[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Barbara Bush..literacy advocate by Richard Long as posted in Medium

[Brian Cambourne]

Thanks for sharing this Norman. While I didn’t like her son’s politics, I admired her commitment to the literacy cause.
 Brian c
On 11 May 2018, at 2:32 AM, Norman Stahl <flowercjs at aol.com<mailto:flowercjs at aol.com>> wrote:

Literacy, leadership and former First Lady
Barbara Bush by Richard Long

Reflections on the passing of Mrs. Barbara Bush have shared her strength
of character, her passions for literacy and her family, as well as her concern
for others. I would like to add my admiration, from my perspective
as a literacy advocate representing reading teachers, for her groundbreaking
work to bring adult and children’s literacy eAor to the attention
of our nation.

When her husband became the Vice President in 1988, she moved into
the vice president’s mansion, a grand structure that she used to bring focus
to adult literacy. She would host gatherings that would bring together
leaders from across the diverse Ield of adult literacy. At that time
there were signiIcant diAerences between those who thought volunteers
were the way to go and those who felt having a publically funded program
were critical. In reality, in the 1980’s neither touched a signiIcant
number of those who needed literacy instruction nor did they have the
personnel, materials, or even the amount of paper and pencils that were
required. With her charm, focus, and style, Mrs. Bush helped build an environment
where literacy services began to work together, which resulted
in gaining credibility with the philanthropic and business
communities.

Yet, she wasn’t just about hosting teas. She also worked behind the
scenes to bring government into the game. Even in the 1980’s it was well
known that adults without basic literacy skills were being left behind.
Which was bad enough; but they also produced children who were less
likely to be successful in schools. Additionally, the predictions of a pending
boom in technology and the need for literacy skills in the workplace
were lacking. She was committed not simply to bring educators to the
table but also those in welfare and in labor.

One thing she did was to invite the Secretary of Education to host small
set of working breakfast meetings on a quarterly basis to discuss needs
but also to make sure that there was actual progress. One of the many
smallish ideas was to encourage 16 campuses to use work-study money
to have students become literacy tutors in local high-poverty schools.
This was rolled out with great fanfare at the leadership level, as it cost no
new money. As the program was being implemented, I called the 16 sites
identifying myself as a literacy advocate working for the reading teachers
association. What I found was important, most campuses had little capacity
to provide literacy tutoring support. Most were simply giving out
money to needy students with little regard for any actual tutoring. In
contrast, one campus had decided to do in-depth training for the students,
with the hope that this might become a life long commitment.
That school knew that little good would be done by sending undergrads
to a high-poverty school eight times a semester with little to no training.

With this oral report, made during one of those quarterly breakfast meetings,
several of the high level oTcials were embarrassed. Then Mrs. Bush
carefully selected the questions to ask to uncover what support was actually
needed to make a diAerence. She kept everyone’s attention on the
problem, but didn’t publically berate anyone. She was just the cheerleader,
who happened to have a very sharp mind, keen memory, who sat
with interesting person at dinner.

A few years later, now as First Lady, she maintained attention on adult
literacy. In part she helped create the atmosphere in which PBS and ABC
created a partnership called Project Literacy US. Again using the bully
pulpit, she convened leaders from around the country to talk about literacy.
She suggested a White House conference on literacy. This was
shortly after the education summit in Charlottesville, and then Gov. Bill
Clinton was invited to speak. This was Ine with the First Lady, as she
knew the problem needed everyone’s attention. As a bit of an aside, this
was my Irst time to meet Gov. Clinton. He was late, incredibly focused,
and quickly integrated what had been said earlier in this small conference
into his remarks.

However, while getting attention and forcing consensus by her very presence
was important, she also was supportive of legislative initiatives. An
idea was brought forward to by a private think tank to create a new federal
agency to coordinate literacy activities. While she never entered into
the public discussion, she maintained an interest. At a critical time, her
staA arranged a private brieIng for her in the White House; I was told
not to tell anyone of my task and warned not to even hint at my association’s
particular agenda. Once again her questions were sharp, but in private
there were no kid gloves: This was a bright person asking
penetrating questions.

In the end, with support of congressional Republicans and Democrats,
the National Literacy Act of 1991 was passed. But not everyone who
worked in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was in favor of this idea. This was
learned because Mrs. Bush’s staA members would touch base and let it
be known who was asking what questions. Again, not partisan, but certainly
there was a presence. In the end, about 12 people where called
into the Oval OTce for the signing of the bill. And true to her style, Mrs.
Bush wasn’t there.

Even when her time was up as First Lady, her leadership didn’t stop. One
of the key people working on Project Literacy US, Anderson Clark (a guy
who had 200 ideas between breaths), observed that a foundation could
be created to give Mrs. Bush a continued national platform to lead by example.
After much thought, and a lot of work, the Barbara Bush Foundation
for Family Literacy was formed. Twenty-Ive years later, I attended
the commemoration luncheon was held in Houston. Mrs. Bush brought
the gang together again; partially to remember the past accomplishments,
but also to show that next generations of Bush family members
were talking about how to continue to make a diAerence.
She never asked anyone in the literacy community to vote for her husband;
and in fact most of us didn’t; she only asked that we work harder
and better to make a difference.

Richard Long




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