Literacy Powerline

The Declaration of the Right to Literacy Scroll was presented to the Beaumont City Council on September 22. Barbara Beard, Literacy Coordinator at the Maurine Gray Literacy Depot, presented the scroll to City Council, including its history and asking the Mayor and City Council to join their voices with those that hav...e already signed the scroll in support of the right to literacy for all.

Photo: Mayor of Beaumont, TX, Becky Ames.Read More

Oswego, New York
The Palladium Times
Literacy: A civil right From the publisher's desk
Published:Monday, October 5, 2009 6:44 AM EDT
Jon Spaulding


This past Wednesday evening, my wife, Samantha, and I attended a celebration of 25 years of the tireless and passionate work by the Literacy Volunteers of Oswego County at The Am...erican Foundry. The speaker for the event, John Corcoran, had an important story to share, which was best summed up by the four sentences at the top of program given to attendees:


“In 1961, John Corcoran graduated from college. By 1979, he had taught high school students for 17 years. In the early 1980s, he developed more than $50 million in real estate. In 1987, John Corcoran learned how to read.”


Now an author of books like “The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read” and “The Bridge to Literacy,” Corcoran’s personal account of nearly 50 years struggling as a functional illiterate had the crowd spellbound and stirred a call to action for the good of our own community.


According to Jane Murphy, executive director of our local Literacy Volunteers chapter, one of every five adults in Oswego County currently functions at a fifth-grade or lower reading level. Indeed, a call to action is in order and as Corcoran’s story clearly shows, it is never too late learn to read.


Corcoran threw out several headlines during his presentation that stuck with me: “Literacy is a gift. Literacy changes lives. Literacy is a civil right.”


The last one I believe to be the most profound. To put literacy up there with the civil liberties our founding fathers built this country on is a powerful statement, and it rings true to me. Civil rights ensure one’s ability to participate in society without discrimination or repression. Without literacy, such participation in our society simply cannot be achieved. Sure, Corcoran’s story is a remarkable exception. The lengths he took to just to get through a single day as a functional illiterate were extraordinary, and they were done to avoid that discrimination and repression we all see when it comes to dealing with illiteracy. His ruse took a toll on him, and when he decided to bring his secret to light, he began channeling his efforts where they should have been in the first place … to reclaim his God-given right to literacy. There, welcoming Corcoran at age 48 was a literacy volunteer, and it changed his life forever. While the story can be hard to fathom, it ultimately ends as just another day in the life of a literacy volunteer.


My wife, who’s an educator, also caught the headline of literacy being a gift. Samantha’s never been comfortable with people viewing education as a gift, much less literacy, because that would imply that not everyone would receive it. She, too, sees literacy as a civil right that we, as civilians, have a responsibility to not just make it available but to make it realized by everyone in our society.


Like the saying “it takes a village to raise a child,” it takes a whole community to make sure we live and work in a literate society. It’s not just teachers or parents or literacy volunteers, but everyone. Further, it’s important to expel the notion from our minds that some people “just can’t get it.” Everyone has the potential to be literate, but sometimes it takes a bit more effort and patience to, as Corcoran tells it, “break the code” for an individual.

We are not a cookie-cutter community, but rather a community of learners that is diverse in its needs and strengths. Literacy volunteers, perhaps more than any other group, seem to understand this best. However, they need our help, and as civilians, we all have a duty to get involved. Jane Murphy and her folks at Literacy Volunteers of Oswego County eagerly await your contribution whether it is as a tutor, a sponsor or a community advocate.

You can reach Literacy Volunteers of Oswego County by calling them at 342-8839 or by visiting their Web site at www.lvoswego.org.Read More