Norma Griffin

After rheumatoid arthritis forced Norma Griffin's retirement in 1996, she found volunteer opportunities to fill her time. However, she had long thought she would like to teach an adult to read. She knew the need was great and liked the idea of using her teaching skills to do something for others.

Since taking the Literacy Council's Laubach tutor training workshop two years ago, Griffin has worked with two students. The first went on to earn a GED, a high school equivalency diploma. The second has been studying with Griffin for almost 18 months and is now in his third book. When talking about her experiences teaching these two adults, Griffin's enthusiasm for teaching and learning, as well as her love for her students, overflows.

Indeed, besides patience, Griffin believes the most important qualification for teaching an adult to read is a love for people. She talks of wanting to give someone a gift--something that can't be bought and wrapped in a pretty package--that comes from the heart. "People who can't read miss so much," she says. Griffin believes that most people want to do something for others and speaks of her tutoring experience as being good therapy for her too.

To Griffin the benefits she gets from tutoring are many. Seeing her student's progress is as exciting for her as it is for him, and his appreciation to her for giving him new skills is just a bonus. In speaking of his tutor, her student says he "wouldn't take anything for her." Griffin also gets a thrill from seeing how his confidence has grown since they began working together. He now reads the newspaper and takes a book to work to read on his lunch hour. What a difference one person can make in the life of another!