Interview with Colleen Mertes
They’re not stupid, they just can’t read.
Colleen is a woman of service with a great heart. She grew up in Southern California and became a nurse. But she was called back to something closer to home as her father had revealed a deep secret. At 48 years old, John Corcoran let his family know that he couldn’t read.
Having grown up in what she thought was a “normal” home, she now sees how her father became angry when pressured to read documents and would have “lost” his glasses. His fear and anger was self protection. And this may be a clue for others.
Colleen describes her father’s path: he was told he was a winner at home, but at school, “the system told him something else.” The system will make you feel less valued.
Illiteracy affects a surprisingly huge percentage of the population. Surprisingly huge. And that’s why it’s a “hidden crisis.” People hide illiteracy in multiple ways and they’re not stupid, they just can’t read. They never learned and yes, they were passed onto the next grade in school.
There is help for anyone at any age -
There are 44 phonemes (sounds) in the English language.
There are numerous graphemes for each of those sounds.
But there’s only one name for each letter in the alphabet.
Humans are born to communicate. We do that vocally. The written language was made up. Think about making certain sounds. Then think about the different spellings for all of those sounds (eg: “oo” = threw, through, loop, soup, etc.)
Help is out there:
- 1-760-445-0229
- Book recommendation: The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read
- And be sure to look out for The Truth About Reading film