History of

  The Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas

 

 

On a crisp and bright day in November of 1975 Dr. Lena W. Waters sat in her office on the second floor of the old K. Carter Elementary School in downtown Lubbock awaiting the arrival of her first dyslexic student. The arrival of that student culminated several years of hoping and planning and constituted the opening of the Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas.

 

The founding body of the Center was the West Texas Human Affairs Corporation, a non-profit corporation formed in Lubbock on March 6, 1974 with A.M. Muldrow, Sr. and Clovis K. Kendrick of Brownfield along with Rolan C. Simpson of Lubbock serving as incorporators. Robert P. Fuller of Lubbock was chosen as the first chairman of the board of trustees.

 

Why did these men think first of a charitable project? Because this is the Masonic way, especially a charitable project aimed at children. Why dyslexia? The founding fathers of the Learning Center were familiar with the pioneering work with dyslexic children being done at the Language Laboratory at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas.  They also knew that no such program was available in West Texas.

 

At the invitation of the Lubbock officials John Morgan Administrator of the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital (TSRHC), Dr. Lucius Waites, Pediatric Neurologist at the TSRHC and Mrs. Aylett R. Cox, Director of the Language Laboratory at the TSRHC met with the Board of Trustees and the Advisory Conference of the Lubbock Scottish Rite Consistory to discuss the planned program for dyslexic children and inspect the recently acquired K. Carter Elementary School. They were pleased with the facility and unanimously approved the project.

 

The first task was to remodel a portion of the building to house the Center. The assistant principal’s office on the second floor was chosen for the office, and two small classrooms adjacent to it were soon outfitted.

 

Dr. Lena W. Waters was chosen to direct the new Center and she proceeded to the Language Laboratory at the TSRHC in Dallas for six weeks of introductory training. Returning then to Lubbock, she enrolled the first student on November 4, 1975. At first under the rules of the hospital in Dallas she was allowed only one student who periodically accompanied her to Dallas for progress testing.

 

Funding for the Center was sparse at first, resulting in slow but steady growth. As no charge has ever been made to children attending the Center, expansion was by necessity slow. In 1978 in order to establish better identification the name of the corporation was legally changed to the Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas.

 

By 1979 there were two full-time therapists on the staff with an average of 15 to 18 students enrolled. Despite the growth a formidable waiting list formed and it was obvious that an outreach program would be needed. Unfortunately it was also obvious that lack of adequate funding excluded any possibility of forming satellite centers so instruction of children in Lubbock continued to be the sole endeavor until the 1980’s.

 

The Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas has grown and prospered in the ensuing years.  Since its inception in l975, parents have sought the services of the Center for their children who have difficulty in learning to read, write and spell.  A total of five hundred thirty students have received dyslexia training at the Center in the thirty-one years of its existence.

 

In the early 1980’s the Scottish Rite Masons began to address the need for training of teachers of dyslexic students in areas outside Lubbock. In cooperation with the Lubbock Independent School District, Texas Tech University, the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, teacher training program officially began with the enrollment of eighteen teachers.  Mrs. Aylett Cox, Director of the Dean Learning Center in Dallas, and members of her staff came to Lubbock to lead in the establishment of the teacher training program.  Mrs. Cox was the author of Alphabetic Phonics curriculum, which evolved from the research with dyslexics at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas.

 

On May 15, 1988 a certificate of completion as an Alphabetic Phonics Teacher Training program was presented.  The program was named the “Lena W. Waters Memorial Teacher Training Program” in tribute to the founding director of the Center and initiator of the teacher training program.

 

Proudly displayed beside this certificate of completion is the certificate of recognition of the Center as an accredited therapist training program by the Academic Language Therapy Association Centers Council.  The initial accreditation was received in October 1997 and reaffirmed in 2002.   The therapist training program is a two-year graduate level course consisting of lecture, practicum, observation and clinical teaching hours.  Upon completion the teachers receive certification as Dyslexia Therapists and are candidates for membership in the Academic Language Therapist Association, a professional organization for dyslexia therapists.

 

Also on display is a map that shows the one hundred and twenty-six cities and towns in West Texas and New Mexico where at least one teacher has received training at the SRLCWT. About five hundred forty teachers are represented on the map.  Salt Lake City, Utah, San Diego, California and Albany, New York are also locations where teachers, trained at SRLCWT, are now providing language instruction for dyslexic students.

 

In addition, several therapists have moved from Texas and are teaching in Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Canada and Israel.  Two SRLCWT-trained therapists completed the Instructor training and are now involved in providing therapist training at other centers.

 

For the last ten years the Scottish Rite Learning Center has sponsored the C. J. Davidson Memorial Lecture Series, ‘Advances in Literacy.”  The purpose of the lecture series is to bring nationally and internationally know experts in the field of literacy to Lubbock.  Guest speakers have included Dr. Reid Lyon with Ann Sanders and Avril Greenberg, Priscilla Vail, Wilson Anderson, Dr. Sylvia Richardson, Dr. Gordon Sherman, Dee Rosenberg, Barbara Wise, Suzanne Carreker, Dr. Robert Brooks, Dr. Conn Thomas, Dr. Jeffrey Black and Martha Sibley.  A grant from the Davidson Family Foundation of Midland, Texas makes this lecture series available to people of Lubbock and surrounding areas free of charge.  An average of five hundred people has attended these lectures each year.

 

The instructors from the Center have been frequent presenters at the annual International Dyslexia Association National conferences.  Workshops, seminars and presentations on dyslexia have been made for the Lubbock Independent School District as well as the school districts in the surrounding area.  Several four-day workshops have been presented to teachers from the Education Service Center Region 17.  Education students from Lubbock Christian University and Texas Tech University are frequent visitors to the Center to gain deeper understanding of dyslexia and to observe classes of students.

 

As the Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas continues to provide training for students and teachers, the circle of dyslexic students who read and spell successfully grows larger.  The motto of the Scottish Rite, “The Future is Purchased by the Present,” is truly being fulfilled.

 

We express our appreciation to our Chairman Emeritus of our Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas, Howard R. Stewart, M.D. and to Doris Haney, Director of the Learning Center for their input into the history of the Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas.