John Corcoran ( ; born in 1939) is an American author and the founder of the John Corcoran foundation. He is severely

dyslexic Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writ ...

and read at a second-grade level until the age of 48. Despite this, he graduated from high school and college, and worked as a high school teacher and real estate developer without being discovered.

Early life

Corcoran was raised in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

where his literacy stalled after second grade. He was one of six siblings, and his parents were too overwhelmed to notice the deficit. His teachers at school assigned him to the "dumb row" but were distracted by his disciplinary problems and soon forgot about his reading difficulties. After graduating high school by cheating, he attended two junior colleges and then

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

(then called Texas Western). Thanks to an athletic scholarship and aggressive, continual cheating, he was able to graduate in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and

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. He became a high school social studies teacher. On his personal website, Corcoran describes some of the tricks he used to manage this. He switched schools but continued as a teacher for 17 years before becoming a real estate developer in 1977. He was successful for ten years, until his business faltered. After seeing

Barbara Bush Barbara Bush (; June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was the first lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of the 41st president of the United States, George H. W. Bush. She was previously second lady of the United States fr ...

talk about literacy on television, he resolved to finally learn how to read. After receiving tutoring from a volunteer tutor in a literacy program, he became literate at a 6th grade level.

Life after literacy

Since learning to read, he has written two books. He has since become a spokesman for literacy programs, as well as running his own foundation to help people learn to read. He created the John Corcoran Foundation, which trains tutors and helps students learn to read. He has appeared in the international media, but mostly his coverage is from American media. His appearances include an appearance on ''

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'',

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's ''Eye on Books'', and interviews in ''

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'' and other publications.

Books

*''The Bridge to Literacy: No Child—or Adult—Left Behind'' *''The Teacher Who Couldn't Read: One Man's Triumph Over Illiteracy''

References

External links

The John Corcoran Foundation
*Sarah McDermott
''‘I was a teacher for 17 years, but I couldn’t read or write’''
BBC News, 15 April 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Corcoran, John American educators Living people American education writers University of Texas at El Paso alumni 1937 births