Staff Profile

Karen Wishart is a previous JPL Employee of the Quarter and works at the Main Library in CAL as a Literacy Program Supervisor, contributing much to this community's growth in literacy.

Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of being a Literacy Program Supervisor?

A: We work with unique customers at the Center for Adult Learning. As a literacy program, our students come to us with very specific problems they want to tackle.

The first type of learners are native English speakers who read on a very low level. That means they are reading somewhere between 3rd and 6th grade level. They are trying to get a job, or read with their children, or just do not want people to know they cannot read. I had a student who recently shared with me that he was so proud of his new found ability to read. He said when asked to read something, he didn’t have to tell someone a “little lie” about not having his glasses with him. He went on the say that he would actually try to read it and mostly could. That proud moment is worth waking up for.

Our other students are in the English as a Second Language program. They come to us needing not only language skills but also job, culture, and life skills. One of our students was an administrative assistant at the UN in her country. She spoke several languages but was struggling with her English. She was having a difficult time finding work because of her accent. Recently she shared with us that she had a good job at a hospital. She was so proud of the improvements she had made with her English. She likes her job and “it didn’t have to be in housekeeping”.

These classes we give and the successes our students achieve are rewarding in many large and small ways.

Q: What made this career a good fit for you?

A: I started my career as a math teacher for middle school students. People always roll their eyes at me when I tell them that because it is a difficult age group to work with. I found, however, that I really liked that age group for the most part. You can joke and be sarcastic with them and they “get it”. Also, they are not so “grown” as to be horrid everyday. I was supposed to go into retirement from teaching when I began working part-time with the CAL English language learners. I loved them because they loved coming to class. This was a unique experience from my perspective. I decided retirement was not for me and was lucky enough to be offered a full-time position with CAL. It has been a wonderful experience for the past three years. The students learning to read often have learning disabilities, never liked school, or had to leave school early for a variety of reasons. I love to tell them that I was a math teacher who failed math in the 7th grade because I had such a poor math teacher. They laugh that I still remember her name. This makes them relax because they know I understand them because we have shared this school experience. I like having students who want to learn to read, to do math, or to learn English because they like to be here.

Q: What do you see as the next step forward in literacy programming?

A: CAL will be doing even more outreach this year. One outreach is with Wayman Enterprises. We are helping them start a literacy program using the reading program written by CAL.

We are also planning more work with the refugee population. I started attending the Refugee Task Force meetings and am beginning the process of meeting with the individual organizations that help with refugee resettlement. There are tremendous literacy needs with that population. The agencies have shared that more and more of those moving to Jacksonville have had immense disruptions in their education and the agencies want help from the library to provide a wide variety of education tools.

We have also learned recently that the military needs help working with the sailors who are trying to learn English quickly so that they can pass their citizenship test.

Finally, we are going to different organizations and groups locally and around the state to train volunteer tutors who want to teach reading.

Q: Who was the greatest mentor in your life and why?

A: My greatest mentor was a fellow teacher who took pity on a first year teacher. Unfortunately, when I began teaching the principal handed you your classroom keys and you either succeeded or not. There was not much (not any, really) in the way of guidance. I also had never had an education class at college because that was not my major. To learn to do lesson plans, I lied to this sweet woman. I told her I knew that every principal liked the plans written differently so what should mine look like. This should have set off alarm bells in her head but instead she very patiently explained how she wrote hers. From then on if I had a question, I headed to her classroom. She was patient and kind and never let on that she thought there was a bozo in the 7th grade room. She spent two years getting me into the rhythms of teaching. I know that she sometimes wondered how I fell into teaching but she never spoke aloud about her misgivings. I will always appreciate what she did for me.

Q: Do you have a favorite book or author you would like to tell us about?

A: I am a sci-fi nut. I love nothing better than to read or reread a Larry Niven or Isaac Asimov. One of my current favorites is Jim Butcher.