[Reading-hall-of-fame] Honoring Veteran Literacy Teachers and Adult Learners on Veterans Day

[Thomas Sticht]

Colleagues: Veterans Day is observed on November 11th to honor all those
who have served in the armed forces of the United States. Among these are
many educators who have performed their military service by teaching
undereducated military recruits how to improve their literacy skills to
better perform their jobs and to communicate with loved ones back home.

To celebrate these many military literacy teachers and their adult learners
I have compiled a number of brief research notes that I have written over
the years into one report entitled, “FIGHTING ILLITERACY IN TIMES OF WAR:
An anthology of brief historical notes”. These notes discuss the work of
such notable literacy teachers of military students as Captain Garry and
Caroline Clark during the World War I era, who later went on to found the
great magazine to help children learn to read called Highlights for
Children! Another note talks about the World War II work of the famous
musician and actor, Desi Arnaz, of I Love Lucy fame, in teaching U.S. Army
personnel to read.

Ranging from the Revolutionary War through World Wars I and II, Korea,
Vietnam and Iraq wars, the FIGHTING ILLITERACY IN TIMES OF WAR report
discusses how the armed forces taught literacy skills, study skills (the
famous SQ3R strategy), and founded the General Educational Development
(GED) certificate for personnel who had not completed their high school
degrees during World War II and which thousands of civilian adult learners
now complete each year in the United States and Canada.

Now, when I celebrate Veteran's Day, I have a special place in my thoughts
for the hundreds of thousands of undereducated, less literate veterans who
have served our nation honorably. I also think of the thousands of veteran
adult literacy educators who, through their dedication to fighting
illiteracy, have helped thousands of these military personnel succeed. I
have visited the National World War II museum in New Orleans, the Korean
and Vietnam War memorials in Washington DC, but I have found no stone
monuments to these veterans of literacy education, teachers and learners
alike.  But I know that our nation's struggle for freedom has relied upon
books as well as on bullets and bombs!



The report on Fighting Illiteracy in Times of War is available online at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320024840_FIGHTING_ILLITERACY_IN_TIMES_OF_WAR_An_anthology_of_brief_historical_notes_by_Tom_Sticht





Tom Sticht





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