By Greg Fruth, president of READ LaPorte County Inc.

READ LaPorte County Inc. exists to increase reading, math and English skills through tutoring. As part of its 25th anniversary, READ will celebrate its efforts with LaPorteans’ essays about the importance of reading.

Greg Fruth

Greg Fruth

I hated Fridays.

I’d cry. I’d make excuses to stay home. I’d stomp my feet. I’d refuse to go. But I was always forced to go.

Friday mornings meant the Weekly Spelling Test, 20 words that presented an impossible hurdle for me. No matter how hard I had studied their correct spelling, on the test I’d scatter the letters (htis for this) or I’d substitute letters (inpossible for impossible) or I’d omit letters (speling for spelling). How I remember sitting in the living room Monday through Thursday evenings, drilling the proper spellings. One of my parents, my personal tutors, would coach me on the proper spelling for each word. This was the educational gulag for a youngster, a prison that kept me inside. I’d much rather have been outside, riding my bike or playing ball at Scott Field. Instead I had to stare at word cards, I had to listen to a parent say the word distinctly, I had to spell the word out loud, or I had to write the word. Why would I want to go to school on Friday mornings?

And how was I rewarded for my study sessions? Eleven or 12 right out of 20 was the norm. A great score would be 15 out of 20. Sometimes I spelled fewer than 10 correctly. What difference did my studying make?

Reading presented the same problems. I struggled with deciphering letters. Spot and Puff and Dick and Sally just presented me with hieroglyphics. In grades one through five, I was in the last reading group, the Dead Buzzards. Back to the nightly gulag for more drilling, more word cards, more torture.

I felt like I was dumb, different from my friends. I was frustrated.

The teachers at Maple School were always helpful, always patient. But a student with my problems needs one-on-one attention. Many of the classes actually had two groups of students in one room. Because students could begin school in the middle of the year, we had 5A and 5B, or even 5A and 6B in one room. In other words, the teacher was faced with two different classes in one room, one on each side of the room. Providing a Dead Buzzard with special instruction was impossible.

Then in fifth grade, I met a special teacher. She wasn’t a member of Maple School’s faculty, but she came twice a week and helped me overcome my sequencing problem, both with words and with numbers. At first READ logothese private sessions were as torturous as the nightly sessions in my home, but as time passed, Spot and Puff and Dick and Sally became clearer. I began to score 16 and 18 on spelling tests. I began to enjoy reading. I went to the library and read every sports book in the children’s section, sometimes reading three or four books a week. Reading was becoming easier — and fun.

The following year, I had to read a book and go to the teacher’s desk for a personal book report. I remember the book: Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild.” I had to summarize the book, and then my teacher, Mr. Graffis, asked me questions about it. I earned an A. I was no longer with the Dead Buzzards. I was reading more difficult books, I was understanding them, and I was enjoying them. In a year, I’d gone from Spot and Puff and Dick and Sally to Jack London. The next year, in seventh grade, I read Mark Twain, James Baldwin and Richard Wright. I was becoming a Reader.

One interesting aspect of this sequencing problem revealed itself when I first used a computer to write. I was always a seeker and a pecker with the typewriter. I typed slowly because I wanted to avoid mistakes. As time passed, I actually forgot about my sequencing problem. Then I started typing on a computer. Because the computer has spellcheck, I let my fingers speed up. Looking at the screen, I was amazed. The scattered letters and the missing letters had returned. Then I remembered being a Dead Buzzard reader and scoring miserably on spelling tests. I realized the sequencing problem has not left me; rather, I’d learned to overcome this problem, thanks to my parents, to the teachers at Maple School, and to one special teacher.

Even writing this essay, I’ve spelled porper for proper, yountser for youngster, and speeling for spelling. The buzzard isn’t as dead as I thought.

My parents, the Maple School teachers, and one special teacher were my tutoring corps. I remember their patience, their refusal to allow me to quit. I thank them often. I don’t know what my life would be like if I had not overcome my reading problem. These tutors helped a buzzard to soar.

GREG FRUTH is a retired LaPorte High School teacher.