JOHN Corcoran - a man who could not read
How John Corcoran could remember, it was always difficult to say. Words barely evolved in the proposal, the vowels "swallowed", and echoed in my ears. At school, John was sitting at a desk, sullen and silent, knowing that much different from other children. If someone sat down beside him, put his arm around the shoulders and said:
- I will help you. Do not be afraid!
But no one took into account his illness - tongue-tied. And John could not explain that the left hemisphere of his brain responsible for logical thinking, not sufficiently developed. In the second grade, John was imprisoned for the last lot in the third - the teacher offered to children beat John in the legs, when he refused to read and write. When John was in fourth grade, he had a fit of suffocation: A teacher summoned him to the board, but he could not utter a word. So John "jumps" from class to class, never left in the second year. At the graduation ceremony on the occasion of graduating from high school, John did not go, but went to root for their favorite basketball team. After the evening my mother met John, kissed him and started talking about college. College? But this is madness! However, John, after much deliberation have decided to go to college at the University of El Paso, Texas, where he could engage in his favorite basketball.
In college, John is constantly asking new friends: what the examiner asks easiest tests? Who gives a possibility to choose the answers? John left the room, tore sheets of paper on which was supposed to answer questions that nobody asked to see his records. In the evening a long time he lay in bed, unable to calm down and fall asleep. Finally, he swore to himself that by hook or by crook enter college and receive a diploma.
And John Corcoran still got college degrees and in 1961 became ... teacher.
John began working in California. Every day, it caused some students to the blackboard and asked him to read aloud the textbook. He gave the students the standard puzzles, the correct answers to which have been circled. A weekend for a long time, John was lying in bed, experiencing bouts of despair.
A few years later, John met Cathy, a student and a nurse - a serious girl with a strong character.
- I must confess to you in some ways, Kathy, - said John in 1965 on the eve of their wedding. - I. .. can not read.
"But John - teacher - confused thinking Kathy. - Why did he say?" Perhaps he meant that not very well read? "
Katie realized that her husband had in mind only when she saw John unable to read a book of eighteen months of his little daughter. And Kathy began to help John: she filled his paper and responded to the letter. Why does not John turned to her with a request to teach him to read and write? He simply did not believe that anyone could do it. When John was 28 years old, he borrowed money, bought a house, renovated it and rented out. Then he bought and rented another. His business went well, and John hired a lawyer's secretary, who became a business partner. One secretary told John that he became a millionaire. Wonderful! Who will pay attention to the fact that the millionaire pulls the door itself, although it says "by itself", or facing the toilet, watching the door of what will a man?
In 1982, the case of John sharply deteriorated. His house no longer lease, as investors refused to invest in his land projects. John started receiving letters with threats of prosecution for failure to pay debts. John begged the bankers to give him a loan, asked the builders did not leave work ... That night he dreamed that a judge in a black robe asked him: "Tell the court the truth, John. You really do not know how to read?"
Finally, the fall of 1986, John Corcoran at the age of 46 years of performing two actions, which vowed never to commit. He laid his home to get the latest bank loan, and went to the library Carlsbad. There, John asked to be introduced to a woman who led the general education courses, and tearfully confessed to her:
- I can not read.
His teacher was the 65-year-old Eleanor Condit. Every day, methodically and persistently, she taught John to read and write. After 14 months of business in his land the company has established, and John learned to read. The next step was the recognition of John Corcoran: he made a speech before 200 stunned businessmen in San Diego, telling them about their past problems. Made a confession, John poured heart and led the Board of Directors of the society to combat illiteracy, San Diego. He was a lot of travel around the country and make speeches.
- Illiteracy - a kind of slavery! - Conviction, "he said. - We can not waste time in vain, accusing anyone in this. Our goal - to persuade people to learn to read and write!
Now John had read everything that came to my eyes: books, magazines, signs on road signs ... And Katie is very happy for him. Finally, John was able to sleep at night!
You have just one more thing, about which John had long dreamed of, to get dusty, faded by time, tied with red ribbon and a box kept in his office and read letters to Kathy that she wrote to John for twenty-five years ago on the eve of their wedding.
Posts
