Press Review
Huntingdon resident, and Canada Post Literacy Award finalist Gordon Hope sits next to his computer in his home. Since beginning the Literacy Program at the Huntingdon Learning Centre he has written a short autobiography and a brief history of Huntingdon. (Photo: Sarah Rennie)
The Gleaner/La Source - Édition du 22 août 2007
Local writer selected as finalist for Canadian Literacy Award
Sarah Rennie
For Chateauguay Valley native Gordon Hope the ability to read and write are two aspects of everyday life never to be taken for granted, and now, as a result of his keen dedication to learning and improving his own literacy skills as an adult, he has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious Canada Post Literacy Award for Individual Achievement.
As a student at the Huntingdon Learning Centre for three years, Hope likes to tell people that they are never too old to learn, and his story proves it. As a boy, he learned to work with his hands on the family farm and there was little time for school. He worked the land until the farms were sold and he took a job at Zephyr Textiles, where he remained as a jack-of-all-trades until stress forced him to leave the job. It was then that he found the Learning Centre and began taking reading, writing and maths classes as part of the literacy program where he was also introduced to computers.
"My wife received a computer and it only played games, I wanted to learn to do more, so the first two years I learned writing and I worked on writing stories. I learnt also through the Learning Centre how to look things up on the Internet and how to move pictures, because I knew nothing and I wanted to learn," says Gordon.
"I can do a little better than I could when I first started," he says, adding "I went through a lot of paper, but I thought I have to learn and I would read it over and get the wording right," he says, with a smile while thumbing through the brief history of Huntingdon that he painstakingly researched and worked over 120 hours to complete.
Pride is written across his face as he thinks back to the progress he has made over the past three years. His blue eyes shine as he recollects the amount of energy, time and hard work that he poured into writing his first essay, and then again for his second - an autobiography chronicling his life and the journey that led him to the Learning Centre.
It is for this reason that the team of teachers and tutors at the Learning Centre decided to nominate Hope for the Literacy Award. "Gordon would be what we would call a success story in adult literacy," says Roger Bouthillier, Hope's teacher at the Huntingdon Learning Centre.
"He has worked so hard and come a long way and I'm so proud of him," says Bouthillier of Hope's dedication to learning. Hope himself has begun to take on the role of motivator and teacher himself in both encouraging and teaching his wife to read. "He is certainly an inspiration to others, and if I could get more people to follow his path it would be great," says Bouthillier, of his star pupil.
The courage demonstrated by adult learners to go back to school and re-learn, or learn for the first time, such essential skills as reading and writing certainly qualify these individuals as unsung heroes in today's fast paced society. As Canada's only national honour dedicated to celebrating the achievements of adult learners who overcome social or economic barriers by improving their literacy or English/French as a Second Language (ESL/FSL) skills, the Literacy Awards acknowledge their efforts and encourage Canadians to more fully participate in the world around them by reaching a level of reading and writing proficiency to meet their personal literacy goals. At least 26 awards will be presented to one English-speaking and one French-speaking nominee in each province and territory. As well, a separate category of awards are presented in recognition of the work by teachers who have dedicated their time in helping people across the country to improve their reading and writing skills.
"There are a lot of people that I feel sorry for because I think they can learn but they don't put the effort in," says Hope, noting how important it is for people to take advantage of the opportunities presented through the Learning Centre.
The Centre de Formation de Huntingdon Learning Centre offers adults the opportunity to learn basic reading, writing and mathematics. It also offers courses in computer usage and enables students to learn a second language, either English or French. All the courses are free and are tailored to the learning needs of each student on a full or part time basis.
