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by Daniel Johnson
December 4, 2023
‘I ended up graduating from highschool with out figuring out learn how to learn, and nobody cared,” mentioned James.
In 2022 Oliver James admitted in a viral TikTok put up that he couldn’t learn, opening up his put up with a easy greeting, “What’s up? I can’t learn.”
The put up, to borrow the title of a Twista track, made James an in a single day superstar on the platform, racking up 273,000 followers on TikTok as he posted movies displaying himself slowly working via 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, nevertheless it seems I’m serving to a number of children and even adults who’ve been scuffling with studying like I used to be.”
In line with the Barbara Bush Basis, roughly 54% of individuals between the ages of 16 and 74 lack literacy proficiency, that means they learn under the equal of a Sixth-grade degree. James, nonetheless, was functionally studying illiterate, which he attributes to ADHD and different studying disabilities he lived with as a teen. James finally would graduate highschool, incredulously with out the power to really learn as he advised Individuals, “I ended up graduating from highschool with out figuring out learn how 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 power to learn, grew to become a health teacher and moved to California together with his long-term girlfriend, Anne Halkias, whom he lastly advised he couldn’t learn in October 2022. James credit his girlfriend with coaxing him to share that he had an lack of ability to learn, saying, “It was my massive secret. I saved it hidden from everybody.”
For James, the satisfaction of figuring out he’s inspiring others to learn books is one thing that also flooring him, as he advised Individuals, “Each time I get a message from somebody who writes, ‘Yo, I began studying in the present day 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 full of about 300 books.”
Up to now 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 figuring out that I used to be about to do one thing in entrance of all these folks that I wasn’t superb at was an thrilling sort of nervousness that I’ll always remember.”
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