About the Author
Patti cultivates homegrown changemakers prepared to step into their power and work with others to create the world they want to live in. Get in touch to find out how you can grow the social changemaker in yourself and those you serve with Blue Roads Changemaker YOU.
Before I met Deidra Mayberry, I was really in the dark about the disturbing statistics available on the breadth and depth of functional illiteracy among adults in this country. As Deidra puts it…
In a matter of just one day, people go from children who struggle with reading to adults who struggle with reading.
That makes sense because one day you are legally considered a child and the next, on your eighteenth birthday, you are suddenly plunged into the world with full adult responsibilities whether you've mastered basic literacy skills or not. As a lifelong educator, I'm a little bit embarrassed by how unaware I've been about this particular issue. Deidra cites a disturbing 2020 Forbes article by Michael T. Nietzel that articulates the widespread implications of the problem.
There's 130 million adults in the U.S. that cannot read above a third grade level.
Nietzel puts that number at 54% of the adult population! Deidra Mayberry is determined to do something about that. I encourage you to read on and watch the latest episode of On Your Own Terms featuring Deidra's groundbreaking work as founder of the nonprofit “Reading to New Heights” to be inspired by her unique take on “Homegrown Solutions for a Patchwork World!”
Homegrown Deidra
Deidra was raised in a military family in San Antonio, Texas. She speaks fondly of those years with an appreciation for the sacrifices of her large family and the warmth of her community.
Other places in the world, you get polite, but in San Antonio, people are friendly.
This friendliness translates into openness and warmth in Deidra's personality that comes across the minute you meet her. She's relatable and someone you immediately want to listen to and hear her story.
I think at an early age, I understood hard work. I understood sacrifice… My mom worked two or three jobs just to keep the family afloat because there were so many of us.
In this context of genuine friendliness and hard work where Deidra “never met a stranger”, she learned to appreciate the differences among people and gain an understanding…
…that everybody needs something a little different.
It was as a young adult that Deidra began to wish for something more for herself as well. Even as a college graduate, she started to feel there were gaps in her literacy that were holding her back. While she was working hard and successfully getting by, she started to wonder.
I’m working this hard to hide it. What if I worked just as hard to fix it?
I found the courage to share with a friend who was a certified educator.
With the help of that friend, Deidra was able to work pretty quickly to fill in the gaps in her literacy development. It's clear that from this point forward, Deidra began to SOAR.
It gave me the courage not to settle on what my story was, but to create a different story.
Solution-Focused Deidra
Deidra is helping others to create a different story, too. Her magnetic personality makes her immediately relatable to many other adult learners who may be hiding their own literacy gaps behind shame and secrecy. Her life, her positive example, and her reassurance that this is a very common occurrence help others to see it as a very solvable problem. By telling her own story, she helps others to see their own potential.
You never know how living your life out loud can give someone else hope.
Deidra explains how the stigma of being an ineffective reader as a child becomes magnified for adults. It's hard to admit you have an issue when the whole world – including your child's teachers – expect you to be able to read proficiently.
The program Deidra created with the help of others in her nonprofit agency “Reading to New Heights” provides one on one services in a safe and confidential online environment for adults to work on their literacy.
Adult tutors must have teaching experience to qualify to teach within the program. The minimum requirement to work in the program is two hours per week.
Our program is not effective if we're doing anything less than two hours a week. That two hours allows one adult tutor to support one adult learner.
She acknowledges that this is a lot to ask of teachers who are already quite busy. That's why the organization is seeking support to be able to pay certified teachers in the near future rather than relying totally on volunteer professional educators. Still, she hopes many teachers and retired teachers will have the heart for this important work.
Do they have four hours in their week to really be able to literally change a life?
Deidra's Patchwork
Deidra's experience brings an important and, often overlooked, perspective to the patchwork of diversity. As she reflects on her shame and her desire to keep her literacy gaps well hidden, she knows there are a lot of folks like her who are going to great lengths to keep their deficiencies from being discovered.
But there's an important strength of the human brain that also goes unrecognized. The neural pathways being built to accommodate strong coping mechanisms are hidden strengths to build upon. Strong listening skills, intuition, and the ability to “connect the dots” in other ways shouldn't be underestimated. Neither should the power of courage and brave vulnerability to speak up. Once Deidra started speaking out and speaking up, she found loads of support and so many people who took encouragement from her example.
It wasn't until I was able to be on Fox4, my first time ever sharing publicly…the phone started ringing off the hook!
Something began to change.
Person after person that I was talking to said, “Oh my God! You know my story! This is me, too!
People who take reading for granted can inadvertently create shame around those who struggle in silence.
When you talk to someone who loves reading… reading is their passion…It's really hard for them to understand how someone can't do it. They think, “This is essential and this is a part of life!”
“What do you mean you can't do this?!”
…Moments like this made me feel “less than”.
Deidra's determined to help others overcome that feeling by giving them the access they need to literacy services.
Changemaker Deidra
The more Deidra tells her story, the more adult learners she reaches who become ready to take action to strengthen their literacy. Right now, her program that began in Texas includes tutors from across the United States. Thanks to the miracles of technology, she envisions a global program someday that matches adult learners with experienced educators who can give a few hours of their time each week to help fill in the literacy gaps for those brave enough to raise their hands about the need.
Appearances on big media outlets like the Kelly Clarkson Show have helped. Research from the Barbara Bush Foundation supports the great need while authors like Nietzel cited earlier tout the bold impact potential when interventions are put in place.
If raising adult literacy from third-grade level to sixth-grade level could have a $2.2 Trillion positive impact on the economy, just think what could happen if we set our sights even higher!
You can help Deidra's efforts by reaching out to her nonprofit Reading to New Heights through her website to enroll in the program, make a financial contribution, or to volunteer if you have experience as an educator. It also helps if you simply spread the word. Deidra cautions us not to tell someone they need literacy help, however, but instead to simply share your enthusiasm for what you've learned about this great new program. Let the adult learner take the lead and look into it for themselves. Deidra and her team will take it from there!
You can find out more by looking up Deidra Mayberry and Reading to New Heights at any of the links below. I hope you will!
Tory Burch Foundation
If you prefer to listen to Deidra's powerful story, you may also listen to the podcast version of our conversation to catch up during your daily commute or walk outside among the trees. Just like Deidra, at Blue Roads Education, we try to make our information accessible for adult learners in multiple formats!
Deidra's work starts with filling in the gaps related to Global Goal #4 Quality Education, of course, but can you see how by doing so, her “Reading to New Heights” program has the potential to influence #8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth, #9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and every single other goal as well? When we have the functional literacy skills we need, the whole world is open to us so that we really can become the changes we want to see in the world. That's what Deidra's doing! You can do it, too!
You can get involved with Deidra and the Reading to New Heights program by looking up the website here where you can enroll in the program, volunteer for the program or donate to support the powerful changemaking efforts to strengthen literacy for adult learners no matter where we are along the literacy continuum.
Want to learn more about how you, too, can become a changemaker like Deidra Mayberry?
CHECK OUT our CHANGEMAKER YOU course to help you get started today!
Patti cultivates homegrown changemakers prepared to step into their power and work with others to create the world they want to live in. Get in touch to find out how you can grow the social changemaker in yourself and those you serve with Blue Roads Changemaker YOU.
