American Idol Fantasia is illiterate

[PneumaticTransit]

Thought this was an interesting article from Yahoo. I just have one question : How do you make it to high school when you can't read?



"American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino reveals in her memoirs that she is functionally illiterate and had to fake her way through some scripted portions the televised talent show, which she won in 2004.

"You're illiterate to just about everything. You don't want to misspell," Fantasia told ABC's "20/20." "So that, for me, kept me in a box and I didn't, wouldn't come out."

The 21-year-old R&B singer says she's signed record deals and contracts that she didn't read and couldn't understand. But the hardest part, she said, is not being able to read to Zion, her 4-year-old daughter.

"That hurts really bad," she said, adding that she is now learning to read with tutors.

In her memoir, "Life is Not a Fairy Tale," which she dictated to a freelance writer, Fantasia also said she was raped in the ninth grade by a classmate. She says the boy was disciplined, but she blamed herself for the attack.

She dropped out of high school that year and became an unwed mother at 17.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Wow!!!! She dropped out of high school at 17 and couldn't read?!!! I don't buy it.

 

[shortbun]

Although she is a wonderful and unusual performer, I had a sense that her education was lacking. Illiterate though suprises me. I hope she gets help right away! Reading opens such doors and she has a 4 year old. What better time to learn to read than right along side your child!?

 

[luvindisneyworld]

I watched that the other night.She is working with tutors now to learn how to read.She also came out about being raped also.She has had a hard life and I am glad she is doing as well as she is.

 

[hemispheredancer]

Typical...

 

[tekmom]

Social promotion, perhaps? When I was in school, if you failed, you failed. Unfortunately, some kids are just passed on and on. God forbid, they feel bad about themselves. My beef would also be with her parents. How do you allow your kid to go through school unable to read and write properly?

 

[merrily]

I think some of you would be surprised by the level of illiteracy in this country. Even some people who have been fairly successful in life have come out and shared that they are illiterate. People learn coping mechanisms to cover up that they can't read. I doubt that anyone chooses this for themselves. People are very quick to judge what they know little about.
I believe that Fantasia said that other members of her family also have literacy issues. It is a vicious cycle.

 

[Sirius]

Typical...

What do you mean?

 

[dmslush]

I think some of you would be surprised by the level of illiteracy in this country. Even some people who have been fairly successful in life have come out and shared that they are illiterate. People learn coping mechanisms to cover up that they can't read. I doubt that anyone chooses this for themselves. People are very quick to judge what they know little about.
I believe that Fantasia said that other members of her family also have literacy issues. It is a vicious cycle.

I agree 100%, many of my clients are illiterate and you would never know it. They can fool the best of people. When I ask them to write their statement, I have heard all kinds of things, "I'm too nervous, can you write it?" "He harmed my hand, can you write it?" Etc.. So, now, if they ask me to write it, I don't question it, I just to it. I then have them swear that it is their statement in front of the commissioner.

 

[paigevz]

Social promotion perhaps. More likely, special education student. There are lots of things wrong with No Child Left Behind, but it does specifically address the issue of special education students simply being passed along (many districts felt these students "couldn't learn", so didn't worry about how much they were taught) in that they are now required to show adequate yearly progress. We disagree in how that is measured, but I think it's one of the positive steps. A student could still make it all the way through without learning to read though, it depends on their disabilities. I would think in her case (doesn't seem severely disabled) it might be difficult for her to learn to read, but not impossible. She should've been on at least 4th-6th grade level of reading/writing when she left school. That probably wouldn't have helped with her contracts, but definitely with reading to her daughter.

What DO you mean by typical?

 

[gina2000]

Typical...

Interesting comment.




I wonder how many people here have trouble reading a manual and programming a VCR?

 

[va32h]

I read the article as she dropped out of high school at the age of 14, and became a mother at 17.

Either way, that's too many years of schooling for someone not to notice that she could not read.

Pretty brave of her to admit it - I hope she gets the tutoring that she needs.

 

[janette]

Very possible, my youngest is dyslexic and does qualify as special education. They are happy with a little progress not necessarily proficiency. I've tried to get her in the right programs and hopefully she'll get through school being reasonably accomplished with reading / writing. Not all school districts offer special programs, also not all have required testing for promotion. I don't advocate standardized testing as the solution in any way but they do help to identify when districts have problems. Whether something is actually done about it is another story. I know we still have districts in TX that are graduating students without fundamental skills and we have mandatory testing. The number that eventually just drop out is probably much higher, record keeping on that is not well done at all.

