Determination is often the catalyst for change, for getting over the
obstacles. That is how it was with Lynne.
I decided to write about her when I was chatting to her and found out what
she was packing into her life. She works full time most of the year, is on
her own looking after a family of four children, including a pre-schooler,
and is at University doing additional units after completing a degree. In
spite of this heavy programme Lynne has found time to work as a volunteer
for the Adult Reading Assistance Scheme.
Why does she want to fit this into her life? First she told me it was
because she so valued the chance to study and wanted others to have the
same chance. When she left school with two School Certificate subjects she
went to work in a Government Department and stayed there until she married
and had her first child. A move to a new city left her at home with two
small children and feeling very lonely.
All these years she had a recurring dream. She was walking the corridors
of her old school. Time after time this dream came back. Lynne decided to
find friends by going back to school and passed well in a sixth form and
seventh form subject that year. The dreams ceased.
She heard about a previous year's student like her going to University. She
found that what she had done at school that year was enough for her to
enrol because she was over twenty one. She took the plunge and enrolled.
Through the arrival of her third and fourth children and the pain of being
left on her own, she passed subjects for her B.A. degree. Then she
completed her Certificate in Tertiary Teaching so that she could teach
reading more effectively.
Why was the motivation to teach reading so strong? At the end of our
interview Lynne told me of the strongest reason. Lynne was a late reader
herself. At primary school she suffered the unhappiness of being scorned
by teachers and others because she could not read. Only as she started
secondary school did those "unintelligible squiggles begin to mean
something." She taught herself to read. She began to catch up after
those wasted years and read books and consulted the dictionary constantly.
Now she wants to give others help to open the doors that being able to read
opened for her.
Should you be listening to a recurring dream too? It may lead you to
exciting changes.
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