a lesson before taking them to the store to shop."
Step by step, goal by goal, student and teacher together assess the progress, and either terminate the relationship or opt to continue studies. And yes, some of the students have indeed entered college. Others have been able to hit the job market with skills they have brought with them. Every goal reached is a mark of achievement and a cause for celebration. It is not uncommon for a tutor to call Mary at some odd hour and announce with great pride that his or her student is now able to use the telephone and the Yellow Pages!
A tremendous variety of materials are available for the tutors to use. Anything from calendars, catalogs, display ads, product labels, maps, cookbooks, menus, money, or even junk mail is seized on. Even obsolete school textbooks, before they are thrown out, are potential tools. For the most part, though, the tutor depends on the guidance provided in specific LVA workbooks. One unusual and effective tactic is the use of speaking tapes designed to help some students with the cadences, inflections, and phrasing of spoken English.
No stone is left unturned in the effort to find people willing to teach either basic reading (BR) for the native-born, English speaker who cannot read, or English as a second language (ESL) to those who know little or no English. Tutors are concerned volunteers from all walks of life. They are housewives, college students, small-business owners, and professionals of many kinds.
On April 17, 1989, a pilot training session for tutors was held at Friendship Manor, and eight senior citizens living there have been matched with students who meet them at the Manor for their lessons. VISTA volunteer Linda Healy now heads this aspect of the program, in addition to many right-hand duties at the center.
"I am a voracious reader," the energetic mother of six states. "I read that help was needed and the word 'literacy' jumped right out at me. It was great to get this job. I like the variety of hours and activities. I wasn't interested in just sitting in an office."
Sitting in an office is a far cry from the many aspects of teaching literacy tutors sometimes have to face.
"What do you do when the family you are working with gets thrown out of their house?" Mary challenges during a training session. She ought to know, because, as she tells it, a Laotian family came to dinner one night and stayed for six years. One of her trainees responds with, "You help them find another place. Help them take care of themselves."
"Spoken like a true tutor," she answers. "If they depend on you to solve all their problems for them, they will never learn how to be on their own. You are the link between what they understand and do not understand about life here."
"Right now we have eleven new tutors matched to twenty students." Mary manages to look both hopeful and concerned at the same time.
"On the waiting list we have nine students who have been tested and twenty more who have not been tested. That's not counting referrals from the schools. Would you like to be a tutor? Call us at 328-5608."
At least now she has room for the files and equipment needed to run the organization. LVA-WF shifted its headquarters from the director's basement to a rambling, handicapped-accessible location at 175 North, 600 West Salt Lake City at the end of last summer. The building now houses a budding resource library, office space, a kitchen, and plenty of rooms for tutors and students to meet. It was through the generosity of an anonymous donor that the building was made available to LVA-WF rent-free for a couple of years.
"Tutors donate their time, but volunteerism, unfortunately, does not come free." Mary goes on to say that LVA-WF has received most-welcome aid from the LDS Church Refugee Fund, US West, Family Circle "Leaders for Readers" (yet to be awarded by Governor Bangerter), and a Newmont Metallurgical Services matching grant, as well as gifts of money, services, or goods from several private people. A colorful, eight by four-foot mural was painted for LVA-WF by the touring Cartoonists Across America, and schools and libraries in Salt Lake City are invited to display it for two-week periods for a nominal fee.
This help still does not allow the organization's board of directors to grow moss under its feet, however. Comprised of talented professionals, concerned "lay-folk," and several former students, the board is busy writing grant proposals and arranging for a couple of fundraisers; one in the Spring of 1990 and one in the Fall.
They also have begun to consider the logistics of hosting the 1990 LVA, Inc. National Conference, which will bring approximately 1,500 people to Salt Lake City for four days in November. This conference is expected to include 70 to 80 workshops, in-service seminars, and training modules for delegates representing their affiliates from all over the country. National trainers have been invited to provide insight to the areas of their special expertise.
Perhaps the best word on the effectiveness of all this bustle has come from former student Rung Yu Wong. A Chinese immigrant who, with her husband, fled the Cultural Revolution and the "Gang of Four," she is convinced that English literacy tutoring made a great difference in her life here.
"The most important help I got from my teacher was not for vocabulary or grammar," she states. "It was in getting involved in living (in the U.S.) and learning about the everyday common sense."
Latest in City Weekly REWIND
