Around 5 million people in the UK can’t read or write. And 100,000 teenagers leave school every year who can’t read or write. This is a damning indictment of the educational system. Teresa is 58, she went through school without learning to read or write. Instead being told she was “thick” and “dumb” by a succession of teachers ( I am sure these teachers get a power kick in humiliation!). She gave up and left school at 15.
Teresa, along with 8 other people who have different levels of literacy, are part of a Channel 4 series, Can’t Read, Can’t Write where teacher Phil Beadle has 6 mths to do something that the educational system failed to do. I don’t usually have a high opinion of these reality television programmes but this was different. I could kinda relate to many of their experiences of the educational system. Also the domination of words saturating their everyday life and their ways of coping. Teresa relies on her daughter to help with shopping lists. Linda loves books, but she can’t read any of the written words. She buys books that she hopes she will read one day. Her ambition is to read Shakespeare.
James, a plumber’s mate, relies on his mum to act as his guide through the myriad of words, also rather startlingly was his mum reading health and safety information he had been given about asbestos (he didn’t know whether he was working with it). He wants to read and write so he can pass his driving test. Many of these people try and keep their illiteracy a secret as they are too embarrassed to admit to it.
Phil Beadle, the teacher, visited an adult education college in London and was depressed by the government guidance on literacy. The person managing this college was utterly bureaucratised and spouted the line about it all being about “passing exams”. The guidance was described by Beadle as “impenetrable” and he believed learning was about infusing passion and engaging with ideas unfortunately this clashed with the government ethos and hidden curriculum about passing exams, rote learning. There was nothing in any of these provisions about adults learning to read and basic literacy. Instead, Beadle went back to basics by concentrating on phonetics and the sounds of letters.
Many of these people has been failed by an indifferent educational system and cast aside as worthless. I didn’t feel cynical watching this programme instead I felt pleased for Linda who was able to grasp the sounds of letters or Teresa becoming overwhelmed and overjoyed by being able to read her first book. You saw their confidence and self-esteem flourish. The series has been described as a cross between The Dead Poets Society and Educating Rita but I did feel a connection with these people.
Up until the age of 8-9 years old, I couldn’t read and barely could write. I was described by my teachers as “stupid” and regularly humiliated by them in the class. The result being was that I sat at the back of the class hoping to blend in with background and no eye contact with the teacher. My confidence was non existent, my mind would go blank when I was asked a question and the teachers gave up on me. I was left alone, given up on. I did internalise what they said and believed that if they think I am “thick and stupid” then I must be.
But miraculously my education was saved in the guise of this wonderful woman teacher who liberated my mind from this perpetual belief that I was “thick and stupid”. She spent time with me and unlocked the barriers that were stopping me from reading and writing. She gave me confidence and belief in myself. She treated all the kids in the class equally and she never wrote any of them off.
She developed my love of reading and writing. The idea of being able to pick up a book and read its contents is something I take for granted same with reading signs, recipes, shopping lists, from the exciting to the mundane. Letter and words engulf our lives and watching this programme made me forget how our lives revolve around them and how the educational system fails, neglects and instils feelings of worthlessness on people who are cast aside. A system that shamefully shrugs its shoulders.
Posted by harpymarx 
