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Orphelin des mots
Ne pas savoir lire, c'est comme ne pas pouvoir respirer. C'est se battre pour se frayer un chemin, ruser, contourner, encaisser moqueries et vexations. Une souffrance inimaginable. Pour la première fois, un livre raconte cette humiliation qui condamne, en France, près de 3 millions d'illettrés à vivre à l'écart du monde.
Il a grandi en Bretagne, dans une famille d'accueil. Enfant, Gérard est incapable de retenir une leçon et d'apprendre à lire. Tétanisé par la honte, il connaît, à l'école, l'humiliation du bonnet d'âne. Adulte, sa vie devient un parcours du combattant : prendre un train, signer un formulaire, lire un mode d'emploi, tout lui est impossible. à ce handicap invisible s'ajoute la peur d'être démasqué comme illettré. Seules les chansons de Renaud, son idole, l'aident à tenir bon.
À 35 ans, ouvrier, Gérard l'avoue enfin à son patron : " Je ne sais pas lire ". Touché par la souffrance de cet homme, le chef d'entreprise lui offre la possibilité de prendre des cours. Plus qu'une libération, une renaissance.
Aujourd'hui, à 46 ans, Gérard continue son apprentissage de la lecture et de l'écriture. Il dévore le dictionnaire, affiche sur ses murs des tableaux de conjugaison, écrit des poèmes pour sa femme et ses enfants.
Un bonheur et une passion des mots qu'il nous fait partager avec une joie contagieuse.
Un témoignage fort et lumineux
Il a grandi en Bretagne, dans une famille d'accueil. Enfant, Gérard est incapable de retenir une leçon et d'apprendre à lire. Tétanisé par la honte, il connaît, à l'école, l'humiliation du bonnet d'âne. Adulte, sa vie devient un parcours du combattant : prendre un train, signer un formulaire, lire un mode d'emploi, tout lui est impossible. à ce handicap invisible s'ajoute la peur d'être démasqué comme illettré. Seules les chansons de Renaud, son idole, l'aident à tenir bon.
À 35 ans, ouvrier, Gérard l'avoue enfin à son patron : " Je ne sais pas lire ". Touché par la souffrance de cet homme, le chef d'entreprise lui offre la possibilité de prendre des cours. Plus qu'une libération, une renaissance.
Aujourd'hui, à 46 ans, Gérard continue son apprentissage de la lecture et de l'écriture. Il dévore le dictionnaire, affiche sur ses murs des tableaux de conjugaison, écrit des poèmes pour sa femme et ses enfants.
Un bonheur et une passion des mots qu'il nous fait partager avec une joie contagieuse.
Un témoignage fort et lumineux
- GenresFrance
237 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2014
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 14, 2018
C'est très impressionnant avec quelle volonté Gérard Louviot réussi dans la vie. D'abord pour trouver un métier ou faire le permis sans savoir lire. Puis en saississant chaque opportunité qui se présentait pour enfin pouvoir sortir de cette vie, d'appendre à lire et à écrire malgré ses difficultés.
Le livre est assez long à lire, surtout le début était trop long et quelques chapitres étaient trop détaillés.
Le livre est assez long à lire, surtout le début était trop long et quelques chapitres étaient trop détaillés.
October 17, 2016
A good book about illiteracy.
The author, who had undiagnosed dysphasia in his childhood, shares about the abuse, shame, lack of self-esteem and difficulties that came with not having been able to learn as easily as others, the main one being that he was totally excluded from learning to read (and from a complete, specialized instruction which wasn't easily available at the time) and developed an enormous anxiety and shame around it and doubted in his own capacities.
He also, obviously, talks about his relationships with friends, coworkers, bosses, girlfriends and such.
