In the spring of 1977 Donald Maxey suited up one last time for the Clarke Central High School track team. Over 30 years later his son, junior Marcus Maxey, crouches in preparation for the 110 hurdles, with a familiar face coaching him.Donald lettered from 1975 to 1977 on the CCHS track team and competed in the 4×1 relay, 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 4×4 relay and pole vaulting during his tenure at CCHS.After a successful career as a student athlete, Donald returned in 2006 as the hurdles coach for the CCHS boys track team giving him the opportunity to coach his son, Marcus.

Dr. Maxine Easom invites me into her office, through the airlock of calm that is the “lobby” area in which principal’s secretary Connie Wegmann screens visitors and maintains the serene atmosphere.Easom sits behind her large mahogany desk, surrounded by papers, computer, phone, more papers. She types quickly, but not erratically, with very controlled, powerful keystrokes, much like you would expect from a church pianist or a former music teacher — Easom is both. The sound fills the room like a concert hall.“Connie!” Easom yells from behind her desk, the only spot of her office that doesn’t appear perfectly organized. The maestro keeps her fingers moving across the keys, eyes on the screen.“Yes?” Wegmann replies as she reaches the threshold.

“Fix her! Just fix her!” Raquel Cofer stood screaming at her daughter’s doctor. It had been months since the first trip to a physician’s office, weeks since the lab tests, and days since receiving a phone call to come in to the hospital. “You mean she has to be ready to die before you help her? That’s not right!”She began crying, sickened with worry and confusion. The information was too much to process, and at first, Cofer could not fully comprehend it.

Students roam the halls of high schools across the country, some unwilling, some unable to retain the information in a standard English class. They do not realize the repercussions that illiteracy may have on their lives.“There’s still a segment of our population in this country that (never learned to read). It’s not that they can’t learn to read, it’s that they didn’t,” Dr. Allison Nealy, lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Georgia and certified Reading Specialist said. “They had poor instruction, or they dropped out of school, or they grew up in a community where literacy wasn’t valued.”According to Nealy, illiteracy is the inability to read at a competent level. If a person is not able to read at a third grade level, then he or she is considered illiterate.