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Help someone else to learn:
Recently I asked a hard working Bahamian lady of sixty-four (I'll call her "Jenny" to respect her privacy) if there's anything she regrets not having done in her life. She replied: "I wish I'd learned to read and write".
Jenny told me she had to stay home from school most of her childhood on the Out Island where she was born and brought up. Her mother had a back problem and Jenny cooked meals, cleaned the house and looked after her younger siblings while her father went into the fields to work.
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste", so I became a volunteer with the Bahamas National Literacy Services and am teaching Jenny to read and write with the "Laubach Way to Reading" (created in 1930 by literacy pioneer Frank C.
Laubach).
If you can spare even just one hour per week to help someone like Jenny contact your local literacy organization. In the Bahamas call Alfreda Cooper, Assistant Director of the Bahamas National Literacy Services - (242) 356-7643. Email:
acooper@bahamaseducation.com
Jenny doesn't think she's too old to learn!
Broaden your horizons:
Personally, there's so much more I need to learn. I'd like to take an advanced English Literature Course. Schooled in the U.K., I studied English Literature at "O" Level, then took "A" Level evening classes in Literature for a while, but it was only the "tip of the iceberg".
Of course, I'd also like to take up piano playing again (I had a few lessons as a child); I need to brush up on my French or learn a new language; and maybe I'll even learn to dance the Salsa!
Make the time to learn:
Above all, make the time to JUST DO IT! You're never too old to learn.
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