Nelson North Lions Club

On 27th March, manager, Jo Poland, spoke to Nelson North Lions club about the issues our students need to deal with.

She spoke about

  • the shame that people feel when they can’t read and write well,
  • the fact that most of our learners FEEL dumb but are, in fact, far from dumb,
  • that many of our learners are parents of young children who come to us because they will do for their children what they won’t do for themselves. Young parents make up a large percentage of our students because they want to be able to help their children (the way they didn’t get help themselves), they want to take promotions at work that they have previously avoided and because they don’t want their children to feel ashamed of them.

The group enjoyed some exercises designed to make them feel the way an adult feels when they can’t read or spell the way most of us can, and other exercises to get them looking at how they actually do decode text.

The club gave Jo a certificate of appreciation. Nice touch, thanks Nelson North Lions.