And, you know, it really would take me a long time to tell you the whole story.
Mr. Corcoran graduated from high school, got a college degree, taught school, made a million
dollars in real estate-
-could never read a word when you were standing in front of the classroom.
His entire life was based on a lie.
How the heck did that happen?
First I was the millionaire that couldn’t read.
Then I was the teacher who couldn’t read.
I knew the headlines.
I wanted to tell the story.
Nobody was looking for the teacher to be a non-reader.
So it was a good place to hide in a way.
Looking at a printed- a newspaper printed in English, I would look at it and say, ‘This is a foreign
language to me.’
Can you read Chinese?
-No.
Okay.
That’s what it was like.
I really worked hard to put on a show.
I probably showed more visuals: movies and educational films.
And then we'd have discussions.
My childhood was full of joy.
My parents loved me, told me I was a winner.
I love my sisters.
My sisters loved me.
And I went off to school, and it was a completely different world.
I could not succeed in the classroom.
Teacher would ask me to read, and I couldn’t read.
I would rather turn the desk over and get thrown out of class and than be exposed
any way.
I went to six different schools in high school.
When I did make a mess of things, I moved to another school.
By this time, I had something of value when I moved: I had athletic skills.
I was homecoming king.
And I was a captain.
And so I have all the outside appearances of success.
But I always discounted my success—always discounted it—because I couldn't read.
In high school, it doesn't take a lot to cheat a bit.
Having your friend next to you on and on an exam or even swap out the paper, you know,
and they would put the answers down for me.
That's low level, entry level cheating.
I knew I wasn't prepared to go to college, but I had an athletic scholarship to go to
college.
The first day I got there I said to myself, ‘I'm over my head.
This is way over my, out of my league.’
I evolved as a cheater.
From an average cheater to an expert cheater?
Oh I was superior.
I was I was an all-American cheater.
I cheated at almost every single course that I took in college, one way or the other.
When I left the university I had a master key to all the buildings.
Often people say, you know, ‘It would have been a lot easier for you to just learn how
to read.’
And it's kinda like, You didn't think I wanted to do that?
I didn't want to do any of these other adventures at all.
But that opportunity didn't happen for me in elementary.
It didn't happen in junior high school.
It didn't happen in college because it couldn't happen in college because who would I- On
campus you know who would I tell?
I couldn't tell.
And then when I became a teacher, I couldn't tell anybody.
So I became deeper and deeper into my story, my lie.
The first person that I told was my wife.
And I had basically rehearsed it in front of the mirror, ‘Kathy, I can’t read.
Kathy, I can’t read.
Kathy, I can’t read.’
I really didn't know how bad his reading was.
I knew I did the writing reading but I thought that was because he wasn't a good writer and
he was a teacher and he didn't want to be embarrassed.
I realized later I'd never seen anything that he'd written, you know.
We had a 3-year-old daughter and I was reading a book to her, and I just made up the stories.
And I was really a good storyteller.
He was reading to Colleen, and I was cooking oatmeal—I can remember this very well—listening
to him and thinking, ‘Oh god, Can he read?’
I mean I remember the thought.
It was hard for me to compute that he couldn't read those words.
I saw Barbara Bush.
Her issue, her cause was adult literacy.
The statistics are staggering.
And the cost to our country is a terrible waste.
I saw her on television, and she was talking about adults that were learning to read.
And I was kind of at aw because I’m thinking, I didn't know there were other adults.
I didn't know there were hundreds of adults, thousands of adults that were reading at an
elementary level.
The emotion was building.
And one Friday afternoon I had my pinstripe suit on, I drove up in my Mercedes to go to
the Carlsbad Library Adult Learning Center.
Reading filled a big hole in my soul.
I was in my 50s when I read my first novel.
And it was the Catcher in the Rye.
I didn't understand how you could get into a book, you know, experience,
you were one of the- you were there.
I was sad that the book was coming to an end.
I wanted to- I wanted more.
After I learned to read, I had an opportunity to share my story and make people aware of
the problem.
I gave one speech, and the president of ABC introduced me to this group of businessmen.
And I get a call from 20/20 and said, ‘Would you like to go on 20/20?’
I told Oprah my story.
I told Larry King my story.
I’m telling my story to you.
Through my work as an advocate, I was appointed by the president the United States to the
National Literacy Board.
And that meant I was an advisor to the President of the United States.
I bought into the biggest lie that was ever told about me: that something was wrong with
my brain.
And I think there are a lot of little children right now that are getting that message.
Quit calling us learning disabled.
It’s toxic.
It’s a toxic term.
It’s insulting to a human spirit.
When you call somebody learning disabled what do they do?
I was never learning disabled.
I was able, and I learned.
The truth is, it’s never too late to learn to read.
And our brains are capable.
This is a miracle to me.
And I prayed for that miracle when I was 8 years old.
And I didn't get it until I was 48 years old.
And I could’ve and I should’ve learned at 8.
And what I need was an adult, a literate person, a teacher, somebody.
And this is a call for others that can read and have underestimated their precious gift,
to share it with other people.