March 29, 2024

One of those children

Part of my job involves reading emails. The emails I get from readers are some of my favorites, but the vast majority of the emails that flow into my inbox every day are pitches. I get a lot of awful pitches, stuff I can delete after a quick once over, but I can usually spot a diamond in the rough if I look hard enough.

Last week, I got an email from Jody Stiles about an event she was planning. Her mother’s 66th birthday was Tuesday and Stiles has pledged to donate $1 for every photo someone submits of themselves reading on her Facebook event. The email was one that hit me right in the heart; there’s nothing I love more than reading.

When I was an elementary student, I struggled in school. I couldn’t read in first grade, and even in second grade I was a slow reader who often struggled with pronunciation. My mother decided to enroll me in a Heartland AEA program that scrapped the traditional reading method, which wasn’t working for me, and instead focused on  using memorization or recognizing the shapes each word made.

At about the same time, I was learning the AEA method, I lost my hearing. One morning I woke up and couldn’t hear anymore. A trip to the audiologist confirmed my parent’s worst fears; I’d lost nearly all the hearing in my left ear and more than 60 percent of the hearing in my right ear. Even with 1980s state of the art hearing technology, a pair of bulky over the ear hearing aids and an auditory trainer or a microphone my teacher wore on a string around her  neck, I still had trouble adjusting.

I hated every minute of it. I hated wearing the hearing aids, I hated asking people to repeat their questions and I hated nearly all of things I used to love. As latchkey kids, my brother and I would ride the bus home from school every day then watch an hour or two of television before my dad got home from work. Once I lost my hearing, I hated watching TV, either it wasn’t loud enough for me to hear, or it was too loud.

People who love Jesus are always quick to point out when God closes a door he usually leaves a window open; in this case they were right. Once the lessons through the AEA started to click I found that I loved to read. Toward the end of second grade, my class read a chapter of James and the Giant Peach every day. I couldn’t wait until the end of the school year to finish Dahl’s masterpiece I begged my mom to take me to the bookstore and buy me a copy of my own and the same night she gave in to my request, I finished the book lying in bed. Flipping through the pages I was amazed to find there were other books, by the same author I could read. The next day, I went to the school library and checked out every single one, ignoring the librarians dubious glance.

That book was the first step in a lifetime of reading, in fact I’m writing this column  in my office, surrounded by floor to ceiling bookshelves. Reading and writing has been the foundation for my entire young and adult life. It helped me finish college, choose a career and pass a thousand lonely hours. I’ve always known no matter where I ended up, I’d be OK as long as I have a book.

Stiles’ donation will make a world of difference at Aurora Heights by providing new titles for the school’s library. Since budget cuts are forcing the library to scale back on new acquisitions, donations are more important than ever. Stiles’ event ended yesterday, but the need for new books at libraries around the country is still there. Consider what you can do to help. Every single donation is an opportunity to spark the fire of a child’s curiosity, I should know, I’m one of those children.

Contact David Dolmage
at ddolmage@newtondailynews.com