It was a hard read. I could relate a lot to the anxiety of being discovered as incompetent making you utterly incompetent and making you lose the ability to do things you previously learned. I learned to read really early, but upon entering collège I ended up with such incompetent teachers (the guy just sat there, not doing class and letting the kids do whatever) that I somehow (even though the whole class had similar grades) became categorized as having dyscalculia (by a school nurse, without seeing me, judging only my own individual grades) and it followed me through my remaining school years (I dropped out) in the way of teachers, mother, random school staff telling me I couldn't do any kind of math at all (when I had been quite skilled at an early age) repeatedly and more or less aggressively, acting as if a dog just talked when I did something right and excluding me informally from math classes and making me exclude myself from any science class, which I had longed to learn about. This false "diagnosis" from someone who was totally incompetent to make it and didn't legally have the right to make it didn't even keep me from physical abuse, so it had no advantage at all.
(This type of mistreatment is still not right when done to people who really have dyscalculia or another learning disability. I'd say it could probably be even more harmful because I was able to feel better precisely because I could learn those things by myself later if I only could deal with the trauma and anxiety; it would have been much harder to get back on my feet with an actual learning disability after having been excluded like this.)
I am happy to learn that he finally was able to identify his learning disability, learn to read, found people he could trust, make people aware of the challenges of not being able to read and participate in helping others.
It was also really great to read that, with his wife who also had a bad childhood, they decided to raise their kids "without violence or yelling" and that they were able to identify the children's disabilities early and help them.
It's especially great to read that people who were raised with physical and verbal violence were able to raise their kids right and respectfully because I keep hearing that it's simply not possible even if you want to treat your kids correctly and it gives me hope. People also say that it's mainly people with little "book smarts" who mistreat children, which obviously is a harmful stereotype that does nothing to stop child abuse. There's also the common idea that violence against children is inherent to childhood and parenting and nothing to care about.
Even while living in a French culture which fosters abuse, even when he didn't know the first thing about history or reading at 35, even after having been abused in his childhood, this man is raising his kids without violence. This is great.
Tl;dr: kudos dude, thanks for talking about it.
TWs:
Child abuse
Physical harm
Ableism
Sexism (He lacks confidence so he is all about hegemonic masculinity to feel better)
The author, who had undiagnosed dysphasia in his childhood, shares about the abuse, shame, lack of self-esteem and difficulties that came with not having been able to learn as easily as others, the main one being that he was totally excluded from learning to read (and from a complete, specialized instruction which wasn't easily available at the time) and developed an enormous anxiety and shame around it and doubted in his own capacities.
He also, obviously, talks about his relationships with friends, coworkers, bosses, girlfriends and such.
It was a hard read. I could relate a lot to the anxiety of being discovered as incompetent making you utterly incompetent and making you lose the ability to do things you previously learned. I learned to read really early, but upon entering collège I ended up with such incompetent teachers (the guy just sat there, not doing class and letting the kids do whatever) that I somehow (even though the whole class had similar grades) became categorized as having dyscalculia (by a school nurse, without seeing me, judging only my own individual grades) and it followed me through my remaining school years (I dropped out) in the way of teachers, mother, random school staff telling me I couldn't do any kind of math at all (when I had been quite skilled at an early age) repeatedly and more or less aggressively, acting as if a dog just talked when I did something right and excluding me informally from math classes and making me exclude myself from any science class, which I had longed to learn about. This false "diagnosis" from someone who was totally incompetent to make it and didn't legally have the right to make it didn't even keep me from physical abuse, so it had no advantage at all.
(This type of mistreatment is still not right when done to people who really have dyscalculia or another learning disability. I'd say it could probably be even more harmful because I was able to feel better precisely because I could learn those things by myself later if I only could deal with the trauma and anxiety; it would have been much harder to get back on my feet with an actual learning disability after having been excluded like this.)
I am happy to learn that he finally was able to identify his learning disability, learn to read, found people he could trust, make people aware of the challenges of not being able to read and participate in helping others.
It was also really great to read that, with his wife who also had a bad childhood, they decided to raise their kids "without violence or yelling" and that they were able to identify the children's disabilities early and help them.
