Education

Never Too Late to Conquer Illiteracy, CBS News Report Shows

By Mark Walsh — December 09, 2013 1 min read
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The subject of this CBS News report is not a K-12 student, but his story shows that it’s never too late to learn to read.

Ed Bray is 90 years old and a World War II veteran who stormed the beach at Normandy. As correspondent Steve Hartman reported for this piece that aired on the “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Sunday Morning,” Bray covered up his illiteracy for most of his life, with the help of co-workers and his late wife.

But Bray always kept a desire to read and finish just one book, “even if it’s a book about Mickey Mouse.” Tobi Thompson, an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction and a reading specialist at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., succeeded where others had failed in helping Bray conquer his reading problems.

The results are inspiring, and the video tells the story best.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Education and the Media blog.