[Reading-hall-of-fame] Adult Literacy Education is NOT "Too Little, Too Late"

[tsticht at znet.com]

9/25/2013

Adult Literacy Education is NOT “Too Little, Too Late”

Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education

The online New York Times for September 14, 2013 included an article by the
Nobel prize winning economist James Heckman. The article argues for early
childhood education as a means of tackling problems of poverty and
education.

Unfortunately, Heckman does little to help advance the field of adult
literacy education. His article includes a brief paragraph about what he
thinks does NOT help our poverty and education problems. He states:

Quote: ”What doesn’t work? Investing in smaller class sizes is not as
effective as making sure each child has the foundational skills to do well
inside the classroom, regardless of its size. Because skill begets skill,
it’s common sense that adult literacy programs and many job-training
programs are too little, too late. It is much more effective and cost
efficient to create instead of remediate.” End quote

Heckman begins his article with the statement that “What’s missing in the
current debate over economic inequality is enough serious discussion about
investing in effective early childhood development from birth to age 5.”
However, as I have repeatedly pointed out (e.g., Google search: Sticht,
Getting It Right From the Start, American Educator, Fall 2011), Heckman
makes the mistake of thinking that the child’s educational possibilities
start at birth, when in fact the “creation” of a child’s learning abilities
and opportunities starts before birth during prenatal development, and
indeed this “creation” starts even before the child’s conception in the
form of the educational levels of the parents, especially the mother’s
educational level.

Following the foregoing understanding, investments in adult literacy
programs may be viewed simultaneously as programs of remediation for the
parents and creation for the adult’s children. Indeed, as I indicated in
the article referenced above, the major early childhood education programs
that Heckman and other advocates cite as cost-beneficial appear to owe a
great deal of their effectiveness to the changes they make in the education
of the children’s parents.

The error of thinking about education in a one lifespan perspective leads to
the notion that we need to focus our efforts on early childhood. But
educational effects are not restricted to one lifespan. Rather, they have
what I call a Multiple Life Cycles Education effect in which the education
of adults influences the educational achievements of the adults’ children.
For this reason, we need to move away from a lifelong policy of education
to a Multiple Life Cycles Education policy.

Adult literacy educators and, indeed, all educators,  need to get this
message about Multiple Life Cycles Education policy to policymakers in the
states, at the federal level, and in philanthropic organizations. As
educators, we know that children and adults  clearly do not benefit from
high level advisors to the President of the United States, such as James
Heckman, telling the world that adult literacy programs are “too little,
too late.” It’s never too late for education for anyone, and more education
helps everyone!

tsticht at aznet.net