Gary's Story
Thank you to Gary for allowing us to share his testimonial of success with you.
This story won Gary the Canada Post Award.
Since writing this story, Gary has achieved his GED.
My name is Gary Porter. I am 43 years old, father of three children (27, 23 and 16 years old), and co-partner in my own glass and mirror business. Although I have been divorced twice, I now live with a very supportive spouse. Life is much smoother now. I feel good about myself and look forward to new challenges. But this is not the way things have always been. For forty of those forty-three years, I struggled with low literacy and numeracy skills. This is my story.
Life Before Literacy
Growing up as a middle child in a loving family of five children, I always had difficulty in school. My interests were more sports and social activities because I could not grasp academics. I was bigger than average for my age, and after repeating grade four, I seemed to be pushed through the system. When I entered high school, I attended a technical school because of my reading and writing difficulties. After one year, I was sent out on work experience and never returned to school.I was married at sixteen, and not long after, I found myself to be a father. I had met my first wife at the technical school, so her skills weren't much better than mine. We had no idea how to handle a baby, cook a meal, pay the bills or handle any of the home responsibilities.
Things most people would take for granted I found difficult. I would go to the grocery store and copy the store name on the cheque as I sat in the car in the parking lot before I went in. As I would approach the cashier, I would get hot. My stomach would turn and I would often work myself into such a state that I could not complete writing the cheque. Sometimes, I would just scribble so they could barely read it; they certainly would not be able to tell if there were any spelling mistakes.
My employment consisted of many low-paying dead-end jobs. I made pizza, worked in a bowling alley, laid sod and assembled pipe couplings in a factory. But, at eighteen, I was fortunate enough to be hired by my father. He had just opened a business in glass and mirror. When I first started, I could not read a tape measure, deal with customers, write orders or calculate sizes. If customers came in, I would find an excuse to go into the back room. I often wondered if my dad and brother thought I had a bladder problem. Or I would wait until the customer had written his/her name on the cheque so I could copy it onto the invoice. I was floundering through life, making many mistakes at work. If it weren't for my dad's understanding, I would not have lasted at this job either.
Life growing up had many difficult challenges. Not being able to spell words that were in my brain was not only frustrating, it ate away at my self-confidence. Self-esteem was always at a very low level. In my heart, I truly feel my lack of success in marriage was partly due to my problems with literacy. I never felt that I did the things a "real man" should do, such as filling out hotel registrations. I would leave my wife to do it, while I unpacked the car. I couldn't write a simple note. A game of scrabble with friends or family could be very embarrassing. I couldn't read novels or newspapers since I didn't know a third of the words. All these things were too overwhelming! And on top of this, I felt my wife thought I was stupid, not a whole person. The marriage just seemed to go downhill.
One of the hardest things to deal with was not being able to help my children with homework or read to them at bedtime. When they were little, I could sometimes make up the story line, or find a book that had a story I was familiar with. But as they got older, I would have to admit that I couldn't help them and tell them to ask their mother. I often wondered what they thought of me. Did they think I didn't care, that I didn't love them? Did they know I had a problem?
Entry into Literacy
At the time my second marriage broke down, I realized I wanted to better myself. I started to volunteer once a week at a program that helped special needs children enjoy horseback riding. Around the same time, a friend told me about the literacy program in Barrie. After procrastinating many times, I finally got enough courage to walk through the doors and take that first big step to change.As soon as I arrived at the Barrie Literacy Council, I was made to feel comfortable. The Assessor asked me about my life, and when I mentioned that I had a stepdaughter in university, she said, "OK, how do you spell university?" I looked at her, thinking she was crazy, and said "I can't spell a big word like that!" She immediately said, "Sure, you can!" As she sounded the word out in syllables, with her prompting, I was able to spell it. Wow! I started to believe in myself, that I could improve, and some of the doubt disappeared.
Shortly afterwards, I was matched with Kim, my tutor, who met with me once a week. Spelling was the first thing we worked on. Every week, new words were introduced and my dictionary was with me all the time. It became my bible. Prior to this, when I needed to spell a word, I would often use the yellow pages of the phone book, because the pictures would help me find the word I was looking for.
In one Monday night session, I can't explain how or why, but the light came on all of a sudden! I discovered the concept of breaking words into syllables myself. My tutor sounded the word out to me (as she had done each week for so long), but what a feeling when I finally realized I could do that by myself. I couldn't wait to get to all those other big words I had been spelling incorrectly so many times in the past. It was then that I realized all the hard work had finally paid off.
Kim also encouraged me to read my first novel. She said anything at all would be good-she just wanted me to read. So I started with Harold Robbins books. Although this might not make the Bestseller List of literature, I am still reading and enjoying books!
After the first few weeks with my tutor, I realized that learning was fun and stimulating. I would ask for extra work and with lots of determination, I would complete my assignments each week. Kim expected a lot from me; she really pushed me to succeed. I was with her for one and a half years, learning spelling, reading short stories and improving my sentence structure. Spelling is still the hardest thing for me.
