[Reading-hall-of-fame] A 4th of July Message

[P David Pearson]

This is a wonderful post Tom.  Lots more genuinely patriotic than the usual
accounts of America that we haul out every Independence Day.
David


On Mon, Jul 3, 2023 at 12:27 AM Colin Harrison <
Colin.Harrison at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:

> Hi Tom
>
>
>
> Many thanks for this.  As always: informative, powerful, and still totally
> relevant.
>
>
>
> Best regards
>
>
>
> Colin
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Reading-hall-of-fame <
> reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Thomas
> Sticht <tgsticht at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Sunday, 2 July 2023 at 22:02
> *To: *reading hall of fame <Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
> *Subject: *[Reading-hall-of-fame] A 4th of July Message
>
> July 2, 2023
>
> A 4th of July Message:
>
>
>
> IET/FCE for Freedom and Independence
>
> Tom Sticht
> International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)
>
> Freedom and independence are never free. They are won by those willing to
> stand up and work for these bedrock human values.
>
> Twice in the 20th century the people of the United States rose up to
> defend their freedom and independence. Among these people were hundreds of
> thousands of immigrants who came to the United States to gain these human
> rights and who then often found themselves fighting their own countrymen to
> keep these rights.
>
> To rapidly teach the English language and literacy during wartime the Army
> followed a practice today called IET: Integrated Education and Training or
> sometimes  FCE: Functional Context Education. In this educational method,
> English language instruction and job-related instruction are taught
> concurrently, in an integrated manner. In both World Wars I and II the
> teaching of English was integrated with the teaching of military-related
> and morale-building information to help the soldiers learn and perform
> their jobs better.
>
> IET/FCE  in World War I, 1917
>
> See Uncle Sam.
> U.S. stands for Uncle Sam.
> U.S. stands for United States.
> Uncle Sam stands for United States.
> U.S.A. stands for United States of America.
> I am for Uncle Sam.
> I am for the United States of America.
> I stand for Uncle Sam.
> Uncle Sam stands for me.
> I am an American.
> See me stand for Uncle Sam.
>
> This is the second lesson in the "Camp Reader for American Soldiers"
> (Spaeth, 1919) used by thousands of foreign-born men who entered the Army
> in World War I and needed to learn the English language. In the first
> lesson, the men learned to say, "I am an American."
>
> Used to teach literacy and the English language in what were called
> Development Battalions, the Camp Reader was written by J. Duncan Spaeth,
> Professor of English, Princeton University, and Educational Director, Army
> Y. M. C. A. at Camp Wheeler in Georgia and Camp Jackson in South Carolina.
> The book is the first book I have found that was intended to teach both
> native-born illiterates and foreign-born immigrants to read and write the
> English language. It also includes the first Teacher's Manual that presents
> a theoretical understanding of conversational and written English,
> including an introduction to "The Phonetic System of Reading" and an
> Appendix which serves as a separate Teacher's Manual for those instructing
> non-English speaking soldiers.
>
> During World War I some 500,000 immigrants were drafted and thousands more
> volunteered for service (Ford, 2001, p. 137). While not all needed to
> learn  English, tens of thousands did need to and did. One of those who
> volunteered for the Army was Louis Van Iersel, who was born in the
> Netherlands. He  learned English with the help of the Y.M.C.A. and went to
> war in Germany. There he was credited for heroism which saved the lives of
> a thousand men and he was awarded America's highest military recognition,
> the Medal of Honor (Ford, 2001, p. 140).
>
> IET/FCE in World War II, 1943
>
> World War II saw the nation once again enlisting hundreds of thousands of
> men with no or very low literacy skills and others of foreign birth who
> could speak and/or write little or no English. Once again, as in World War
> I, Special Training Units were established to teach literacy and English
> language to these soldiers.
>
> One of the tools developed for teaching men to read and write was a
> newspaper entitled "Our War." In the April 1943 issue there is a comic
> strip which features Private Pete and his pal, Daffy, both fictional
> characters who are in a Special Training Unit learning to read and write.
> This strip also features Pedro, a friend of Pete and Daffy, who cannot
> speak good English, but is nonetheless a good soldier. In the strip, Pete
> and Daffy save Pedro from going A.W.O.L. (absent without official leave) by
> explaining what A.W.O.L. means. They offer to help Pedro whenever he is not
> sure about something, illustrating how soldiers from different cultural and
> language backgrounds can work together.
>
> In another issue of "Our War" Private Porfirio C. Gutierrez, a soldier in
> a Special Training Unit wrote a letter home and said, "This is my first
> letter in English. I have learned to read and write so that I can help
> protect our country." By the war's end, over a quarter million troops had
> been taught literacy and/or English language in the Special Training Units.
>
> IET/FCE for Today's Immigrants
>
> Today, hundreds of thousands  immigrants from all over the world are
> coming to the United States  of America in search of freedom and
> independence. To meet the needs of many of these immigrants, adult
> educators have again developed  programs for those learning the English
> language follow a similar approach to that of the Army in World Wars I and
> II and embed or integrate the teaching of English within the functional
> context of vocational training. These integrated job skills and academic
> skills (reading, writing, math) programs continue to help thousands of
> non-English speaking immigrants achieve social and economic freedom and
> independence in their newly chosen homeland. And they do it faster and
> with  greater retention and completion rates than sequential programs of
> English  language followed by vocational education.
>
> When we celebrate Independence Day this July 4th, we can be grateful that
> the torch in the hand of the Statue of Liberty still shines and still
> stands as a beacon for those escaping oppression, terrorism, and poverty.
> Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the past fought, and many died, so
> we could keep the torch of liberty beaming. Our freedom and independence is
> intact and thousands of new immigrants arrive each day to enjoy these
> human  rights. But these rights are under attack still today, and sadly
> many of the  new immigrants, like their forebears, will die fighting so
> that their families and their new American neighbors can continue to enjoy
> freedom and independence.
>
> But freedom and independence are never free.
>
> References
>
>
> Ford, N. G. (2001). Americans All! Foreign-born Soldiers in World War I.
> College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press.
>
> Spaeth, J. D. (1919). Camp Reader for American Soldiers. New York: The
> International Committee of Young Men's Christian Association.
>
>
>
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*"If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of
tomorrow." John Dewey, 1903*

*“Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.” – Stanislaw Jerzy
Lec*
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. David Pearson
Evelyn Lois Corey *Emeritus* Professor of Instructional Science
Graduate School of Education
University of California, Berkeley

email:  ppearson at berkeley.edu
other e-mail:  pdavidpearsondean at gmail.com
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