As I reflect on my nearly nine decades of life, many details fade into the background. But my memory does not fade when it comes to literacy. The first six years of my life were spent as a non-reader in the safety of a loving home. The next 42 years of illiteracy—and the 40 years of literacy that followed—left an effect on me that never faded. My parents read the newspaper every evening before going to bed—before we had a television and after we got one. They never went to sl

A class clown can be an existential threat to the learning environment of a classroom. I say this as someone who was a class clown, on and off, from 6th to 9th grade. As an illiterate/sub-literate child, being placed in ‘the dumb row’ in the 2nd grade created an open wound. I ruffled feathers and stepped on toes. I disrupted other people's education at times and disrupted teachers from doing their jobs. They made me cry at times, and I could make them cry too. It was a no-win

In March 2023, the University of Michigan-Flint hosted a showing of The Truth About Reading with UM Coach Jim Harbaugh in attendance.