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Lavon Williams
When Lavon Williams graduated from high school, he realized that his inability to read well was like an anchor around his neck, slowly dragging him down. Lavon says he was “pushed” through school, didn’t receive much attention, and left school with little interest in learning. Over time, Lavon realized that there were certain things he wanted to do that he couldn't do. He points out that a person can’t order a burger at a fast food restaurant without reading the menu.
Lavon has been in the LVA Tulsa City-County Library literacy program in Oklahoma for eight years. His road to reading has been frustrating and rocky. After the third time Lavon entered and quit the program, he met with a tutor who addressed his immediate personal concerns. His tutor gave him the direct attention that he had needed for so long and identified the reason Lavon had kept giving up. “I wanted it right then, right there,” Lavon said. Lavon’s tutor knew that it would take time to help him reach his immediate goal: reading the Bible. His tutor recommended that he set a goal that could be reached quickly and suggested reading Dr. Seuss’s Sam I Am to his 8-month-old daughter, Destiny. Being able to read a simple book, which he could conquer quickly, gave Lavon confidence and helped him with pronunciation.
Lavon’s tutor says that he reads at a fifth-grade level, but Lavon believes he’s at a second-grade level. Either way, he says, progress wasn’t easy to achieve, but “when you want to do something, you might have to force yourself.”
Lavon wants to give back to the organizations that have helped him and to make sure potential students have the same life-changing opportunities he has had. He assists the program as a volunteer with recruiting, orienting, and encouraging new students, and he is still a student himself. He has also been active with statewide efforts and was appointed to serve as a board member of the Oklahoma Literacy Coalition in 2003. That year he was also selected to serve on the ProLiteracy Worldwide Student Advisory Council.
Lavon works at an elementary school and, sometimes, he says, he teases kids about keeping up with schoolwork and not skipping class. “I see a lot of kids walking in the same shoes, playing in the halls, not going to class, not focusing on reading, and I tell them, 'You don’t want to go this way. You need to try to get the best education and if you’ve got time to play, you’ve got time to study and do your homework.' And a lot of the kids there, I don’t believe they’re going to make it,” he says.
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