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Literacy programs teach an older generation how to read and write
By Lane DeGregory, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, May 26, 2010

PINELLAS PARK - The conference room at the Pinellas Park Library is big and empty. The table is long. But the two women sit shoulder-to-shoulder, their heads nearly touching, each holding the edge of the same worn workbook. Ann Palmer, the woman on the left, slowly draws her polished fingernail beneath each word. Linda Barrett, the woman on the right, blinks behind her wire-rimmed bifocals. "The plants at the for … the for-est … the forest!" Linda reads. "Wow!" "Very good," Ann nods. "Keep going." "The plants at the forest floor are about a me … a me-ter high." Linda stops and looks at Ann, puzzled. "What's a me-ter?" For three years now, every Wednesday, for an hour-and-a-half, the women have been working together at the library. They're almost the same age, both mothers, both love the library. Though Linda used to hate it.

Ann, 56, is a former human resources manager who now volunteers full time as the head of the Literacy Council of St. Petersburg.

Linda, 58, used to live with her mom because she couldn't write a grocery list, couldn't dial 911, couldn't read.

Ann taught Linda how to hold a pencil so it wouldn't hurt her left hand, how to tell a B from a D by using her fists, how to write letters. Not just her name. All of them.

"A meter is about a yard, just over 3 feet," says Ann. "They use meters to measure things in Europe."

"Wow!" says Linda. "I only knew a water meter. Wow!
. . .
In Pinellas County, Ann says, about 20 percent of adults are "below basic" readers. Her volunteer group, which started in 1968, gets students who have been referred from employers, social service agencies, homeless shelters. Volunteers teach reading and writing through the Laubach literacy program, a phonetic-based method pioneered in the Philippines during the 1930s.

Last year, 80 tutors in the southern half of Pinellas County worked with 87 students one-on-one in schools and libraries. In the past five years, they have helped more than 300 people learn to read. More than half of the tutors — and students — are older than 50. "You're never too old to learn to read," says Ann. "You just have to want to."

Ann's first Florida student was 83; when his wife died, he knew he had to be able to read his pill bottles. Another was a church deacon; he just wanted to be able to read the Bible. A mother wanted to write her son a birthday card. A father wanted to show his kids he could earn his GED. One man wanted to become a boat captain, but couldn't read all the rules.

Linda's goals are simple: To read stories to her granddaughter. To figure out the TV listings so she won't miss her nature shows. To bake brownies that actually taste good. And she wants to know. "You know," she says. "Just know."


[KATHLEEN FLYNN | Times]

Linda’s mother, Donna McGee, 90, drives her to the Pinellas Park Library for reading sessions because Linda’s epilepsy keeps her from driving.

Click here for the whole article.

The Literacy Council
of St. Petersburg

P.O. Box 12866
St. Petersburg, FL 33733

727-521-1117

OUR MISSION - We are a non-profit organization established in 1968 to teach adults to read and to assist them in entering a GED (high school diploma equivalency) program.  We are affiliated with ProLiteracy International, formed by the merger of Laubach Literacy and Literacy Volunteers.

Ann Palmer, President
Literacy Council of St. Petersburg
727-521-1117

YES, Santa, there is a Virginia! Meet Virginia Gildrie and her husband Gil. For 30 years the driving force behind StPete Literacy. For her story, CLICK HERE.


OUR BOARD
 
  • Linda Ciston
  • Maria Harmon
  • Ann Palmer
  • Mitchell Smith
  • Edith Randolph
  • Darlene Taccati
  • Barbara Taylor

A Brief History

St. Petersburg resident Ruth Feldman heard Frank Laubach speak in 1968 about his “Each One, Teach One” program to train people to read. She decided to bring the method to her hometown, and enlisted eight women to be tutors, and the Literacy Council of St. Petersburg was born.

With the help of Pasadena Community Church, the Council received $100 to purchase literature. It was decided then that teachers would pay for their own material, but students would pay only if they could afford to do so. The Council welcomed its first pupil, and soon the original class members, having received their Frank Laubach certificates, started organizing more teacher training classes. The Council received official status as a non-profit organization in 1971 from the Internal Revenue Service.

The organization grew and many of its students were immigrants learning English for the first time. So in the mid-1980’s, the Clearwater group formed its own organization, the Literacy Council of Upper Pinellas, and focused on its English as a Second Language program.

In 1986, a special adult program was begun with the tutors meeting one-on-one with students in St. Petersburg at Lakewood Community Adult (night) School . Northeast and Dixie Hollins community schools soon followed. Each school has a coordinator who interviews students and assigns them to tutors.

It has been a successful model, according to Virginia Gildrie, a Council member since 1973 and a founder of the program. “The reluctant student who has had negative experiences at school willingly comes to meet just one person who focuses on him. In addition, the sites are close to the homes of both the student and the tutors, and the student sees others who are working as hard as he is, and is encouraged by that.”


Sweet memories. A three-foot-wide sheet cake was the centerpiece of the Annual Dinner, held May 17 at the St. Petersburg Times Auditorium.


Virginia Gildrie, a member for 35 years, talked about the advances made by the Coucil.

The Students’ Book
Our students worked very hard writing their hearts out. We gave each one the task of sharing a story in their own words. And after all their efforts and with the help of their tutors, we have put them together into a book. The Literacy Council of St. Petersburg is very proud to introduce - “In Our Own Words”.  Click here for a PDF file of the book.

©2005-2010 The Literacy Council of St. Petersburg. All rights reserved.
P.O. Box 12866, St. Petersburg, FL 33733, 727-521-1117