by Daniel Johnson
December 4, 2023
‘I ended up graduating from highschool with out understanding the right way to learn, and nobody cared,” mentioned James.
In 2022 Oliver James admitted in a viral TikTok publish that he couldn’t learn, opening up his publish with a easy greeting, “What’s up? I can’t learn.”
The publish, to borrow the title of a Twista track, made James an in a single day celeb on the platform, racking up 273,000 followers on TikTok as he posted movies displaying himself slowly working by books as he taught himself to learn. James mirrored on the expertise, telling Individuals Journal, “I by no means thought it was going to explode prefer it did. I began out on this journey simply to assist myself, but it surely seems I’m serving to loads of children and even adults who’ve been scuffling with studying like I used to be.”
Based on the Barbara Bush Basis, roughly 54% of individuals between the ages of 16 and 74 lack literacy proficiency, which means they learn beneath the equal of a Sixth-grade degree. James, nevertheless, was functionally studying illiterate, which he attributes to ADHD and different studying disabilities he lived with as a youngster. James ultimately would graduate highschool, incredulously with out the flexibility to truly learn as he instructed Individuals, “I ended up graduating from highschool with out understanding the right way to learn, and nobody cared.”
Shortly after his highschool commencement, he was despatched to jail on an arms dealing conviction. As soon as he was launched, James, nonetheless with out the flexibility to learn, turned a health teacher and moved to California together with his long-term girlfriend, Anne Halkias, whom he lastly instructed he couldn’t learn in October 2022. James credit his girlfriend with coaxing him to share that he had an incapability to learn, saying, “It was my huge secret. I saved it hidden from everybody.”
For James, the satisfaction of understanding he’s inspiring others to learn books is one thing that also flooring him, as he instructed Individuals, “Each time I get a message from somebody who writes, ‘Yo, I began studying at this time due to you,’ I inform myself that that is priceless. I actually don’t want anything.”
James additionally admitted that his 10-year-old reads higher than he does, however says the expansion he has exhibited is his final prize.
“My 10-year-old reads higher than me,” James mentioned. “However I’m managing to place in about 5 hours a day studying and simply completed my 81st ebook.”
James continued, “For many of my life, I by no means even considered proudly owning a ebook.Now I’ve obtained two bookshelves crammed with about 300 books.”
Thus far in 2023, James, who estimates that he now reads at a Third-grade degree, has completed 81 books and has his sights set on ending 100 books. In October, the Barbara Bush Basis honored James with the Nationwide Literacy Honors Award, which required him to learn a teleprompter to a big viewers. James recalled to Individuals being equal components nervous and excited, “I used to be nervous,” James mentioned. “However understanding that I used to be about to do one thing in entrance of all these those who I wasn’t superb at was an thrilling sort of nervousness that I’ll always remember.”
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