Here we have something that might happen more often than you think: a retired teacher who was illiterate until the age of forty eight:

“When I was a child I was just sort of just moved along when I got to high school I wanted to participate in athletics. At that time in high school I went underground. I decided to behave myself and do what it took. I started cheating by turning in other peoples’ paper, dated the valedictorian, and ran around with college prep kids,” said Corcoran.

“I couldn’t read words but I could read the system and I could read people,” adds Corcoran.

He stole tests and pursuaded friends to complete his assignments. Corcoran earned an athletic scholarship to Texas Western College. He said his cheating intensified, claiming he cheated in every class.

“I passed a bluebook out the window to a friend I painstakingly copied four essay questions off the board in U.S. government class that was required, and hoped my friend would get it back to me with the right answers,” Corcoran said.

In 1961, Corcoran graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education, while still illiterate he contends. He then went on to become a teacher during a teacher shortage.

“When I graduated from the university, the school district in El Paso, where I went to school, gave almost all the college education graduates a job,” said Corcoran.

What does this say about:

• His primary school?
• His high school?
• The college that accepted him?
• Schools of “Education” in general?
• The school in which he taught for seventeen years?

He isn’t impressed:

In retrospect, Corcoran said, his deceit took him a long time to accept.

“As a teacher it really made me sick to think that I was a teacher who couldn’t read. It is embarrassing for me, and it’s embarrassing for this nation and it’s embarrassing for schools that we’re failing to teach our children how to read, write and spell!”

No kidding.