Our Story

It’s often said that dyslexic children are the canaries in the coal mine of America’s illiteracy crisis. The reasons we find ourselves here are complex, but at the heart lies a painful truth: for decades, our universities and schools have not equipped educators with the knowledge needed to teach children to read. You can explore more about that here…

I know this story all too well. My youngest son, Nate, struggled for years to learn to read. Despite bright teachers who cared for him, no one identified his dyslexia. By first grade, his teacher kept him in from recess to “try again.” By the end of second grade, Nate was frustrated, discouraged, and falling further behind. Even getting him out of the car each morning became a battle.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, everything came to a breaking point. Out of desperation, I reached out to Elisha for help—what I didn’t know then was that it would be the beginning of a journey and a friendship that would change everything. Week after week, under a blue pop-up tent in her backyard in the Texas heat, she began tutoring Nate. From the start, she saw what I already knew—he was bright, kind, and wonderfully attentive. But he could not read. His vowel sounds were almost nonexistent, consonant sounds shaky, and it became clear he was profoundly dyslexic.

That summer changed everything. For the first time, Nate began learning in the way his brain needed. I sat beside him, watching every lesson, determined to learn how to help. What began as a desperate action plan for our own children grew into something larger—a mission born out of the staggering reality of illiteracy and its generational impact.

The statistics are sobering:

• In the U.S., 54% of adults read below a 6th-grade level.
   

• In our state, 19% of adults lack even basic literacy skills.
   

• In the juvenile justice system, 85% of children are functionally illiterate.