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

[P Pearson]

Somewhere in some scripture (numbers?)  it says that the iniquity of the
fathers will be visited on the children.  I hope in Barbara's case, it
isn't reversed with the sins of the children visited on the parents?

pdp

On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 5:29 PM, Brian Cambourne <bcambrn at uow.edu.au> wrote:

> 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> 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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P. David Pearson
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