Student Success Stories

A Literacy Perspective

My name is Kevin Tolson and for one year my colleague, Allison Garren, and I worked as Americorps members with the Orange County Literacy Council. As part of the Corporation for National & Community Service, our Americorps responsibilities included tutoring and mentoring students who were grappling with their particular challenges related to reading and comprehension, writing, and math.

My students—many of them my peers—have struggled for years in their effort to reach their literacy goals. These folks have accomplished many triumphs in their lives. Some are married and have families. Some are employed. Others have passed their driver’s test and maneuvered through the process of purchasing an automobile. Like many people in the world, these students have managed the good and bad experiences in their lives. Yet with triumph, comes also the reality of their poor literacy skills which have greatly impacted their lives. This added challenge—the need for external support in reading, writing, and help with other literacy related areas—has made their roads a little more difficult to travel than for others. Yet, their struggle with literacy is just a small part of who these students are as people.

Whether their desire is to increase their reading capacity or maintain their present level of literacy, my students have amazed and astonished me by the things they know instead of by the things they feel they don’t know. Academically classified as “beginner readers” my students are accomplished and seasoned in many other areas of knowledge. During my tenure, more than one of my students has popped the hood of my truck and given me a mechanical dissertation on how to take better care of it. Other conversations, that if written down about waste management, rural farming, or Southern cuisine cooking, would make for very interesting reading. For every word my students find difficult to read, when engaged in casual conversation, I find that they know tens of similar words but, for all the challenging reasons, can not visually decode these words if asked to. However, with all their struggles, students keep coming back for literacy support. Their schedules; not always on a set timeline—their vision; maybe a little different from the experts — demonstrates, I think, the internal conversation within themselves that always airs on the side of literacy. Their motivation; obviously from a deeper internal source; and their strengths which seem to lend to their special endurance—a life long learning ethic—many others would find challenging to replicate.

Among my great group of students, one stood out more keenly. It is likely that it was this student’s hearty spirit, eager disposition, and willingness to help with any task related to the class. This student became, quite unintentionally for me, the ambassador of the group. They managed the weekly enrollment responsibilities, asked questions and raised concerns on various topics. And, from the best I could tell, avoided conflict, which could surprisingly surface sometimes in class. My student, born a little before the baby boomer set, grew up in a strong and loving family in Orange County. One of several siblings, my student could not remember most of their early years, but can remember the difficulty they had with reading. Fortunately, they enjoyed the comforts and protection of loving parents and the eventual support of siblings. Today, my student is still challenged with literacy, but has made progress in many ways. More importantly, this student’s ability to not give up, to be optimistic, and to convey their amenable nature through their signature smile, are important lessons they learned in how to deal with the repetitive and slow reality of literacy instruction.

I have learned through my student’s examples what courage and optimism truly mean in the face of trial related to literacy development. I will be forever grateful to my group and how they have shown me true tenacity and personal will-power. Their capacity to show vulnerability, yet equally embodying confidence, speaks to their unconditional willingness to take on adversity—as long as the tasks they are asked to do—eventually draw them closer to their literacy goals.