Tom Henson

Tom is twenty years old, married and the father of an infant daughter.  He works nearly full-time at a local service station and his wife works in a nearby restaurant.  Tom quit school after the ninth grade and reported he “just didn’t want to go.”  Like many study participants, Tom indicated he didn’t enjoy school and didn’t learn much while he was there.  

I had some teachers that taught me a lot and some of ‘em, they just didn’t care if they taught me anything at all.  I’ve learnt more since I’ve been out of school than I have in school.  When I was in grade school, the teachers didn’t really care if you learned anything.  They’s just there to get paid.  They didn’t try to make kids sit down and do nothing.  I got in high school and didn’t really care if I did anything or not. 

           Tom left school with very low literacy skills and a strong dislike for school environments.  Like many male study participants, he has worked in a variety of manual labor positions.  With a large number of other workers, Tom was recently laid off when a local factory shut down.  Tom is currently employed at a service station.

                        I love my job.  I get to read a lot.  I fill out little sheets of paper too.  I can read a little bit, enough to get me by and that’s it.  I can read warnin’ labels, danger signs, just enough to get me by with.  While I’m readin’ I have to figure out what it says and how to spell it, stuff like that.                       

Tom realizes that his low-level reading skills are detrimental at work.  He believes, however, that his reading ability is improving.  Tom credits his improved reading skills to both his work experience and also to the help he has received from his wife who recently completed her GED.

                        She knew that I couldn’t read, and I can’t hardly write [and] I ain’t very good in math.  But since me and her’s been married, she’s taught me a whole lot.  She’s more or less been like a tutor to me.  I’ll set down [at home] sometimes and do a little bit of work.  Her and my work, the work stuff I do, has taught me a lot since I ain’t been goin’ to school.    

His ability to improve his reading skills through both work experiences and the tutoring he receives from his wife demonstrate that Tom is capable of raising his literacy skills given a supportive environment and tasks that are relevant for him. 

       In contrast to traditional assumptions about undereducated adults, Tom clearly values education.  Like many participants in this study, however, he especially emphasizes practical skills over purely academic ones.  Thus, Tom provides the following definition of an intelligent person:

                        As long as they could read, write, you know, do math.  Somebody who can set down and do stuff that they want to.  Like, if you got to figure up bills and stuff, you set down and figure out your bills.  Long as they can do that, they’re smart. 

Tom recognizes, however, that being “smart” or educated does not always translate into gainful employment. 

                        This guy who I’m workin’ with right now, he just graduated up there in Lexington.  Look at where he’s workin’ at.  And I can’t read and I do the same work he does.  It don’t really matter to me what grade level did you go to.  But if you can go to work and work, you’re ready to work anytime you want to.  You just got to want to. 

           In spite of his willingness to work hard, Tom believes his limited academic skills have prevented him from advancing at work.

                        I could have had a management job, you know, like a shift leader job, but I really couldn’t count the money and stuff.  I wouldn’t be able to read enough either, so they wouldn’t let me have it.  I guess I’ll be stuck with makin’ $5.50 an hour for awhile.  Until I learn to read more and learn more with math.  

A number of the respondents and their families are very poor in spite of working extremely hard, often at multiple jobs.  For example, Tom frequently does “odd jobs” for extra money.  He is of necessity “more worried about the money than I am the school,” a concern echoed by several other study participants.

I’m a jack of all trades.  I can pour concrete, I can lay block, I can do yard work, or I can take down trees.  Odd work.  Somethin’ I’ve always been able to do.  I guess I’ve been blessed with it.  It keeps me motivated and it keeps me goin’.  I just feel better when I’m out doin’ somethin’ like that than I would goin’ to school.  I’d feel a lot better out doin’ somethin’ than sittin’ at a desk, you know, readin’.  I’m an outdoors person.

Thus, Tom identifies manual labor as productive, skilled, and meaningful work through which he is able to supplement his regular but low-paying employment.  In sharp contrast to academic environments where he has experienced only failure, physical labor is something at which Tom excels and from which he derives great satisfaction and additional financial resources. 

Send mail to jjensen@pop.uky.edu with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: April 16, 2000