 

[*Fantasia*]

Typical...

Exactly what do you mean by that? We want to know... if you want to express yourself... why don't you just spit it out!

 

[Daxx]

In several schools here, you can only fail a grade once. If you do not do well the 2nd time around, you are promoted anyway.

There are some schools who allow only one fail in the elementary school level and one fail in the high school level. So, you take 3rd grade and you fail. You take it again ... if you still fail you are bumped to 4th grade. If you pass and go on to 4th grade and find yourself failing 4th grade, you are put into 5th grade, regardless.

Social promotion.

We had a student come to our school in the 4th grade. He could not read, could not sound out words and could not print his name or letters well. This 4th grader, was at level K.0 (entering Kdg.). How does this happen?! Turns out, he had many, many learning problems that nobody in his old school ever did anything about. He never went for testing and when our school sent him to be tested, he had a vast IEP. Fortunately, our school was able to work w/him and "catch him up". He is still very behind, takes all his exams orally (does not have the ability to write long essay-type answers, but can do it verbally). He can read, although very basic -- yet improving every day. However, at least this is better than when he came to us (he's now in 7th grade).

We always question how this happened. How could someone fall through the cracks like this?

I remember watching a 20/20 (Primetime Live?) episode where this socialite who was divorcing her wealthy husband (can't rememeber who) and it was really an embroiled thing. She wanted all of this cash, stating that he couldn't have functioned w/o her. Anyway, it turns out the man could not read a menu and she would read it to him. He could not read proposals, etc. and she'd read them all to him. How do you become this multi-millionaire businessman and not know how to read?! Well, w/a good woman at your side, anything is possible, right?!

 

[Albertan mom]

I saw the show on 20/20 or Dateline, one of those.
She is 'functionally illiterate'. She can read some words, but she has trouble pronouncing big words.
Her mother is also, along with much of her family.

She said she couldn't even read her contracts, she just got the lawyers to point out parts, and then signed them.

She only sang songs that she knew well from listening to them lots, so she wouldnt have to read the words.

When they handed her the Summertime music, she couldn't read it, so she got a copy of it and listened to it over and over again to get the words memorized.
She said she fooled the whole AI people, nobody discovered her secret.
When she had to read the teleprompter on the show, she would try to sound things out, then make it up. When they would correct her, she would remember what they told her, and say it correctly then.

She said the hardest part is not being able to read to her daughter.

She is now getting tutored and learning to read.
Good for her.

 

[ugadog99]

I don't normally respond to threads like this, but I have to know what is meant by "typical". I am a 5th grade teacher in GA and I have had several students who were nonreaders. Special ed has a lot to do with kids being passed on and on without ever being "caught". Then, home enviornment plays such a huge role in a child's development. If you only knew some of the places these kids come from then you might understand that even being present in school is a major accomplishment. Kudos to Fantasia for admitting her problems and doing something positive to correct the issue. I always liked her and now I like her even more.

Although I would like to know what "typical" meant, it would probably anger me so much that I would have to post again!

 

[Crankyshank]

It's very possible and a lot more common than you could imagine. I do a lot of volunteer work with a literacy center and you'd be amazed at how many people can't read at all or read at no higher than a 2nd grade level. Especially if you have special needs and are from an underperforming school district.

 

[Cindy B]

I think some of you would be surprised by the level of illiteracy in this country. Even some people who have been fairly successful in life have come out and shared that they are illiterate. People learn coping mechanisms to cover up that they can't read. I doubt that anyone chooses this for themselves. People are very quick to judge what they know little about.
I believe that Fantasia said that other members of her family also have literacy issues. It is a vicious cycle.

I agree wholeheartedly. I myself was amazed when I had some 6th graders in a special resource class that couldn't read well at all, or could only sight read words, and assume words... for example the word was yelling. They would call it yellow because they recognized the first few letters from a color sheet.

This is 6th grade!

I've also had many people say that they don't want to write things either.

 

[minkydog]

I'll tell you how you get to high school illiterate--you fake it. My sister made almost all the way through 8th grade when my mother accidentally figured out she couldn't read. Nothing more than 4 letters. A shock went through our whole family! We are a family of readers and somehow one slipped through who had very little reading skill. Back then(before 1974 when special ed was mandated), the school just decided my sis was mentally handicapped(she's not.) My mom decided to hire a private tutor. she had to go get a loan to pay for it.

My sister had intensive tutoring for 5 years and graduated from high school. She eventually finished 3 years of college and made Dean's List several times. But nothing can make her feel like she's not faking it, even after all these eyars.