I commented chat the tutors in the program must be very special themselves. "Oh, they are," Maureen said warmly. "They're the best part of my job. They're really remarkable people. Tutoring is difficult enough, but it's especially difficult doing something like this when you've never done it before. It's a big step to take on the responsibility of tutoring somebody who has been labelled as 'not able to learn'. But the tutors have done a super job and have been such a big part of the successes we've seen."

"I'll give you an example. At first the students didn't know what a story was or even how to tell one but when the tutors started working with them, many of them really enjoyed talking about and telling stories about their childhoods. When they realize that someone else thinks their stories are important, the students really start to grow and try. For students who have been told chat they're the 'dregs of society', being acknowledged and valued for who they are is especially important. The tutors believe in the students, just as I do."

"Many people in literacy are stigmatized but this group is even more so. Many of the students are made to be dependent on other people, so you've got that to work through too - letting them throw off some of those shackles so chat they can feel comfortable and confident about going out and doing things for themselves."

I asked Maureen what we need to do to help get rid of the stigma attached to developmentally disabled learners. Maureen thought for a moment then said, "To begin with, we have to rethink our definition of literacy. When I first started with the program, I was still teaching part-time at the University. The students at the University and the students here at Challenges really made me re- evaluate my concepts of literacy."

"We tend to think of people at University as being highly literate and people in literacy programs, such as this, as not being literate. I was interviewing prospective students for Challenges and I remember asking one student, 'Why do you want to learn to read and write better?' He said, 'Oh, so I can read stories and poems and everything.' Most of the students say - "to get jobs or to read the newspaper" - very specific things, but this student had a very grand and joyful concept of reading."

"The next day I would go back to the University. My classes there were always good, fairly lively, but it was always really hard work motivating the students because this was a required course, the last English course most of them would take. And one fellow said to me one day, 'Ah, do we have to read another short story?' and I said, 'Yes, we have to read about six in this course.' And he groaned and said, 'That last one was seven pages long!' (I don't know what he'll do when he has to read a novel!) The University students were so task oriented and focused on marks, not really caring about the literature. Some of them did I suppose but not many.

"And then I had another student in this program who is a fairly good reader already, reading at about a Grade 5 or 6 level. She was very shy and not social at all but had held a job for 15 years in a kitchen in a nursing home. When I asked her why she wanted to come to these lessons she said, 'Oh, I just love learning. Before I started coming here, I never noticed what was going on in the world. And now I like to read the newspaper and I find out what's happening and I know what the government is doing. I really like learning.'"

"I know the University students are under tremendous pressure, having to jump though hoops all the rime but is being in university really 'higher education'? We need to think more about the whole issue of literacy - what it means to be literate, how people use their literacy and about people's potential to learn. The students in the Challenges Literacy Project are full of potential and are able to learn and do much more than most people give them credit for. They want to learn and are excited about their learning. They shouldn't be denied the opportunity to pursue their own idea of 'higher education'."