[AAACE-NLA]All in a day's work

[Archie Willard]

To Mr. Robert Sweet, Jr. and others
I hope this posting gets passed on to you somehow.

The Oklahoma Adult Learner State Conference was held Friday, May 16 in
Oklahoma City. I was invited to give three presentations at the
Conference. Thursday morning at 4 AM I got up to get ready to go to
Oklahoma City. I live in a small town about one hundred miles north of
Des Moines, the closest airport to my home. My flight departed from
there at 8:10 AM. There are not that many flights in and out of Des
Moines so you have to take what’s available. I had a connecting flight
in St. Louis and a layover of two and a half hours. I got to Oklahoma
City about 2 PM.  I was met at the airport and taken to the site of the
conference where I was introduced to the people working there. I was
shown the facilities where the conference was to be held.  People were
setting up for the conference and everyone pitched in to help. That
evening I was taken out for dinner and we discussed adult literacy. That
night there were tornado warnings all over the state and some touched
down south and west of us.

The next day was Friday, conference day, and tornados had been forecast
for the day. I don’t know how many people had registered for the
conference, but a little over seventy showed up. Many did not come
because of the bad weather forecast. The majority of the attendees were
women. I was told that in order to receive any assistance from the state
of Oklahoma they had to be reading at the 6th grade level or be in a
literacy program to improve their reading.

After giving my first presentation there was a break of about 20
minutes. During the break and during lunch I tried to visit with as many
adult learners as I could. I mostly listened to their concerns and
offered them encouragement. I knew I would not have any influence on
their ability to read better or have any magical solution for them, but
I knew I could help them by telling them about my life experiences as a
dyslexic and as an adult learner.  I could see some were lacking
confidence and the spark that is needed to open their minds for
learning.  I tried to think of things I could say to give them some hope
in their lives. I asked them how they were doing and about the
improvements they have made in their reading. I told them that I know
it’s not easy to take that first step, how proud I was of them because
they were in a literacy program, and that I was glad they had taken the
time to come to this conference.  When I told them I was proud of them a
smile came over their faces.  It was something they needed to hear.

When lunch was almost over someone came in the room and told us that
tornado sirens had sounded and that we were to go to the basement as
soon as possible. We all went to the basement for about 30 minutes. When
we got the all clear we returned to the conference room.  I then gave my
second workshop. When the workshop was over they decided to cut the
conference short because of the bad weather and people started to leave
for their homes. On their way out, five or six people came over to me
and gave me a hug and thanked me for the encouragement.

Then I was taken to the airport to catch my return flight. This time I
had to go through Dallas, TX to change planes for Des Moines, IA.
Because of the weather, my flight was an hour and half late but that was
all right because I had over two hours between flights in Dallas. When
we got to Dallas there were no gates open so we had to wait. When we
finally got off the plane I had seven minutes to get to my connecting
flight.  I was in terminal D and my next gate was in terminal C.  I took
off running because this was the last flight of the day to Des Moines.
Just then a young lady in her twenties ran past me.  I yelled at her
asking if she was going to terminal C.  She said yes so I followed her
hoping she knew where she was going. I was going so fast I didn’t have
time to look at the signs.  We had to get on a small train to get to
terminal C and she held the door open so the train didn’t leave without
me. When we got to terminal C, I was out the door running.  She was
going to gate C4; I was going to gate C14. I did not see her as I ran
away. At gate C14, I learned that my flight was delayed an hour – until
10:30 PM.  Later it was delayed until 11:00 PM, so I had time to walk
back to gate C4.  I saw the young lady that I had followed.  I asked her
if she had missed her plane, but her flight was also delayed. We laughed
about our running through the terminals. She told me I could run pretty
fast for a man of my age.  It was 1 AM when I got to Des Moines and by
the time I reached my home it was after 3 AM Saturday morning.

The other day I was watching Judge Judy being interviewed on TV.  One of
the things she said was that the reason she had remained an acting judge
for as long as she did was in knowing she had made a difference in 10 to
12 peoples’ lives each year.  That’s what kept her going.  It takes a
lot of hard work to try to make a difference for others. If one person
was helped that day in Oklahoma City, it was well worth the trip for me.
Isn’t America a better place when we help and invest in other people?

Mr. Robert Sweet, Jr. and others: Yes we need good all around research
and many other things in literacy today, but we also need to recognize
that there are real people out there who need literacy help and they are
not just facts and figures. My expenses to Oklahoma were paid, but I
went without an honorarium because I have a burning compassion to help
others with literacy problems. There are a few other adult learners in
our country who are doing these kinds of things to help. We are just
trying to make life a little better for others like ourselves and to
help them find hope so they don’t give up on themselves. There are
literacy professionals who are trying hard every day to make adult
literacy better for those who need this help. Many people in our society
have better lives because of all of our efforts.

Adult learners can help children’s literary as much as they can help
adult literacy. Children with reading problems need to hear from
successful adult learners and we can serve as role models. Child
literacy and adult literacy should be partners and should work together.
We are all trying to make a difference for others, so why should our
stories and our voices be censored and not heard? The America that I
grew up in didn’t have censorship and we believed in people. Education
and literacy should be available and accessible for everyone of all ages
who needs it and especially for those who need a second chance.

Archie Willard
Adult Learner
--
Archie Willard
millard at goldfieldaccess.net
URL - http://www.readiowa.org/archiew.html