Lester Benton couldn’t read his high school diploma, but he’s put illiteracy behind him to be a role model for his kids.
Lester Benton stares down the new school year with steadfast determination.
Every textbook, every essay marks a major accomplishment for the 50-year-old, who only recently began learning to read.
The 1978 Yates High School graduate says that breaking the shackles of illiteracy is just the beginning for him.
He will return to Houston Community College on Monday, where he's been taking one class a semester as he inches toward an associate's degree in network engineering.
As he sounds out words and thumbs through the pages of his well-worn dictionary, Benton boasts that he will eventually earn a master's degree from the University of Houston.
“I'd like to be a role model,” the father of four said. “It's worth it to show an example to my boys. They know daddy can't spell good.”
Until recently, Benton was among the 52 percent of Harris County adults deemed functionally illiterate in English. Many, such as Benton, are native Houstonians.
The school system brushed off his struggles decades ago, classifying him as a special-needs student and even assigning him to a separate campus for developmentally delayed children. After begging his mom, he was returned to regular classes in eighth grade, even further behind.
He spent his school years embarrassed and anxious about his reading struggles.
“It never clicked with me at all,” he said. “I was one of those people who was dropped. I was just dropped.”
Still, Benton was pushed through the system — he was given a diploma and even enrolled in classes at Texas Southern University, where he failed almost immediately.
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