[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Alice Paul and Parent Education

[Mckeown, Margaret G]

Thank you, Tom. You are as ever a font of wisdom. I am so glad to know about Alice Paul, her inspiring story and her important work!

Moddy McKeown

From: <reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Thomas Sticht <tgsticht at gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 at 9:32 AM
To: reading hall of fame <Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Alice Paul and Parent Education

July 14, 2021
Alice Paul and Parent Education in Native American Early Childhood Education
Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)
On July 14, we  celebrate the birth and life of Dr. Alice S. (Narcho) Paul (1930-2005), the first Native American from the Tohono O’odham Nation to receive a Ph. D. from the University of Arizona, where she went on to work as a professor of early childhood education for over three decades.
I first encountered Paul’s work when she presented a paper on early childhood education programs (Head Start; Follow Through) for the 1988 Conference on The Intergenerational Transfer of Cognitive Skills (Paul, 1991a). As an adult educator I was especially interested in her paper in which she referred to the importance of education for parents and noted that “Over the years of intervention, both Head Start and Follow Through have demonstrated that parents are their children’s first teachers” (p. 38).
Paul’s beliefs in the importance of parent’s education in the development of children’s education was documented further in a paper for the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force (Paul, 1991b). Here she argued, “Finally, it seems that not only do preschools and public schools have to successfully solicit parent involvement, but they must also offer the parents educational and self-improvement opportunities…Many early education literacy researchers are pointing to the critical factor of parent literacy level in predicting the literacy success of the child as support for parent literacy school programs….The Colville Tribes of Washington State have used Title V funds to increase their parents literacy skill levels and also to train the parents in specific strategies for helping their children with schoolwork. This has helped them bring many of their students up to grade level” (p. 5).
Following Alice Paul’s passing in 2005, the University of Arizona noted that she, “… lived in two culturally defined worlds. In one, her parents brought her up understanding Tohono O'odham practices, which included her grandmother's knowledge of herbal remedies. In the other, she traveled across the nation to educate parents and teachers with the mindset to create a world full of possibilities for children. Paul noted, 'It's been like walking a fence to live in two different worlds. I can understand the view on one side as well as the other’. She interlinked both cultures in her day to day life, her work and in her many published works such as, 'Cultural Aspects that Affect the Indian Student in Public Schools' written in 1983 and 'Early Childhood Education in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities' written in 1992.”
On May 5th, 2005 the United States Congressional Record published a statement by the Hon. Rau L.M. Grijalva entitled HONORING DR. ALICE S. PAUL in which he recounted many of Paul’s achievements: “Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Dr. Alice S. Paul, an exceptional citizen of my community, our country, and the Tohono O’odham Nation. Dr. Paul’s life, which unfortunately ended too soon on May 3, 2005, exemplifies the impact of public education at a time when we need to speak about its power. Dr. Alice Paul is a product of public education and leaves a legacy of its worth. As a life-time educator, she extended the power of public education far beyond her own experience. Her focus was early childhood education, and she traveled widely helping communities improve their early childhood educational systems. Her work had direct impact on the lives of young children and their families throughout the United States, from rural Alaska to urban New Jersey. After her retirement she even served as a consultant to the Taiwanese educational system.”

The Women's Plaza of Honor publicly and permanently celebrates women who have made significant contributions to the history of Arizona or whose lives have otherwise enriched the lives of othersBeyond  her many achievements at the University of Arizona and with the Follow Through program , Paul devoted herself to Native American education and helped create the Tohono O'odham Community College, and served on the board of Trustees for the College, she supported the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington D.C. and served on the board of the Arizona State Museum concerning Indigenous cultural matters. She also worked on Tohono O'odham Nation committee on the Association of the Education of Young Children, which went on to honor her contributions.

The Winter 2020 edition of the University of Arizona Alumni Association news has an article Katy Smith (2020) entitled “Inspiration that Persists: The Enduring Legacy of Alice Paul the first Tohono O’odham member to earn U Arizona Doctoral degree. Karen Francis-Begay, the university’s assistant vice provost of Native American initiatives discusses the impact that Paul had on her and others from Native American background and said, “Once you have the degree, many more opportunities and doors open. Then this lightbulb sort of goes off, and you think, ‘That’s what people like Alice Paul and others have done for me.’ So I’m going to continue that.” May we all!
References
Paul, A. (1991a). Two decades of early childhood intervention. In: T. Sticht, M. Beeler, & B. McDonald (Eds.). The Intergenerational Transfer of Cognitive Abilities: Volume 1: Programs, Policy, and Research Issues. Norwood, New Jersey, Ablex Publishing Corporation. (pp. 32-40)
Paul, A. (1991b). Childhood Education in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities. Paper for Indian Nations at Risk Task force. U. S. Department of Education, Washington, DC.
(Available online using a Google search)
Smith, K. (2020, Winter). Inspiration that Persists: The Enduring Legacy of Alice Paul the first Tohono O’odham member to earn U Arizona Doctoral degree. https://arizonaalumni.com/article/inspiration-persists<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farizonaalumni.com%2Farticle%2Finspiration-persists&data=04%7C01%7Cmckeown%40pitt.edu%7Cdb48f1c7142a483fa6dc08d946e4eba5%7C9ef9f489e0a04eeb87cc3a526112fd0d%7C1%7C1%7C637618771290030629%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=wTUGdG3%2FWdc6%2Bs12sJ3mfCaazIPVbyJtPfJC3b0wwDw%3D&reserved=0>
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