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Showing posts from September 11, 2022

READING

  Never take for granted that you are reading this.   When Sam was 14 years old, he dropped out of school and went to work in the Homestead Steel Mill in Pittsburgh. During his time in the public school system he never learned how to read. He was considered “slow”, so they just kept shuffling him from grade-to-grade. During his 30 years as a laborer in the mill, reading wasn’t that important – he was able to get along by following verbal instructions and, if unexpectedly faced with a written document, he had his tricks: casually get a co-worker to comment on the document or, if it was urgent, call his wife at home and read it out to her letter by letter so that she could read it back to him. Sometimes he would use the excuse that he had left his eyeglasses at home. Much of his energy and innate creativity went into hiding from others the fact that he didn’t know how to read.   Then, after more than 30 years of getting by, the mill shut down. Sam found himself with