Learning to Read: Second Chances
A new program from Texas Scottish Rite Hospital has Masons volunteering for frontline duty in the fight for literacy.

Fred E. Allen, 33
Chairman, Literacy Committee for the Grand Lodge of Texas
P.O. Box 1595
Mt. Pleasant, Texas  75455
For more information on the TSRH Literacy Program, please write:
Fred E. Allen
Chairman, Literacy Committee for the Grand Lodge of Texas
P.O. Box 1595
Mt. Pleasant, TX  75455

There are an estimated 27 million Americans, high school age and older, who function below a sixth-grade reading level. This is not a recent development, although it is universal. This category cuts across all lines-economic, racial, and cultural and affects everyone. It also is magnified by the information and technical revolution sweeping our world. Those who cannot read will be left behind in increasing numbers and so will their chances of leading productive, independent lives.
	A major problem in the battle for literacy has been that the number of people needing, and wanting, to learn to read is greater than the number of volunteers with the special training necessary to teach them. Now that has changed and Masons are helping to lead the way.
	This change began five years ago, when Texas Scottish Rite Hospital (TSRH) for Children in Dallas introduced a two-year series of 350, one-hour lessons on videotape. The series, which teaches children with specific learning differences how to read, write, and spell, is a definite success. It is used in nearly 300 Texas school districts, 24 states across the nation, and seven foreign countries. Masons have been instrumental in making the tapes available to their local schools.
	This program is used to teach children with learning differences like dyslexia. The classroom scenes, however, were produced with nine- and ten-year-olds, and lessons were paced for elementary school students. From a practical standpoint, the videotapes are not appropriate for students in high school. With this in mind, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital rewrote the program for older students and condensed it to a faster paced 160-lesson series that can be covered in about one year. Texas Masons quickly made the connection that this new TSRH Literacy Program for teens also could be used in all adult reading programs and community-based literacy classes.
	The TSRH Literacy Program uses state-of-the-art technology to compensate for the shortage of specially trained volunteer reading tutors. Direct instruction is provided by an on-camera teacher appearing in the video. In this way, every class, no matter where in the country (or the world), is assured of having the finest level of instruction available for its students. The two teachers, who alternate appearing on-camera throughout the tapes, are eminently qualified graduates of the teacher training program at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital. They even helped draft the curriculum for the tapes.
	But the TSRH Literacy Program is not an impersonal series that depends solely on modern technology. Volunteer team-teachers who help students in each classroom have been one of the crucial elements of its success, which has been proven in extensive pilot programs conducted over the past year. Since direct instruction is provided in the video, team-teachers do not need special training. A short orientation video, provided as part of the program, is all that is needed to turn motivated laymen into team-teachers. Several team-teachers have been husbands and wives as well as community-minded Brethren. They are charged with organizing classes, setting up review sessions, and encouraging students-a mainstay of the program. The pace and subject matter require commitment and work on the part of each student-but the results have been more than worthwhile.
	Already exciting things are happening. Last November, the Dallas Scottish Rite Bodies dedicated their new Learning Center-a cooperative endeavor with LIFT (Literacy Instruction for Texas). A 30-year-old, non-profit volunteer adult literacy organization, LIFT has been named by the National Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the 100 most successful self-help programs in America. At the Dallas Scottish Rite Learning Center, LIFT is responsible for the volunteers and adult students. The Dallas Scottish Rite Bodies provided the classroom space and the TSRH Literacy Program videotapes. Many of our Scottish Rite Masons also are volunteering to help LIFT in the actual program.
	The possibilities opened up by the TSRH Literacy Program are just beginning to make themselves known. Masons are actively providing the videotapes to their local high school districts. LIFT has gone on record as saying the TSRH Literacy Program "is an excellent curriculum for use as the foundation for an adult literacy program." Those adult literacy programs can be either existing community classes in which Masons become involved-or new classes started by Masons in cooperation with local community groups.
	The need for viable adult literacy education has never been greater. Neither has the opportunity for making Masonry a visible, positive force in your community!     s

Fred E. Allen, 33,
is a Past Grand Master of Texas. It was under his leadership that implementing the TSRH Literacy Program in adult classes became a project of the Grand Lodge of Texas. Illustrious  Allen is a member of Temple No. 70 in Mt. Pleasant, TX, and Roy Stanley No. 1367 in Dallas, TX, the Scottish Rite Bodies of Dallas, TX, and a trustee of the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas.