Local Educator Volunteers for Cause of Literacy...

Governor Mike Easley declared September 2006 “Literacy Awareness Month” in North Carolina. During this time when citizens are urged to become invested in eliminating illiteracy, the Lenoir Community College Department of Basic Skills salutes one local educator who has made the cause of literacy a year-long and lifelong priority.

Louise May, a retired public school teacher of 38 years, spent 31 years teaching at Contentnea Elementary School. “I’ve taught all the people on the north of the Neuse River,” she said.
May recalled one retired school teacher at Contentnea who used to show up at school every day. If the school needed a substitute, she would stay and sub. If not, she would stay and volunteer. “That made an impression on me,” she said.

May has spent has spent the last 10 years substituting and volunteering for the Basic Skills program at LCC. According to the North Carolina Community College System, 20 percent of adults in North Carolina demonstrate low literacy skills and 50 percent of adults in North Carolina are unable to obtain a high school diploma. In light of such statistics, May’s commitment to literacy is far-reaching.
Every Monday May volunteers at the LCC Community Learning Center at Sampson School, helping adult learners to read and write. One of May’s students said the one-on-one tutoring has been very helpful. “I have someone to ask when I get to the words I don’t know and/or can’t spell,” she said. “I’d rather learn to read than anything else. It’s important because when you can’t read and write, you’re kind of handicapped in a lot of ways.”

This student said that learning to read has given her a lot more independence. “It helps me with keeping house and with helping my grandchildren,” she said. “I’m not dependent on everybody else. When I go to the grocery store, I want to be able to read things myself and do things myself.” This student made sure all of her five children got their high school diploma, and now she is getting her own.
May also understands the importance of literacy. “You just don’t get any place without knowing how to read and write.”

May’s parents did not finish high school but the tradition changed with May and her children. All three of May’s children went to college.

“It would be selfish to stay home and not share the skills I have, and I would be bored - so it helps them and it helps me,” May said.

In addition to volunteering at the LCC Community Learning Center, May is also the president of the volunteer auxiliary at Lenoir Memorial Hospital. She said her experience as a volunteer has been rewarding. “The teacher always learns the most, so I have learned so much volunteering,” she said.
Adult learners enroll in LCC’s Adult Basic Education (ABE) and General Educational Development (GED) programs to improve their basic skills in reading, writing or math, or to complete their GED.
Olene Solomon, coordinator of the LCC Community Learning Center at Sampson School, appreciates May and her services as a volunteer tutor. “Literacy is important because it empowers people,” Solomon said. “When you’re able to function at a high level of literacy, it opens up doors of opportunities - not just in terms of jobs but in every day living, such as communicating, filling out applications, and reading prescriptions and signs.”

For more information about Basic Skills classes at LCC or to become a volunteer, contact the Basic Skills Department at 233-6842, or the LCC Community Learning Center at Sampson School at 522-2560.