What is success?
People love success. Just starting is the first step to success!
Success comes in many different forms. People see it in many different ways.
In New Zealand, we are a sports-mad country; where would we be if we did not have the All Blacks or Team New Zealand in the yachting world. Sports like these help all of us to find success in some way. To revel in the success of our sporting stars.
Other people find success in the business world. Some get a lot of publicity, and others do not. The majority of people find the satisfaction of their success within themselves or family or friends that acknowledge it.
There can be very little acknowledgement in our world of literacy education – reading and writing. People lacking reading, writing and numeracy skills hide. However, the first step on the stairway to success is seeking help. Unfortunately, excuses normally reign supreme, ‘it’s too hard or ‘no, I don’t want to do it!’
So, the people who do start need to have their successes acknowledged in some small way.
People love success.
The following are success stories from people who have struggled with reading and writing. They started on the road of success by starting learning with a one-on-one coach who is there to understand the student individual needs!
Examples include Mr T, from Northland, who we wrote about last week. Mr T has never read an entire book and is now well into reading Witi Ihimaera’s Maori Boy: a memoir of a childhood.
Or the grandfather who, along with his coach, worked on his reading and is now looking forward to reading to his grandchildren. Being read a story is something that his own children missed out on. Simply because the father did not have the confidence in his reading and did not want to lose mana in front of his children.
Then there is the man who needed a job, walked the streets and ended up with a handful of papers that he needed to fill in and couldn’t. He approached the Rural Youth and Adult Literacy Trust and got help with his reading and writing. Once his confidence in reading and writing was built, he took on the task again, working on his own ability to understand the forms and fill them in and successfully obtained a job.
There’s also the story of a coach who shared a story of their student who won an award for her athletics and overall ability. It shows that improving literacy improves other aspects of your life too!
And just like in sport, our students are supported by a coach to achieve their reading, writing and numeracy success.
