[Reading-hall-of-fame] A Memorial Tribute to Aretha Franklin

[Thomas Sticht]

8/16/2018

A Memorial Tribute to Aretha Franklin: Meeting the Need for RESPECT with
Adult Basic Skills Education

Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)

Aretha Franklin, the high school dropout who went on to become the “Queen
of Soul” with honorary degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, wrote a
song about her need for RESPECT. She sang out, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T   Find out
what it means to me”. Aretha Franklin passed away today, August 16, 2018,
aged 76, respected by millions of people around the world.  Not only was
Aretha Franklin an iconic songstress, during the Civil Rights movements of
the 1960s she contributed extensively to the actions of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and others to bring literacy, civil, and voting rights to African
Americans.

As a memorial tribute to Aretha Franklin, here is a brief note about what
RESPECT means to adults seeking to improve their basic reading, writing,
and numeracy skills.

In January of 2007 I went to Dublin, Ireland to present a speech at a
conference
of adult literacy tutors sponsored by the National Adult  Literacy Agency
(NALA). The theme of the conference was Sustaining  Motivation for Adult
Literacy Learners. As I thought about this theme, and how I might frame
remarks that would fit with it, I glanced at the  bulletin board by my
desk. There I noticed the photos of the grand, main building of the New
York Public Library (NYPL) that I have tacked to the board.

I have long admired the NYPL located on the south-west corner of the
intersection
of 42nd street and 5th avenue. I am particularly fond of  the two massive
sculptures of lions that guard the main entrance to the  library. During
the great depression of the 1930s, New York Mayor
Fiorello LaGuardia dubbed the two sculptures of lions with the names Patience
and Fortitude. Mayor LaGuardia told the citizens of New York that patience
and fortitude were the qualities they would require to survive the economic
depression gripping the nation and New York City.

This lead me to think that these great lions, Patience and Fortitude, also
represent the qualities that adult literacy tutors require to persist in
helping adult literacy learners maintain their motivation in  what can
often be a long and difficult struggle for literacy. In many ways, the
adult literacy tutors are the Lions of Literacy. They help guide adult
learners into the great library of books of the world which provide access
to the collected knowledge of the ages.

As I studied the photo of Patience and Fortitude, I came to the thought that
there was something that bonded these two qualities and sustained them.
Then I thought of Aretha Franklin and her hit song, RESPECT. It occurred to
me that respect is what builds the bond between tutors and learners, a bond
maintained by patience and fortitude on the part of both tutors and
learners.

For my presentation in Dublin, I built on these thoughts and developed the
idea that the seven letters of the word R.E.S.P.E.C.T. that Aretha Franklin
spelled out in her song could serve as a mnemonic for seven factors that
taken together can help sustain motivation for the work of teaching and
learning in adult literacy education.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

R : Relevance to the learner's lives

E : Engagement with the learning experience

S : Social capital development for learners

P : Participation by learners in choosing goals, curriculum materials &
methods

E : Educational opportunities across the life span & across multiple
life cycles

C: Community support for adult literacy education

T: Teachers/tutors who care about adults, literacy, & learning

Following a brief overview of these seven factors, I focused on R, for
 Relevance.
I recounted the stories of three great adult literacy educators who focused
on the relevance to the lives of their students of the materials they were
using to teach adults to read.

First, the story of Harriet Jacobs, the former slave girl of the  mid-1800s
who taught an old black man to read using the Bible, which was  what he
wanted to learn to read.



Next, an account of the work of Cora Wilson Stewart in 1911 to start the
Moonlight Schools of Kentucky and  the materials she wrote in books called
the Country Life Readers. These books taught reading in the context of
farming, home making, health for  the family, community development and
other topics of relevance to the lives of the country folks who came to
class on moon lit nights.

Finally, the Queen Mother of the civil rights movement in the United States
during mid-20th century was identified as Septima Poinsette Clark. She
started Citizenship Schools to teach African-Americans to read and write so
they could vote. This was the relevant goal for these American citizens who
were being denied voting rights and hence social justice because of
illiteracy. Septima Clark knew the importance of developing literacy and
power by making the materials of education relevant to the lives of her
students.

To sustain the motivation of adult students in the often arduous task
of learning
to read and write adult literacy tutors need both patience and fortitude.
But above all, they need to have R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for their students. And the
primary letter of that word, R, stands for Relevance. Over a century of
professional wisdom by those on whose shoulders we stand confirms the
importance of relevance in adult literacy education.

Today's adult literacy teachers and tutors carry on the important work of
respecting adult students and providing relevant literacy education sustained
by both patience and fortitude. They are the Lions of Literacy in the 21st
century.



With R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for Aretha Franklin may she R.I.P.!



tgsticht at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/private/reading-hall-of-fame/attachments/20180816/3163655a/attachment.html>