60-year-old man learning to read

At 60 years old, Thelbert Green, has just learned to read his first three-syllable word: fantastic.

Green, who is dyslexic, has been working with the Orange County Literacy Council for the last two years to become literate.

“I love talking about all the progress I have made,” he said. “I just want to reach out to someone.”

“I am a firm believer in not giving up.”

As a child in school, Green said he didn’t know he was a slow learner.

“I couldn’t catch on like the other kids,” he said. “The teachers decided I was lazy or slow.”

Green said he eventually began to hate going to school because his teachers would pick on him in front of his classmates.

“I was always ashamed about not knowing how to read,” he said. “I always had to get someone else to help me.”

At 18 years old, Green dropped out of school to enter the workforce.

At the time, he had reached a first-grade reading level, he said.

But even after leaving school, Green said he still dreamed of learning how to read. His wife, who used to be a teacher, and his cousin pushed him to achieve his goal.

“Even when someone tells you what something means because you can’t understand, that emptiness needs to be fulfilled,” he said.

Joy Turner, program manager for the literacy council, served as Green’s tutor when he entered the adult literacy program in 2008.

The Council, which was created in 1984, aims to achieve 100 percent adult literacy in the county. Currently, 12 percent of the county population has significant literacy needs.

When Green first entered the program, he only knew the alphabet and most of the sounds the letters made, Turner said.

Now, Green can read most two-syllable words and is working up to a three-syllable reading vocabulary.

Green currently helps care for his mother, who has cancer, and said he plans to get a part-time job after he covers more ground with reading.

“The progress I have made so far I never dreamed of making,” he said. “I don’t feel ashamed or doubt anymore.”

His current tutor, Caroline Christopher, said Green is a dedicated student who always manages to fit in time for reading.

“He is discovering now that he can go out and understand words by picking words apart,” Christopher said.

“They are no longer just arbitrary symbols to him.”

Green said the program, which serves more than 170 adult learners annually, has become like a second family to him.

He said he hopes his story is an inspiration to others who struggle with reading.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.