<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 5, 2024</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">D Day and a Remembrance of Richard Venezky</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In preparing for honoring D Day, the invasion of Normandy in June of 1944,  coming up this June 6^th of 2024,  I was reviewing a report Diane Zapf and I had prepared in 1976 on Reading and Readability Research in the Armed Services. It was a report about a conference she and I had chaired the previous year of 1975 in Monterey, California.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">While looking through the report I came across comments by Richard “Dick” Venezky in which he “noted that he had gained a lot of respect from this Conference for the level of work going on in the Armed Services, and was surprised to discover that most of the military researchers were facing the same kinds of problems as those working in civilian settings with children.” He went on to note that,  “… a fundamental difference between civilian- and military-based researchers was that the latter are almost forced to translate research - into practice to show results. University-based researchers, on the other hand, are rewarded not so much for applying what they learn to the solving of problems, but for publishing research and developing terminology which may in fact obfuscate how their research might be turned into practice.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Reading these comments I recalled that I participated in another conference on literacy with Dick a little over a decade later in September of 1987at the University of Pennsylvania. I took from my bookshelf the small volume that had resulted from that conference, entitled “Toward Defining Literacy” and went to the last chapter in the book that Dick wrote. I smiled as I read his comments about Literacy and Social Control because they showed the same direct addressing of social issues that his earlier 1975 comments addressed in the military context. This time he noted that, “It is difficult to discuss literacy without confronting the issue of social control, and this collection of papers represent no deviation from this norm. Are we an evil society sustaining power and control by a self-selected elite through manipulation of literacy, or are we an imperfect society, honorable and just in our intents, but still striving to reach our intended goals?”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He went on to say, “For those who judge American society to be basically just but imperfect, adult literacy is a requirement for both individual and social needs. However adequate an oral support group might be for one with minimal literacy skills, it can never replace literacy itself. Our form of government requires that every citizen be able to make independent judgments, not only about political candidates and policies, but also about employment and lifestyle. Ours is a demanding form of government, requiring the intelligent participation of the masses for survival. Illiteracy may be a right that individuals could claim, but it is not one that we as a society should be proud to grant.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Two decades have elapsed since Dick Venezky passed away on June 11, 2004, too early at the age of 66. His thoughts about the role of literacy in both military effectiveness and social needs in civil society are especially relevant and poignant as we think about the events of D Day in World War II, and the forthcoming election in November of this year when a new commander of military forces and president of the United States will be chosen.   </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As I fondly remember many conversations with Dick Venezky, and contemplate today’s circumstances our Nation faces at home and abroad, I tend to agree with Dick’s characterization of us as “an imperfect society, honorable and just in our intents, but still striving to reach our intended goals.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dona Nobis Pacem!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">xxx</span></p></div>