Six months into the program, I realized I was not the only one with a problem. I joined a small writing class at the literacy council. There was anywhere from three to seven students each week, and our teacher was great. She always came up with interesting and novel assignments and she made us eager to learn. She taught us a great deal about descriptive writing. But more than that, she taught us to work together as a group. Many of the students from this class remain supportive of each other on our road to learning.
At times, I found it discouraging trying to juggle my work, family and school. I wanted to succeed with my learning and felt that I would be letting my tutor down if I couldn't complete my homework. But sometimes, there were just not enough hours in the day. I would rush into the Council to complete my homework before my tutor arrived or before class, but I was often exhausted at home and at work. However, when life crises got in the way, I could always turn to my tutor, staff, spouse, family and others who have been supportive throughout my journey to learn.
Last year, I was almost ready to write my GED equivalency exam when my spouse was in a serious car accident. I found I had to put my studies on hold. Not only did I have to run my own business, I found myself running hers as well. But what I had learned through my literacy classes, certainly helped me get through those difficult times. I had to order and pick up products, organize production, deal with staff and customers, and do her banking. Without my improved literacy skills, this would have been impossible! Getting back into my studies again this year was a hurdle I had to overcome, but with the help of a new tutor, I am again working towards my GED.
From the very beginning of my literacy journey, I have been awe-struck by the hard work, time and dedication of the staff and volunteers towards students. They have always treated me respectfully and met my needs in every way and more. They cared about me as a person, and always provided an encouraging word. When I would get in a slump and feel I wasn't progressing, they were there to give their time, support and the encouragement that kept me going. They taught me study habits and organizational skills, but most of all they treated me as an equal.
Life After Literacy
Learning to read and write has changed my life in so many different ways that I find it hard to grasp sometimes. I can now read to my grandchildren. I can read a novel with ease. I have learned to pronounce words correctly-I no longer "alphabeticalize" words in a list. I have become more descriptive in my speaking and my writing. I am no longer embarrassed to ask for help.Work has also become much more fulfilling. Now that I am more confident with writing invoices, dealing with customers, ordering materials, problem-solving and using the computer on a daily basis, I have earned the respect of my family. They have given me a voice in company decisions and I have become an equal partner with my brother and my father.
Before I started with the literacy program, my self-confidence was low and my shyness prevented me from speaking my mind, not to mention, speaking in public. I now have the confidence to speak at tutor training workshops, to help tutors understand what it feels like to be a student, and to advise how they can best help us. Last year I was valedictorian at our Annual General Meeting and awards dinner, and this year I thanked the guest speaker and emceed the draw for door prizes. We had a Road to Reading Festival in Barrie in September of last year, and over 5500 people attended. I was one of the students interviewed on stage at the festival and by CBC Radio prior to the event. In October, I had the opportunity to join other students and literacy advocates to speak to politicians on Parliament Hill for Literacy Action Day. This spring, I was interviewed by our local Cable TV station on the topic of workplace literacy. I have learned to swallow my fear and speak candidly about what has become so important to me.
Literacy has been a big part of my life for the last four years and I see how important it is to all adult learners. We have a very successful student group at the Barrie Literacy Council that meets once a month. Anywhere from fourteen to eighteen students attend. This is a great opportunity for the students to communicate with each other, but as student representative, I have been able to communicate their voice back to the Board. I find it rewarding working with the needs and demands of the student group, and I am no longer intimidated by professionals and highly-educated people who serve on Boards.
I have become the Ontario representative on our national student committee. This has given me the opportunity to meet and help other students beyond Barrie. I have spoken and led workshops at other councils in our area, and have traveled to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island twice to meet students there. I have created my own workshop entitled "Returning to Learning" and had an opportunity to pilot it on our last trip to PEI. This year I will become the national student representative for Laubach Literacy of Canada and the Chair of the national student group.
For the past two years, I have been part of the national Strategic Planning Committee and am now serving on the Blueprint Committee which is restructuring Laubach Literacy of Canada as a whole. It was my role to protect the interests of the students of Canada in this process.
Together with the help of one staff member and one other student, I was able to help organize and plan the first regional student-only conference in the fall of 2001 for the students from Barrie, Newmarket, Alliston, Midland, Orillia, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge and Huntsville. It was a highly successful event with approximately sixty students attending. We are currently planning our third annual student conference for June of 2003, are involving students from other councils in the planning, and for the first time will be asking students to actually lead some of the workshops.
Conclusion
I had always wondered why my father was so supportive of me at work and throughout my literacy endeavours. He had always allowed me extra time off work to complete my studies when I was under pressure. I was elated when he surprised me by attending my valedictory speech one year ago. It was only recently that I learned that many of his literacy skills were self-taught, and yet he managed to start and successfully run his own business. I think my dad sees a lot of himself in me. I could see how proud he was by the expression on his face. It was more than words can say.Although I am near completion of my literacy studies, I will continue to learn. The gift of learning has enriched my life beyond what I could have ever imagined. I would like to share this gift that I have received with others and I am dedicated to helping other students on their journey to learning in any possible way that I can.
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Barrie Literacy Council