John Corcoran went to school in hopes that he would be able to read like his sisters did. As he grew up, however, he found out that learning to read was a really difficult, if not impossible, task. Unfortunately, as a child at a very young age, he didn’t know how to articulate his problem.
I remember praying at night and saying, "Please Lord, let me know how to read tomorrow when I get up" and sometimes I'd even turn on the light and get a book and look at it and see if I got a miracle. But I didn't get that miracle.
As he moved from grade to grade, Corcoran would eventually give up on learning how to read.
I got up every day, got dressed, went to school and I was going to war. I hated the classroom. It was a hostile environment and I had to find a way to survive.
And found some ways he did. Without the need to read, Corcoran would see his way through high school and college, and he eventually found a profession in which he could hide his inability to read — teaching.
Why did I go into teaching? Looking back it was crazy that I would do that. But I'd been through high school and college without getting caught - so being a teacher seemed a good place to hide. Nobody suspects a teacher of not knowing how to read.
Corcoran hid his secret for a long time. But thanks to seeing Barbara Bush talk about adult literacy on TV one night, Corcoran was inspired to ask for help and finally learn to read.
More details about his extraordinary story over at BBC.
(Image Credit: BBC)
Comments (0)