GET A LIFE
More than words…
Southern Cross ACC Clinical Manager Kristin Langdon talks to Craig Sisterson about helping to change lives by volunteering as an adult literacy tutor
New Zealand, like many western democracies, has a hidden literacy problem. While we can blithely point to statistics showing less than one per cent of the population are completely illiterate (ie cannot read and write at all), the numbers are far more concerning when we talk about functional literacy – the ability to read and write well enough to successfully go about everyday tasks and comprehend common printed expressions and messages. According to estimates, as many as 20 per cent of New Zealanders are in effect functionally illiterate – a situation that has flow-on negative impacts for job opportunities, dealing with official documents, public education and awareness, participation in society, confidence and self-esteem, and many other things. It’s not hard to see a link between functional illiteracy and many negative socio-economic statistics. And that’s one of the reasons why Kristin Langdon became an adult literacy tutor. “It’s a whole new world if you can read and write, and it’s so limiting and debilitating if you can’t,” she says.
Over the past couple of years, Langdon has been volunteering with Adult Literacy, Inc. in Auckland. The not-for-profit organisation comes under the umbrella of national organisation Literacy Aotearoa, and since 1974 has provided adult literacy classes to groups and individuals at little to no cost to the learners. Langdon is currently on hiatus from being an active volunteer, as she and her husband recently took in a young foster child, but she is keen to “most definitely” get back to adult literacy tutoring in future. “I’m very committed to it,” she says. “It’s just so rewarding, and there’s such a need.”
Langdon first got involved with adult literacy tutoring when she was working as a nurse in Queensland almost 15 years ago. “I saw a course advertised in the local paper for adult literacy tutors,” she recalls. “And because I’ve always loved reading, and think words are wonderful, I thought I’d do the course, because it seemed a wonderful thing to do.” After doing a short course through Brisbane TAFE, Langdon began tutoring her first adult student – who perhaps ironically, was actually also a Kiwi from Auckland.
Langdon later moved back to Auckland to start a law degree as a mature student, having nursed for 13 years. After graduating, she spent four years at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and then four years at the Health & Disability Commissioner, before shifting to Southern Cross. “I’ve focused on the medico-legal area,” she says. But Langdon was also always keen to get back to helping adults with literacy difficulties. Then two years ago, history repeated itself; another newspaper ad – this time in the Eastern Bay Courier – enticed Langdon to head along to an information evening being held by Adult Literacy, Inc. “They were starting a course in a couple of weeks, and I negotiated with my employer to take some leave without pay to do the course,” she says.
Volunteers need to complete an intensive full-time, 12-day course (approx 80 classroom hours), completing the NZQA-approved Certificate in Adult Literacy Tutoring (Level 5). Given the important and life-changing role tutors can play, it’s important that they are well trained and well prepared for the wide variety of adult learners that come to literacy centres throughout the country, from Northland to Southland, hoping for assistance. Hoping to change their lives for the better. It takes a lot of courage for an adult with literacy difficulties to ask for help, and tutors need to operate in quite a different way than if they were trying to “teach a child to read”.
After re-training and upskilling with the intensive Literacy Aotearoa course (which also has a practical component to complete the Level 5 qualification) in 2008, Langdon began tutoring an adult literacy student who had the goal of improving her reading and writing so she could get into an early childhood education course. Langdon worked with the learner one night a week, for around one and a half to two hours at a time. Seeing her student progress over time, eventually meeting her goal and being accepted into the course, was “absolutely great” and “so worthwhile”, says Langdon. “It’s a form of contribution, and in terms of my own values I view it as very meaningful.”
Langdon’s next student wanted to further his job prospects. A “real positive” experience that came from that was when Langdon was called at work by the student’s boss, who said that, from his perspective, his employee had “derived such a lot of benefit, was really enjoying the sessions, and getting something out of it”. Many adult learners are driven to finally ask for help improving their poor literacy for employment reasons – whether as part of an apprenticeship, wanting help with CVs and cover letters, or enhancing their chances for promotion into roles that require greater reading and writing skills. “There’s a lot of work-assisted literacy training,” says Langdon. “It’s obviously still very necessary, and obvious that a lot of people are going through school and missing out.”
Besides helping other people, there are plenty of great things about working professionals such as lawyers volunteering as literacy tutors, says Langdon. “It takes you out of your comfort zone, really makes you think, and gives you an appreciation for – it sounds really trite but I can’t think of another word – the challenges other people have.” Working with adults with literacy difficulties can also open up your eyes to how much we take literacy for granted in our everyday lives. Especially as part of a profession where words are so important, and technical language and jargon can be prevalent. “With my work, I deal with the public in various forms, but I also deal with professional people all the time, and your language, your simple everyday words you take for granted – a literacy student might never have heard of them,” says Langdon. “It’s interesting, I think when you have a source of pride in your own language and how articulate you can be, it’s quite grounding to have to come back and construct quite simple sentences.”
For more information about adult literacy, things you can do to help, and details of your nearest local literacy centre, visit the Literacy Aotearoa website: www.literacy.org.nz.
NZLawyer magazine, issue 137, 28 May 2010
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