John's story
John was inspired to learn to read and write by a grandson who wanted to know his life story.
“When I was in England, I don’t remember going to school.
I immigrated to Tasmania when I was 12 years old and was taken in by Boys Town. At Boys Town, I worked on the farm which I loved. As an adult, I worked as a butcher and a cleaner. I still didn’t know how to read and write, but I was good at lots of other things.
A couple of years ago, my grandson showed interest in hearing about my life story. This inspired me to learn to read and write. So I went to the library and was matched with a volunteer tutor who helped me start learning from a very basic level.
Now, I can read any book fluently. I can now read Agatha Christie novels and books over 600 pages long. I have written some letters to the editor that have been published in the Mercury newspaper. I can now communicate by text message with my tutor and I have also written my life story for my grandson to read! I am now booked into some computing classes so I can use my phone and a computer better.
I am still coming to the library and working on my writing and spelling, but I have improved so much. My tutor has been fantastic and I love being able to read!”
More success stories:
Tom's path to literacy
“You know you want to do something about it and that now is the time to do it. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or how young you are, but … once you’ve started you get the confidence that you, y’know, that you can, and it builds up from that, it just builds up and builds up.”
Award winning 26Ten volunteer
"I really enjoy seeing people's confidence soar when their literacy improves, and they suddenly realise what they are capable of."
