In cel­e­bra­tion of its 20th an­niver­sary, AL­TA stu­dents viewed the ac­claimed Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic film 'The First Grad­er'. The film is set in Kenya and is based on the true sto­ry of Maruge, an 84-year-old for­mer Mau Mau fight­er who at­tends pri­ma­ry school to learn to read and write, de­spite protests from his vil­lage.A spe­cial­ly de­signed les­son meant that 'The First Grad­er' be­came a spring­board for stu­dents to write about their own jour­ney to read­ing and writ­ing.Out of sev­er­al hun­dred sub­mis­sions, we have se­lect­ed a few to fea­ture in this sec­tion.

Shen­nel–Lev­el 3

"You are nev­er too old to learn". Every­one learns and un­der­stands things in their own way and in their own time. Some peo­ple are slow learn­ers and oth­ers had to deal with war, re­li­gion, racism and class.There are many peo­ple go­ing back to school from young adults to much old­er peo­ple. By at­tend­ing evening class­es, tak­ing a course or go­ing to uni­ver­si­ty to study for a de­gree peo­ple try to get a bet­ter pay­ing po­si­tion in their job.Most aged peo­ple join class­es so that they can stay ac­tive, keep their minds fresh or just to be around peo­ple like them­selves.

Life is a learn­ing process whether you at­tend school or not. School can on­ly teach you the ba­sics in life. You are al­ways learn­ing some­thing new every­day. Peo­ple make oth­er peo­ple feel bad about their learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties but his­to­ry has shown us that there have been many peo­ple in his­to­ry that were not well ed­u­cat­ed but were lead­ers of a coun­try, big busi­ness peo­ple, good ath­letes and ac­tors. These peo­ple had learn­ing prob­lems but that did not stop them from be­com­ing suc­cess­ful.

So even if you are in your eight­ies, nineties or any age you have the right to an ed­u­ca­tion and to­day, more than ever, there are re­sources avail­able to help you with what­ev­er it is you want to learn about. Don't sit and think about it. Don't put it off or wait for to­mor­row.Take the time to­day to learn about what­ev­er it is that in­ter­ests you.

In­dar Po­li­ah–Lev­el 3

"You are nev­er too old to learn". At age 26 I got mar­ried and some time lat­er my wife re­alised that I could not read and write.One day at work my wife called me and said to me that she saw on the in­ter­net that AL­TA is giv­ing class­es to per­sons who had to leave school at an ear­ly age.I was now 45 years old and de­cid­ed to start the AL­TA class­es and found it to be help­ing me to read and write. I start­ed in Lev­el 2 and now I am in Lev­el 3. Now at my work I can write re­ports with con­fi­dence, and al­so take notes in meet­ings. I am in man­age­ment. What I have learnt at AL­TA has helped me im­prove my skills.

Now with re­newed con­fi­dence I de­cid­ed to do a com­put­er course at UWI. As a re­sult the com­pa­ny bought me a lap­top so I can write my re­ports. As you can see it is "nev­er too old to learn".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).

�2Call 624-AL­TA (2582) or email HY­PER­LINK "mail­to:al­tatt@ya­hoo.com"al­tatt@ya­hoo.com