Peggy Melton explains operation of a voice language translator to Joel McDavid.

Peggy Melton was reluctant to add more duties to her busy schedule, but when two Rotarians came to her door and explained the need she decided to look into adult literacy.

In the cramped literacy office in the Main Library, she found a new computer donated by Putnam Rotary.

And she also found that one in five adults are functionally illiterate above the fifth grade level.

You might never realize it, though. Many of them have acquired coping skills to cover up their deficiencies.

One woman always "forgot" her glasses, Melton explained to Rotarians at their luncheon meeting today. The woman was always asking others to read for her -- since she had "left her glasses at home."

Coming from a family of teachers, Melton taught in Putnam schools beginning in 1971, and before retirement in 2003 she had served as principal at Rock Branch, Hometown, West Teays, and Poca Elementary Schools.

Now she had an opportunity to teach as adults some of those students who had fallen through the cracks of the traditional educational system.

The Putnam adult literacy program includes about 28 active volunteer tutors, and the number of students varies. There have been as many as 42 at times. Some of them are in the program for a few weeks, and some for months. It depends on the needs of each student, says Melton. Many of them respond quickly to the one-on-one teaching which is tailored to their individual needs.

"Some of them have to work to overcome the bad habits they picked up when they were in school," she said. "And some of them have to make a commitment as to how hard and how long they want to work; what are their personal goals."

One man wanted to get his GED (general education diploma). A Chinese student wanted to learn enough English to get a driver's license. Then she wanted to learn more. And now she has become a tutor and teaches English to other Chinese students.

Sometimes students find out about literacy through their employers. Sometimes a referral will come from a church group.

"I think the word is getting out about us," said Melton, noting that she occasionally has people calling to serve as tutor volunteers.

New technology fits neatly into the scheme of things for adult literacy. The program now has "talking dictionaries" for personal use: When a student comes across a strange word, they simply type it into the hand computer and instantly hear the word pronounced while they read its definition.

"They look at each letter of a word," said Melton. "They sound out the letters, then they type them in and they hear the word. So they have used a lot of senses" in the learning process.

"One of our students," she told the group, "is in her forties. She's very much alone. She has low ability and some special learning problems. But she wants to learn to read in the worst way.

"One of our long-standing tutors decided to take her on as a project.

"She gave the student one of these talking dictionaries, and you should have seen her face light up -- to think that when she came across a strange word she could simply type it in and hear it and learn what it meant.

"She was so excited that she started pulling money out of her purse. She wanted to buy one right then -- and she doesn't have that much money to start with.

"The tutor told her that we were purchasing more of these, and 'We'll see that you have one to work with.'"

Then there are the "talking translators" for the increasing numbers of Putnam residents for whom English is a second language. The student types in a phrase in French, German or Spanish -- or even in Chinese or Japanese kanji characters -- and instantly hears a spoken English translation.

"We shopped around," Melton told the group. "Some of the translators we heard had a heavy British accent. And that didn't suit us folks in Putnam County."

Melton noted that two ESL (English-as-a -second language) students, one from Russia and one from China, "just yesterday received their citizenship papers. They are now citizens of the United States."

Melton noted that all of the literacy tutors are volunteers. "About ninety-five percent of our funds go for training for our tutors and for materials for our students," said Melton.

The new computer aids for teaching and learning were funded out of a Rotary grant last December. A thousand-dollar gift from the local club is matched by a $1,000 from Rotary District 7550 (33 clubs in southern West Virginia).