Jeanette Williams

I trained as an Al­ta tu­tor in 2003 and it opened a whole new world. At that time, I had no idea what teach­ing lit­er­a­cy en­tailed, but the six-week train­ing pe­ri­od left me in no doubt that this was go­ing to be not just ben­e­fi­cial to oth­ers, but stim­u­lat­ing and ex­cit­ing. I was not wrong.

Nine years on, I am still fu­elled by Paula's pas­sion for bring­ing the world of read­ing to oth­ers. In that time, I have taught three dif­fer­ent lev­els in our com­mu­ni­ty class­es, in our work­place pro­gramme and at a drug re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion fa­cil­i­ty.

In all cas­es, I have been struck by the sin­cer­i­ty of the ex­pres­sions of grat­i­tude from the stu­dents. The trust they place in me is tru­ly hum­bling. The lessons they teach me are life-giv­ing.

As a co-or­di­na­tor, I see yet oth­er as­pects of Al­ta that make it suc­cess­ful–the sym­me­try of the pro­gramme it­self, the team­work of tu­tors and the in­cred­i­bly well-or­gan­ised of­fice that keeps things run­ning. More re­cent­ly, I have been in­volved in in­ter­view­ing prospec­tive tu­tors, help­ing to ed­it teach­ing ma­te­r­i­al and be­ing part of the train­ing team.

I am amused by friends who sug­gest that be­ing an Al­ta tu­tor is a good idea as it gives me some­thing to do in my re­tire­ment.

Al­ta is not my hob­by. It is a so­cial move­ment to which I am­com­mit­ted.

Play your part to build lit­er­a­cy. If you have time, vol­un­teer to be an Al­ta tu­tor, a Read­ing Cir­cle guide or to as­sist stu­dents on the com­put­er. If your time is al­ready booked, spon­sor an Al­ta stu­dent for the year (TT$500).

Call 624-AL­TA (2582) or e-mail al­tatt@ya­hoo.com