[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Veterans Day November 11, 2018

Wed Nov 7 23:52:40 GMT 2018

Thanks Tom.
 I concur with Don Leu’s comments.
( I forwarded this piece to your Harvard student of long ago, Bob Fulmer.)
 Brian Cambourne
On 8 Nov 2018, at 10:48 AM, Leu, Donald <donald.leu at uconn.edu<mailto:donald.leu at uconn.edu>> wrote:

Thank you, Tom, for reminding us of the important stories in adult literacy.  So important, especially in these challenging times.

Cheers,

Don

—

Donald J. Leu, Ph.D
Emeritus John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology
Former Director, The New Literacies Research Lab
http://www.newliteracies.uconn.edu/
University of Connecticut
249 Glenbrook Road
Storrs, CT  06269-2033
Cell:  860.680.3752

Every  one of us is given the gift of life, and what a strange gift it is.  If it is preserved jealously and selfishly, it impoverishes andsaddens. But if it is spent for others, it enriches and beautifies.”
  -- Geraldine  Ferraro.
     Acceptance speech at the 1984 Democratic Party National  Convention.

On Nov 7, 2018, at 11:19 AM, Thomas Sticht <tgsticht at gmail.com<mailto:tgsticht at gmail.com>> wrote:

Veterans Day November 11, 2018
Celebrating Adult Literacy Educator Veterans of Wars
Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)
Since its founding, the United States has engaged in a number of wars fighting for freedom and liberty both at home and abroad. On Veterans Day we celebrate the lives of the veterans of these wars and thank those both living and dead who have fought to keep us free. Among these veterans are adult educators, both military and civilian, who worked, often under arduous conditions, to help America’s non-English speaking, illiterate, and under-educated military personnel learn to read, write, and compute.
During the Revolutionary War, at Valley Forge, military chaplains served as adult educators and taught soldiers to read. Though we don’t know how many soldiers were taught to read, nor how well, we do know that lessons continued throughout the encampment at Valley Forge.
During the Civil War, fought in the United States to free the slaves of the Confederate states and to unite the Nation, the Union Army provided many educational opportunities for former slaves. This included the work of one General Banks who sought to eradicate the widespread illiteracy among the 18,585 Negro troops serving in the Department of the Gulf by appointing several members of the American Missionary Association as lieutenants in some of the colored regiments. Banks appointed these men for the sole purpose of teaching the Negro soldiers. He also directed chaplains to engage in literacy instruction for the former slaves.
During WWI the Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) provided reading and writing instruction for soldiers. One of the activities that the Y.M.C.A. undertook was the preparation of literacy instructional materials for the soldiers. Among these was the “Camp Reader for American Soldiers” which used a functional approach to teach soldiers to read military-related materials. At Camp Upton, New York, illiterate and non-English speaking recruits were taught literacy following a course of instruction developed under the direction of Captain Garry C. Myers, whose wife, Caroline, also taught soldiers to read. Later these veteran adult literacy educators founded “Highlights for Children”, a magazine for helping adults teach their children reading and writing skills.

During World War II, the armed services once again faced the need to utilize hundreds of thousands of men who were poorly literate and many were non-English speakers. As in World War I, the armed forces developed functional, military-related materials to teach English language and reading skills with these under-prepared soldiers. Estimates of the numbers of WW II adult literacy instructors included some 5,291 personnel. Of these, around 641 were officers, 4,557 were enlisted men, and there were some 87 civilians. More than 1200 of these teachers were African-Americans. The efforts of all these teachers helped raise the literacy skills of over a quarter million soldiers.

During the Korean War, fought from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. tens of thousands of inductees entered the military services with reading levels below the 8th grade level, and many were in need of reading instruction.  To meet the need for materials for teaching reading to under-educated inductees during the Korean War the United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI) made available reading instructional materials that were based to an extent on the World War II functional literacy materials. Teachers in education centers at military posts around the country helped raise the literacy levels of thousands of the troops who went on to fight in Korea.

During the Vietnam war, I directed the development of the Army’s Functional Literacy (FLIT) program for marginally literate personnel. This was the first program that introduced systematic methods for studying literacy practices of personnel in various jobs and job training programs, incorporated these practices into the design of job-related literacy programs, and compared the effectiveness of general literacy programs to job-related programs. In evaluation studies, some 3400 students taught by 30 military and civilian teachers at six Army posts improved their reading ability by studying authentic job-related materials having real meaning and relevance to them.

In all these wars adult literacy instructors, including thousands of active duty military personnel, contributed to the war efforts through their teaching of reading. As veterans, some of these former soldiers or sailors went on to translate techniques for teaching basic skills for soldiers into methods for teaching basic skills for both children and adults.

On Veterans Day this year, while we honor all veterans of all wars, take a moment to give a special thanks and appreciation to those veterans who served as teachers of adults in these wars. Behind the guns and bombs of war are the brains of those who fight. Adult educators helped to make many  fighter’s  brains more effective in war and afterward at home through the magic of literacy.

References

For an extended set of readings about the work of adult literacy educators in all these wars see these two free e-books:

Sticht, T. (2017). Fighting Illiteracy in Times of War. In: T. Sticht: The Struggle for Adult Literacy Education in America A Trilogy Of  Notes on History, Research, Policy, & Practice in Adult Literacy Education. E-book available online at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a158b4e4b0796a90f7c371/t/5a08848b8165f51550503a1d/1510507672628/Bk+Trilogy.1.pdf<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic1.squarespace.com%2Fstatic%2F55a158b4e4b0796a90f7c371%2Ft%2F5a08848b8165f51550503a1d%2F1510507672628%2FBk%2BTrilogy.1.pdf&data=02%7C01%7Cdonald.leu%40uconn.edu%7Cfc9db21deab44d959d5e08d644d52b43%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C636772079693566628&sdata=WfkyPFrIpl8nQU0CNlfc1NeKzBPattM4aFvbpnXrGME%3D&reserved=0>

Sticht, T. (2018). Mainstreaming Marginalized Adults: The Transformation of Adult Basic Education in the United States. Online at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324604141_Mainstreaming_Marginalized_Adults_The_Transformation_of_Adult_Basic_Education_in_the_United_States<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F324604141_Mainstreaming_Marginalized_Adults_The_Transformation_of_Adult_Basic_Education_in_the_United_States&data=02%7C01%7Cdonald.leu%40uconn.edu%7Cfc9db21deab44d959d5e08d644d52b43%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C636772079693576637&sdata=GEk7wrCM2CO9ah7f06yyf9xO5EgFHvo2cVPTQOgB7qs%3D&reserved=0>

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