[Reading-hall-of-fame] Adult Education and Family Literacy Week

[Thomas Sticht]

September 23-29, 2018 is Adult Education and Family Literacy Week



9/23/2018



Educating Mothers to Increase Family Literacy



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



In 1890, speaking about the formation of  human capital,  the economist
Alfred Marshall wrote,  “The most valuable of all capital is that invested
in human beings; and of that capital the most precious part is the result
of the care and influence of the mother” (cited in Cunha & Heckman, 2009,
p. 2). Marshall’s focus on the importance of mothers in the development of
human capital has echoed across time and has a firm place in understanding
the role of adult literacy education in the development of literate
families.



One hundred years after Marshall’s prescient focus on the importance of
capital invested by mothers,  Sticht & McDonald (1990, p. 5) wrote, : “It
is the thesis of this paper that significant reductions in adult illiteracy
can be achieved most cost-effectively by focusing a larger percentage of
world educational resources on the education of women. In particular, it is
argued that money spent on the education of women who are or are about to
become mothers can produce 'double duty' effects. Monies spent on the
education of women contribute not only to the development of the women, but
also to the educational participation and achievement of their children.”



Almost a decade and a half later, Karleka (2004)  edited a book about a
major literacy campaign in India in which it was noted that women
participated in large numbers (some 40 million) and there were gains in
social and political status for women and, importantly, this included a
strong demand by mothers for the education of their children. This was
clearly a demonstration of how investments in the literacy education of
women can contribute to the elevation of the literacy level of a family.



Much additional research indicates that the educational levels of parents,
especially mothers, influence the ways in which they interact with their
children (Sticht, 2011). This in turn leads to how these children will
develop into adulthood. Some children from families with less well educated
parents will grow up without developing the levels of literacy and
education they need for living very well. Some of these adults will enroll
in adult education and increase their basic skills of oracy, literacy, and
numeracy. Frequently, they will also develop non-cognitive traits such as
motivation to persist in learning, improved self-confidence, including the
self-confidence and motivation to  engage in educationally important
parenting activities with their children. This in turn raises the literacy
level of the newly educated adult’s family.



Adult Literacy Education for Mothers Raises Family Literacy Levels



Adult literacy educators have long known about the importance of educating
mothers or mothers-to-be for the educational development of children. In
1929, Cora Wilson Stewart, founder of the famous Moonlight Schools of
Kentucky, wrote a book called “Mother’s First Book: A First Reader for Home
Women.” In this book she said, “This book is a first reader for women who
cannot read or write. …There are many women who can attend school, there
are many others who cannot. Those who are unable to join a class or to
enroll in school may be taught at home…. Never was there a finer, nobler
task for a volunteer who wants to render a patriotic, helpful, constructive
service….The lessons are centered around the home and the daily
activities…they aim not only at teaching women to read and write, but at
leading them to better home practices and higher ideals in their home and
community life” (Stewart, 1929, pp. 5-6).



Sixty years later, research by Wider Opportunities for Women found that
mothers enrolled in basic skills (literacy, numeracy) education, often
integrated with job training, reported that they spoke more with their
children about school, they read to them more, they took them to the
library more and so forth (Van Fossen & Sticht, 1991). In one visit to a
single mother’s home, the mother’s second grader said, "I do my homework
just like Mommy" and thrust his homework into the researcher’s hand. These
increases in cognitive and non-cognitive behaviors of the mothers’ children
happened even though there was no teaching of these types of parenting
activities. These types of changes in the parenting behaviors of the
mothers was obtained for free as a spin-off of adult basic skills programs.



Three years later I had the opportunity to further test the idea that
investing in the education of adult language, literacy, or mathematics
could improve both the skills of the employees and the educability
of children (Sticht, 1994). In several manufacturing plants in the Chicago
area staff of the Center for Education Resources in Des Plaines, IL had
developed literacy programs integrated with job-related materials and I was
asked to serve as an external evaluator of the programs in six plants. I
found that not only were large improvements in job-related English
language, literacy, or mathematics achieved, but with those workers who
were parents, some 40 percent reported that they now read more to their
children. This result, which is typically one of the goals of pre-school or
family literacy programs, was again obtained as a spin-off of the adult
literacy programs.

Elsewhere, I have argued for what I call early parenthood education
(Sticht, 2011).  An important point for considering what I call a
multiple-life-cycles education policy is that we need to stop thinking in
terms of a single life span, sometimes called lifelong/lifewide learning,
and pay more attention to the intergenerational transfer of language,
literacy, cognitive, and non-cognitive aspects of development from parents
to their children.

During Adult Education and Family Literacy week, we need to be mindful that
when we invest in the education and training of adults, we may improve the
educability of children, and hence elevate the literacy levels of entire
families. By investing in education for adults, especially mothers or
mothers-to-be, we get double duty from our education dollars. We elevate
both adults and their children at the same time. From the point of getting
a good return on investments (ROI) in education, that seems to make good
“cents” to me.

>From a multiple life cycles education policy point of view, the real head
start for children starts with the heads of the parents. As it turns out,
adult literacy education may also act as preschool education for children,
with their parents as their first teachers!

References



Cunha, f. & Heckman, J. (2009). The Economics and Psychology of Inequality
and Development. (Available online using a Google search)



Karleka, M. (Ed.).  (2004). Paradigms of Learning: The Total Literacy
Campaign in India. New Delhi, Sage.



Stewart, C. (1929). Mother’s First Book: A First Reader for Home Women.
(Available online using a Google search).



Sticht, T. (2011, Fall). Getting it right from the Start: The Case for
Early Parenthood Education. American Educator. (Available online using a
Google search).



Sticht, T. (1994, June). Workplace Literacy Programs for Ten Manufacturing
Companies Near Chicago, Illinois: A Report of Process and Outcomes. In:
Mrowicki, L. & Others. Workplace Literacy in a Total Quality Management
Environment for the Manufacturing Industry in Chicago and Northern
Illinois. (Available online using a Google search).



Sticht, T. & McDonald, B. (1990). Teach the Mother and Reach the Child:
Literacy Across Generations. Paris: UNESCO, International Bureau of
Education, (Available online using a Google search).



Van Fossen, S. & Sticht, T. (1991, July). Teach the Mother and Reach the
Child: Results of the Intergenerational Literacy Action Research Project of
Wider Opportunities for Women. Washington, DC: Wider Opportunities for
Women.
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