<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body dir="auto">
Many thanks for this, Tom. Like everything you write, it’s succinct, clear, and compelling.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I shall certainly draw upon it in a report I’m writing for the European Commission on how the 27 nations of the EU should develop literacy. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Kudos to you. You’re an inspiration for us all. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>One small correction: I know that you’ve been publishing since 1965, when you got your PhD, but I don’t believe for a moment that you’re retired!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Best regards </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Colin <br>
<br>
<div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
<blockquote type="cite">On 7 Sep 2024, at 19:20, Thomas Sticht <tgsticht@gmail.com> wrote:<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="border-left:none;padding:0px;display:flex;font-family:"Google Sans",Roboto,RobotoDraft,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:medium">
<div style="margin:0px;min-width:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;width:initial">
<div style="direction:ltr;margin:8px 0px 0px;padding:0px;font-size:0.875rem;overflow-x:hidden">
<div style="direction:initial;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:small;line-height:1.5;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;overflow:auto hidden">
<div dir="ltr">
<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"">9/7/2024</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"">A Message for September 8: International Literacy Day</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"">Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)</span></p>
<span style="line-height:normal;margin:10pt 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,"serif";font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";font-style:normal">UNESCO reports that since 1967, some 512 International
Literacy Prizes have been awarded. Studying these awards I have observed two main important streams of effects produced by adult literacy programs around the world:</span></span><span style="line-height:normal;margin:10pt 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,"serif";font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">(1).
Multiplier Effects in Adult Literacy Education. </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";font-style:normal">An examination of research reports and several hundred applications for UNESCO literacy prizes revealed that governments
can expect multiple returns on investments in adult literacy education in at least five areas:</span><u><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";font-style:normal"></span></u></span>
<p style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times,"serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";font-size:12pt;text-indent:0in">1. Improved productivity at work, at home, and
in the community leading to higher tax bases for communities, decreased violence at home and in the community, and greater participation in citizenship activities by a larger segment of the adult population.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0in;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times,"serif"">
<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">2. Improved self-confidence and other psychological and physiological aspects of health of adults, including activities that will help the brain grow throughout adulthood and contribute to reduced
medical costs for adults as they age.</span></p>
<span style="line-height:normal;margin:10pt 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,"serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">3. Improved health of adult’s children due to learning in adult education programs leading
to better prenatal and postnatal care, reductions in low birth rate infants, and better home medical care, thereby contributing to lowered medical costs for children and fewer learning problems in school.</span></span>
<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""> </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"">4. Improved social justice from providing literacy education for marginalized populations to permit them to acquire skills and knowledge needed to take political action that allows them to achieve
their civil rights and to overcome social exclusion and join in the mainstream of society.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">
<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">5. Improved productivity in the schools by providing adults with the knowledge they need to better prepare their children to enter school, help them achieve in school, encourage them to stay
in school and increase their opportunities to enroll in higher education.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.55pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times,"serif"">
<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">
<i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">(2). Intergenerational effects of adult literacy. </span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Item number 5 above is especially important because it reveals
the effects that educating adults can have on the educational opportunities and achievements of children.<i> </i>This intergenerational effect of adult literacy education was discussed extensively three decades ago in 1994 at UNESCO’s World Symposium on Family
Literacy during the United Nations Year of the Family (</span><span style="font-family:Arial,"sans-serif";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Sticht,
1994).</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></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"">Over a quarter century later, in 2023, a UNESCO report confirmed the foregoing thoughts and states, “ Research evidence indicates a strong association between parents’ education levels and their
children’s level of literacy acquisition. Different studies have therefore stressed the importance of intergenerational approaches to literacy learning …The desire to help their children with school readiness and schoolwork often motivates parents to (re)engage
in learning themselves…” (Hanemann, 2023)</span></p>
<span style="line-height:normal;margin:10pt 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,"serif";color:rgb(127,127,127)"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext">Conclusion</span></span><span style="line-height:normal;margin:10pt 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,"serif";color:rgb(127,127,127)"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext">Through
their efforts, thousands of devoted adult literacy teachers working in a field of education that is generally marginalized among the education systems of nations, adult literacy teachers have often worked under the most arduous circumstances, at times in fear
of their very lives, to serve the earth’s disenfranchised, socially excluded, illiterate or marginally literate adults.</span></span><span style="line-height:normal;margin:10pt 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,"serif";color:rgb(127,127,127)"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext">On
International Literacy Day governments and individuals express appreciation for and solidarity with the work of adult literacy teachers all around the world. And the work to bring literacy to close to three quarters of a billion adults continues.</span></span>
<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""> </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"">References</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"">Hanemann, U. (2023). <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">UNESCO
International Literacy Prizes 2023, Promoting literacy for a world in transition: building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies: analytical study</span></span>. online at <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388129" target="_blank">https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388129</a>)</p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">
<span style="font-family:Arial,"sans-serif";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Sticht, T. (1994). Family Literacy: A World Movement. In: UNESCO:
World Symposium on Family Literacy. Online at: </span><a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000125234/PDF/125234engo.pdf.multi" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="font-family:Arial,"sans-serif";color:rgb(17,85,204);background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000125234/PDF/125234engo.pdf.multi<br>
</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></p>
</div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="clear:both"></div>
</div>
<div style="clear:both"></div>
</div>
<div style="font-size:0.875rem;padding:0px;width:auto;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-top:none;margin:0px;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-family:"Google Sans",Roboto,RobotoDraft,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif">
<div style="border-top:0px;padding:0px">
<div style="clear:both;margin:0px;padding:16px 0px;border-top:none"><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<span>_______________________________________________</span><br>
<span>Reading-hall-of-fame mailing list</span><br>
<span>Reading-hall-of-fame@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</span><br>
<span>https://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/reading-hall-of-fame</span><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</body>
</html>