Back in the sixties, it was very different from today’s education system. I had teachers telling me I was dumb and would never get anywhere in life. Reading aloud in class horrified me. Unable to comprehend the majority of words, I would pretend to lose my spot on the page and sure enough, someone would say the word. Considering I was so slow at reading, the teacher would quickly move onto another.

I learnt quickly that book covers and pictures told a thousand words. Convincingly, I could convey enough of a story to deceive a teacher. Being the class clown, I spent my fair share of time banished to the hallway that had me missing out on lessons. I didn't do homework. Known for being a tomboy, a soggy exercise book, a deliberate mishap with a puddle, backed one of my many excuses to get out of homework.

I was good at telling stories and might I add, whoppers. The other kids always had something for show and tell; not me, I had a story. For example, my dad fell over me in the lounge room and found a lump of gold behind the couch. I rarely got past the first paragraph; teachers would roll their eyes and tell me to sit down.

My mind was always in the clouds to escape the bullying where I pretended to be prince planet, space ace, even members of the thunderbirds and Star Trek. When did this all start? From the ripe old age of 4. I learnt to turn off; kids were mean and adults even meaner. My only sanctuary was my imagination.

I had great parents and a loving home life, no complaints there. I hid my literacy problems, not because I feared retaliation from kids, as there wasn't much else they could do to hurt me bar throw me off the top of the school. My problems stemmed from not trusting adults, they weren’t exactly encouraging. Secondly, who were they going to believe, the rich intelligent kids or the poor dumb kid. Mental escapism stole my concentration in class, being a major contributor to my illiteracy problems. I always focused on being strong that invincible human able to cope with anything dished out to me.

Back then, cursive writing was taught and though I didn’t read, I did love putting my imagination down on paper. Have you ever seen a five-page sentence? What about a five-page word with every p, q, d, b, etc back to front? I steered clear of the dictionary, even if I sounded the word in my head I couldn’t find it. This was due to how I spoke, pasific instead of specific, noyz instead of noise; you get the message.

Moving on, I attended an all girl Catholic college. I had no idea of religion. To me God was the Pope and Jesus some poor teacher they took out the back, beat up and killed with a log because he stood up to them. Placed in special classes with several others, I felt like I had dunce written on my forehead, as everyone knew why we attended these sessions. The school assumed that if they gave us the lesson in advance, we would have some understanding in class. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me, I still couldn’t grasp the concept of nouns, verbs etc or make out the big words like mathematics or fractions. The first book I ever started to read and couldn't put down was the bible. I was in my first year of college; took me a month to read a couple of verses but I was hooked. I skipped the big words like Genesis, but it was my start to reading. I read nothing else but the grand book for years and mixed with my imagination and understanding made it all consuming.

Leaving school at 16, I had to get help to fill out unemployment forms. I was in and out of factory jobs and came up with a bright idea to become a police officer. (A) I couldn’t understand the entry forms and (B) I was too short. Considering the job entailed reading and writing skills, (B) hid my illiteracy and gave me an excuse why I didn’t get past first base. I still loved to write and yes, 100-page sentences. Friends who read the mess started pointing out things to me, like full stops and capital letters. I started to apply this, making my stories; well should I say novels, a little more presentable.

I was once told I had a million dollar imagination, a lot of money back in those days. The same person advised me to read books, learn the art of English. I hated reading and why, because I was illiterate and too embarrassed to go back to school or really tell anyone how serious my problem was. I had become too stubborn and dependent on excuses for my own good.

How I got into the Royal Australian Air Force dumbfounds me, all I can say is that I guessed right with the multi choice questions. During that time, I kept writing. The purchase of a typewriter saw hundreds of pages of scribble turned into lengthy pages of typos with no paragraphs. I placed the heading ‘chapter’ after every 10 pages just to make it look like I knew what I was doing.

I’ll jump ahead, I was around 31 when I got an old computer. This somewhat helped, but word processors were not exactly what they are today. Upgrades and better technology showed me just how much of a mess my work was. My own kids and a young girl, living with us at the time, began helping me by pointing out spelling mistakes. To this day, family members still remind me of the difference between sought and sort, to and too. I have no idea what a noun, verbs etc is, but least I'm no longer illiterate and can use a dictionary.

Let me tell you this, you don't have to do it the hard way, there are people who can help give you a better chance at your dreams. Don't wait until you’re 45 to start doing what you could have at 18. People do care and never feel ashamed, no matter what your life experience was or is, to seek help. Age means nothing, you are never too old to reach out and learn or improve your reading and writing skills.

There should be no such thing as illiteracy, but there is. Technology has enabled us to communicate worldwide, see, hear and read of global problems. How much is really being done about illiteracy? How much money do governments pour into this wide spread problem? More is spent on weapons and war than schools. In many countries education is expensive, segregating the rich from the poor.

Get behind this problem, donate to a foundation, join Shadow Forest Authors, a fellowship of authors and supporters of charity. Put a book in your child’s hand instead of an electronic game. Don't think that one person can't make a difference, we can. If I hadn’t had people who cared and the persistence to keep trying, I would not be an author today and do what I love the most, write.

'Let's End Our Literacy Crisis', the title of a revolutionary book, tells it all and we can end the illiteracy crisis! This book convincingly answers questions, based upon the most statistically accurate and extensive study ever commissioned by the U.S. government. 92 million U.S. adults, 47% of them, cannot read and write well enough to hold an above-poverty-level-wage job. A later study proved that 40% or more of the employees in most U.S. businesses are functional illiterates. Statistics from other countries are almost certain to be similar.

Let's End Our Literacy Crisis also explains:
(1) Seven reasons why most of us do not realize how extensive functional illiteracy is.
(2) How serious the financial, emotional and physical problems that illiterates must constantly endure.
(3) How illiteracy is costing each U.S. adult who can read at least $3700 each year for government programs that illiterates use, for higher consumer prices because of the cost of recruiting and training functional illiterates, and for their mistakes and inabilities in the workplace, for juvenile delinquency and crime directly related to illiteracy. English illiteracy in other countries undoubtedly incurs similar costs.
(4) Most importantly, it details a proven method of completely and permanently ending most English illiteracy, not only for 92 million or more Americans but also for hundreds of millions of English-speaking people around the world who cannot read English.

As you may know, English is used by more people as a native or as a second language than any other language in the world. This method of ending English illiteracy has been recommended by dozens of scholars of English and of other languages for 247 years and has been proven effective in more than 300 languages, but it has never been tried in English! In 295 of the 300 languages, 95% of them, the students became fluent readers in less than three months. It requires most of the 53% of U.S. students who become functionally literate from two to four years of the present reading instruction.

How will all of us who can read benefit by ending our literacy crisis?
You will greatly benefit if you are concerned that a friend or relative is or, after the presently inadequate schooling, may become functionally illiterate and want to spare them the suffering and problems illiteracy brings.
You object to needlessly paying a comparatively large portion of your income for illiteracy, at least $3700 each year per U.S. adult.
You are a teacher who is frustrated by knowing that about half of your students will never become fluent readers with present teaching methods.
You have financial interest in an organization being hurt by functionally illiterate workers.
You have financial interest in an organization which prepares or sells written material , since functional illiterates are not customers of the organization.
You have financial interest in an organization being hurt by competition with more literate foreign workers.
You feel compassion for 92 million in the U.S. and 100s of millions elsewhere who are functionally illiterate in English.
You want to improve communication between language groups and thereby lessen many of the international conflicts.