Teachers - Mr. R. Fournier

When I started grade five I could read well enough to get by. During silent reading I would sit with a book that looked like the books the other kids had. I waited until someone near me turned a page, then I would turn a page and wait for them to turn the next one. I would pick books that had movies and do an oral report based on the movie. ​

Back then (not that it was that long ago) cannon mattered and adaptations were made true to the source material. Our teacher, assuming she was paying attention to our presentations, never seemed to notice. That is, until Mr. Fournier came to our school. ​

​He told us he was going to call us to his room one by one, to assess our reading level.  I knew my secret was going to be found out. ​

When I walked into his room there was a selection of books on his table and he asked me to pick one. I sat down at the table and waited for him to come back. He asked which one I picked, but I knew there were none I could even attempt, so I told him, “I can’t read sir”.

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I told him everything and he sat there and listened to every word. When I finished he smiled and said, “What if I promise you, if you work with me everyday, you’ll be reading by the end of the year?” It was the end of February but, I got up, hugged him and tearfully accepted his offer. ​

It was a lot of work but he was right. By June of grade five I was reading anything I wanted. I was never without a book, no matter where I went. By the end of the summer I had read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings from cover to cover.