There`s an extra note of pride in Dorothy Soto`s voice when she talks about her 8-year-old daughter Adreana: ”She`s a very good reader, the smartest reader in her class. I have no worries about her.”
Soto, 30, knows the importance of learning to read as a child; she missed that opportunity and only began to learn to read at the College of Du Page three years ago.
Now living in Addison, Soto sees her early school experiences as the cause of her reading problems. ”The school system in Chicago where I came from was really messed up,” she said. ”I would not send any kid there.” She dropped out at 14, later married and is now divorced.
”I want to be a better person, and I`m getting better all the time. I`m close to getting my GED (high school diploma), and I`d like to go to college someday.”
A public aid recipient, Soto attends school full time. ”It`s hard. I get tired; it`s not easy to be a single mother and go to school. But I keep at it.”
She reads with her daughter, and they do their homework together. ”If she needs help, I can show her and help her,” Soto said proudly.
To people who cannot read, Soto has some advice: ”Go back to school. Try. Work at it hard. You really have to try. Learning to read makes you feel better about yourself.”
Another west suburban resident, Richard, 49, who asked that his last name not be used, has tried all his life to learn to read. Thirty-five years ago as a grade schooler, he participated in a pilot program for low-level readers at Southern Illinois University, to no avail. He later graduated from high school, held executive positions and served as a cryptographer in the military-without ever reading.
An illiterate in an office? ”It`s easy,” said Richard. ”Your secretary can spell and write letters. You dictate into the tape recorder. Also, I think people who can`t read have an extra sense. We get drifts of meanings, even a poor reader.”
He described the effort involved in ”covering”: ”We say we don`t like games; it`s really that we can`t read them. We stay away from church or Sunday school where we might be asked read from the Bible. We`re the most secretive people imaginable. We`re hiders. We keep it from our children, sometimes from our spouses. Sometimes the spouses have a tough time when you learn to read, when they`ve been your only link. Suddenly you`re independent.
”All my life, people have said to me, `Don`t worry; it will come to you.` When I started reading classes through College of Du Page two years ago, it was the first time anyone had ever said, `You`re going to have to work at this.` I worked, and I learned.”
