Need Something to do? Teach Someone to Read

There are many ways to help people besides your own children learn to read. Volunteering at schools, libraries and community centers is the most obvious. Even if it seems like there is not enough time in your schedule to devote to it, every little bit helps. An hour or two a week would be plenty in a lot of places.

Another way to help is by donating money or old books to literacy programs. Magazines are welcome in some of them as well. This can be a good way to find a use for the books you know you'll probably never read again but can't bear to throw away.

Children are not the only ones who may need help learning to read. Adults with learning difficulties can sometimes graduate from high school without knowing how to read. When they enter the work force, they learn how important it is to be able to do things they never learned in school. They can be some of the most motivated students ever.

Any trip to a country where English is not the native language, or even to a part of a city in this country where it isn't, might give you a taste of what it is like to be functionally illiterate. Look at the signs. Company logos are sometimes the only things that are recognizable. Sometimes it's only the golden arches.

This brings up another way to help people learn to read. Focusing on teaching English as a foreign language can be one of the most rewarding ways. You can help with not only reading but conversation. Many students pick up English very quickly, and for some it is a third or fourth language. Someone said recently that tri-lingual means speaking three languages, bi-lingual means speaking two languages and mono-lingual means American.

Schools, libraries and community centers are again places to volunteer. Old books and magazines are useful, and money is always useful. If you have an old French-English dictionary that you've been saving since high school, this could be the perfect thing to do with it. The ones with sections that translate both ways are even better.

If one-on-one work helping children or adults learn to read is not your cup of tea, there are programs where office work is done by volunteers. It can include filing forms, calling to schedule other volunteers, keeping books in order, or whatever else needs to be done.

Literacy programs exist in most cities. If you see a need for one in a place that doesn't have one, maybe making a suggestion in a school will get the ball rolling.