It's especially great to read that people who were raised with physical and verbal violence were able to raise their kids right and respectfully because I keep hearing that it's simply not possible even if you want to treat your kids correctly and it gives me hope. People also say that it's mainly people with little "book smarts" who mistreat children, which obviously is a harmful stereotype that does nothing to stop child abuse. There's also the common idea that violence against children is inherent to childhood and parenting and nothing to care about.
Even while living in a French culture which fosters abuse, even when he didn't know the first thing about history or reading at 35, even after having been abused in his childhood, this man is raising his kids without violence. This is great.
Tl;dr: kudos dude, thanks for talking about it.
TWs:
Child abuse
Physical harm
Ableism
Sexism (He lacks confidence so he is all about hegemonic masculinity to feel better)
July 9, 2015
Faire ses courses, faire un gâteau, signer un contrat…… tout nous parait si simple et pourtant ……
Dans son livre, Gérard Louviot se dévoile, se met à nu pour nous raconter sa vie, ses amours, ses emmerdes, son parcours d’illettré
Dès sa plus tendre enfance il est placé en famille d’accueil, avec son frère. Les premières difficultés scolaires se font ressentir en maternelle. Il est vite placé en centre spécialisé où il se sent plus à son aise.
Son parcours professionnel l’entraine vers la boulangerie, la pâtisserie, ramasseur de poulet, couvreur, soudeur, tôlier.
Un peu cœur d’artichaut, il tombe facilement amoureux, mais un jour, sans s’y attendre, il rencontre l’amour de sa vie, qui lui donnera 4 enfants.
Aux problèmes de lectures et d’écritures viennent se greffer des problèmes de santés auxquels il doit faire face.
La vie ne l’a pas épargné, loin de là, mais avec courage il a su rebondir et rebondit toujours face aux galères qui lui collent à la peau.
Par son livre, l’auteur nous laisse pénétrer dans sa vie à travers son témoignage bouleversant.
Je n’ai pas pour habitude de lire ce style de livre. L’avis d’un lecteur a poussé ma curiosité à bouquiner cet ouvrage pour lequel j’ai eu un grand coup de cœur. C’est un livre à découvrir et à faire découvrir sans hésitation pour mieux comprendre les causes et conséquences de l’illettrisme.
Un grand merci et un grand bravo à l’auteur pour cette leçon de vie et cette leçon de courage d’apprendre à lire et à écrire la trentaine passée.
Dans son livre, Gérard Louviot se dévoile, se met à nu pour nous raconter sa vie, ses amours, ses emmerdes, son parcours d’illettré
Dès sa plus tendre enfance il est placé en famille d’accueil, avec son frère. Les premières difficultés scolaires se font ressentir en maternelle. Il est vite placé en centre spécialisé où il se sent plus à son aise.
Son parcours professionnel l’entraine vers la boulangerie, la pâtisserie, ramasseur de poulet, couvreur, soudeur, tôlier.
Un peu cœur d’artichaut, il tombe facilement amoureux, mais un jour, sans s’y attendre, il rencontre l’amour de sa vie, qui lui donnera 4 enfants.
Aux problèmes de lectures et d’écritures viennent se greffer des problèmes de santés auxquels il doit faire face.
La vie ne l’a pas épargné, loin de là, mais avec courage il a su rebondir et rebondit toujours face aux galères qui lui collent à la peau.
Par son livre, l’auteur nous laisse pénétrer dans sa vie à travers son témoignage bouleversant.
Je n’ai pas pour habitude de lire ce style de livre. L’avis d’un lecteur a poussé ma curiosité à bouquiner cet ouvrage pour lequel j’ai eu un grand coup de cœur. C’est un livre à découvrir et à faire découvrir sans hésitation pour mieux comprendre les causes et conséquences de l’illettrisme.
Un grand merci et un grand bravo à l’auteur pour cette leçon de vie et cette leçon de courage d’apprendre à lire et à écrire la trentaine passée.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews