Teaching Reading On Bequia

by Susan Toy

I have always loved to read and I love books. This prompted me to become involved in teaching others to read.

When my husband and I took early retirement in order to finish building our house in the Caribbean, I didn’t have a clear plan as to what to do with my time. I had left behind a job in publishing and had always associated with people who read books. What I missed after moving from Canada was that daily contact with others who shared my love of reading.

One day, while listening to the news on the radio, I heard a shocking statistic: the rate of illiteracy in St. Vincent & the Grenadines was well over 40%. I knew that the educational system here was not very effective, but the rate surprised me. It seemed insurmountable until I looked at it in a positive light; more than half of the people in this country CAN read and write. I decided to help in my own small way.

I enquired among friends back in Canada and found out about Frontier College and the work it had done over the past century specifically teaching adult literacy across Canada. I made contact with the College which sent me a tutor’s manual, some material about the College, a few of their students’ story books, and an incredible amount of enthusiasm and support for what I was hoping to start here in the Caribbean.

From left to right: Garnet, Susan, Glenford, Kirtneey

Through a Canadian friend on Bequia I met Glenford, a Vincentian, who was interested in learning to read. He had ambition in wanting to improve himself so he could get ahead in life, and this ambition made him an enthusiastic student.

We began lessons in Nov. 1998, and have been working together since then. He has made good progress and now refers to himself as literate. His self-confidence has increased. He has since introduced me to Kirtneey who began his lessons in Jan. 2000, and then Garnet began learning in Nov. 2000. At the beginning of Jan. 2001, both Brian and Joseph started taking lessons as well. All have written stories about themselves, some of which have been published by Frontier College in their students’ publications. One of Kirtneey’s stories was accepted for publication by the Canadian e-zine Writer’s Block for inclusion in their Mar. 2001 issue. Glenford, Kirtneey and Garnet all entered a writing contest for residents of the Eastern Caribbean. Glenford has a pen pal in Toronto, a Rasta from the Bahamas who is also learning to write. I am trying to find a pen pal for Kirtneey and hope we will locate a descendent of the Black Caribs from St. Vincent who were resettled in Roatan, Honduras as Kirtneey is part-Carib. I also have made contact with someone in Australia who is searching for learning readers as pen pals  for her students. I am hoping that with this contact, all of my students will learn a little more about the world outside of their own country as well as practice their reading and writing.

I have not only learned a lot about teaching others from this experience; I have also learned a lot about myself and my adopted country. Some days I think I may be learning more from my students than they are from me. They have all led interesting and vastly different lives from the one I experienced in North America. They have opinions on local events and appreciate that they now have the opportunity to learn new things. As their confidence in themselves and their skills have increased, so, too, has my own confidence in my teaching. I’ve found this to be a challenging, exhilerating, sometimes frustrating, but, ultimately, a very rewarding experience. It’s made me think and remember how I learned to read and write myself. It didn’t happen by magic, I know, but it was all so long ago that the time when I couldn’t read seems to me to have been non-existent in my life. What I now tend to take for granted most of the time has become precious to me after seeing the struggle that someone else has made to achieve them.

All of my students are in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. They left school at an early age for different reasons, but have all decided to start learning to read as adults because they see it as a way forward in life. I can see by their interest and enthusiasm in their lessons that all of them will eventually make it to their goal of becoming fully literate.

--------------------------------

Bequia is an island in the state of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, a small island chain in the South Eastern Caribbean. The total population of the country is about 100,000, with about 6000 people living on Bequia. The main sectors of the economy are tourism and bananas. St. Vincent & the Grenadines is an independent country, but a member of the Commonwealth.