<div dir="ltr"><p style="margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">March 6, 2024</span></p><p style="margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"><br></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">March is Women’s History Month</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Highlighting Literacy Work by Caroline Clark Myers for Adults and Children</span></b></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">During the U.S.A. involvement in World War I (1917-1918) some 700,000 recruits were determined to be illiterate, many of whom were non-English speakers. After the World War I armistice was signed, Caroline Clark Myers, the first  woman hired to teach non-English speaking and illiterate adults in the Army in World War I, worked with her husband and others and developed materials and methods of teaching English, reading, and writing to illiterate soldiers for the war department.</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">After the war she was the lead author on books for teaching English to non-English speaking adults based on her experiences teaching during the war (Meyers & Meyers, 1921). The teacher’s manual for these books outlined the thoughts behind their development for teaching English to immigrants stating,</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">“We desire these newcomers to wish to learn to live as real Americans, we want them to think and feel as we think and feel about our community and our country. We want them to wish to develop habits in dress, in choice of foods, in cleanliness in care of their persons, like the best type of good substantial Americans and most of all we want them to wish to get habits of using every opportunity to improve themselves individually to be good useful members of their neighborhood. We want them habitually to feel a pride in living in America and in the opportunity to become citizens of this new country; a pride in its flag and a pride in the great men who have lived Americans and died Americans (p.16)”.</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"> </span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">“It will be observed that the course presupposes the presence of women as well as men in classes of non-English speaking people. This side of Americanization has been greatly neglected. The lessons in themselves suggest ideal complete families of these one time foreign folk with children that are well cared for, well fed, well trained, living in a clean well kept home like the best American homes owned by these families because of their thrift and industry. In homes where happiness reigns supreme where there is comradeship and where these children grow up to be cultured and well educated young men and women who are known in their communities as among the best young people of that neighborhood. Frequently the lessons suggest the advantages to foreign women to learn English quite as well as to the young men (p.22)”.</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"> </span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">In the late 1920s and through the 1930s Meyers was trained in parent education at Columbia and other universities. She went on to </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">became a specialist in parent education in the extension department of Cleveland College at Western Reserve University. She administered the parent education  program, developed institutes for parents , helped in the development of radio programs and taught classes for leaders of parent education groups. <span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"> </span></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:16.8667px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:18.4px;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"><br></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:16.8667px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:18.4px;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">In 1946 she and her husband started a magazine for children called <i>Highlights for Children.</i> As with the World War I Language in America materials she and others developed, <i>Highlights</i> uses lots of illustrations, puzzles, cartoons and stories aimed at catching the interest of both children and their parents. The latter are encouraged to read to their children to promote the intergenerational transfer of literacy from parents to their progeny and increase family literacy. </span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:16.8667px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:18.4px;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Caroline Clark Meyers stayed active with <i>Highlights for Children </i>until her death in 1980 at the age of 93. Today, the <i>Highlights</i> web site reports that over 1.373 billion copies of the magazine have been mailed, with <i>Highlights</i> products in 60 countries, and in 28 languages!</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:16.8667px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:18.4px;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 8th is International Women’s Day! Let's <i>Highlight</i> that!</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Language in America Teacher’s Manual Available Online</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:16.8667px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:18.4px;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">TEACHERS MANUAL THE LANGUAGE OF AMERICA LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY ENGLISH AND CITIZENSHIP FOR ADULTS</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:18.4px;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> BY CAROLINE E MYERS AND GARRY C MYERS, 1921, Newson & Company.</span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Language_of_America/lWwXAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=caroline+clark+myers+google+books&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Language_of_America/lWwXAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=caroline+clark+myers+google+books&printsec=frontcover</span></a><font color="#888888"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"></span></font></p><font color="#888888"><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p></font></div>