Harvey Robinson, 47, grew up in one of the roughest parts of Washington, D.C. and quit going to school after the eighth grade. He never learned to read. “I used to lie and tell them that as a child I got lead poisoning,” Robinson said. Robinson became interested in learning to read about two years ago, when he went to take the GED and a counselor told him he needed to call the Literacy Council. Since then, Robinson has been meeting with his tutor each week and feels a lot more confident about his reading skills. He’s even taken to watching “Jeopardy” and doing word games. “We have all got gold in us,” he said, “and we just have to dig deeper to see it.”
By Earl Kelly, 3/14/2011, reprinted with permission of the Capital Gazette newspaper.
Charles Fort is Robinson’s AACLC tutor.
