[Reading-hall-of-fame] Five Star Point Ladies of Literacy

Wed Mar 8 21:54:46 GMT 2023

March 8, 2023

Five Literacy Star Point Women in the History of Literacy

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

Each star on the United States of America flag has five points, and this
month of March 2023,   Women’s History Month and this day of March 8, 2023,
International Women’s Day, I give some personal reflections about five
American women who make up the five points of a star on the U.S. flag.
Through their outstanding leadership and organizing abilities these
Literacy Star Point Ladies have directed enduring organizations that each
year advocate for and provide education for thousands of adults and their
children.

At the top point of the Literacy Star is Welthy Honsinger Fisher, founder
of World Education in Massachusetts;  next, moving clockwise  to the second
point of the Literacy Star, comes Ruth Johnson Colvin, founder of  Literacy
Volunteers of America in New York; the third point of the Literacy Star is
Cynthia “Cindy” Marano, Director of Wider Opportunity for Women in
Washington, DC; the fourth point of the Literacy Star is Sharon Darling,
founder of the National Center for Family Literacy (now Families Learning)
in Kentucky; and at the fifth point of the literacy star is Benita
Somerfield, founding Executive Directive of the Barbara Bush Foundation for
Family Literacy in Washington, DC.

[image: 🌠] Star Point 1: Welthy Honsinger Fisher (1879 – 1980), World
Education

In 1979 I accepted an invitation  by the Director General of UNESCO to
become a member of UNESCO’s International Literacy Prize Jury. To prepare
for this position I studied past Palmares citing the winners of literacy
prizes and found that in the previous year of 1978 Welthy Honsinger Fisher
had received Honorable Mention recognition by UNESCO.  I recalled having
attended a lecture by Fisher at the U. S.  Department of State offices in
Washington DC and later learned that, though  recognized internationally
for her years of work on adult literacy education in India she had founded
World Education in 1951 to provide literacy education and other services
for adults in the United States and internationally. She went on to work
with World Education for over two decades, retiring at the age of 93.
Today, World Education, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, continues
work to advance literacy education for adults around the world. (For an
example of Fisher’s teaching methods following a functional context
approach see my “Literacy Frees the World” online at:
http://en.copian.ca/library/research/sticht/prism/stitch.pdf
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.copian.ca%2Flibrary%2Fresearch%2Fsticht%2Fprism%2Fstitch.pdf&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cd82fd47fe16241b3b05908db1fdd458b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638138807448093282%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=NEjHbqlgNcdKpHIEfQdL7X4RdKUPhms0%2BA4ypiBNak4%3D&reserved=0>
)

[image: 🌠]Star Point 2: Ruth Colvin, ProLiteracy Worldwide

Ruth Colvin started her adult literacy work in1961 when she began a project
which became Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA). She directed LVA into a
national organization with over 400 affiliates and thousands of tutors
offering one-on-one tutoring and small group instruction in literacy for
both native born and immigrant adults. In 2002 I got a Christmas card from
Ruth noting that LVA had merged with Laubach Literacy to form the world’s
largest adult literacy education organization, ProLiteracy Worldwide. In
2012 ProLiteracy moved into new headquarters in Syracuse, New York and I
was invited to present two inaugural workshops on adult literacy education.
To my surprise, and great honor, Ruth attended these workshops. Having
worked for adult literacy education in numerous nations, Colvin has
continued her adult literacy work into her 11th decade of life and has
received the Medal of Freedom from the President of the United States, the
Presidential Medal of Volunteer Action, nine honorary doctorate degrees,
and the gratitude of thousands of adult literacy learners throughout North
America!

 [image: 🌠]Star Point 3: Cynthia “Cindy” Marano  (1947 – 2005) Wider
Opportunities for Women

Cynthia “Cindy”  Marano served as Executive Director of Wider Opportunities
for Women (WOW) from 1976 to 1997. It was during this time that I worked
with Cindy as a member of WOW’s National Commission on Working Women.
Under  Marano, in 1988 WOW initiated the Women’s Workplace Literacy Project
and the Intergenerational Literacy Action Research Project for some 500
programs across the nation. Leaving WOW in 1997 Marano  continued  work on
creating opportunities for marginalized women until her passing in 2005.
Marano was a designated Women's History Month
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FWomen%2527s_History_Month&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cd82fd47fe16241b3b05908db1fdd458b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638138807448093282%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FfVqhu5BE%2BBc76OER9U3%2BSoy%2B1VDudRYRw1tWf%2FG8iE%3D&reserved=0>
Honoree
by the National Women’s History Alliance;  served as vice chairwoman of Equal
Rights Advocates
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FEqual_Rights_Advocates&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cd82fd47fe16241b3b05908db1fdd458b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638138807448093282%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rBZHf50OzRIryh5oIChURRJnPwbMD7gMFtukNZPG79c%3D&reserved=0>
and
the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FNational_Committee_for_Responsive_Philanthropy&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cd82fd47fe16241b3b05908db1fdd458b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638138807448093282%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rNkuhaRBqf58Li7i47zUZLjqquhAYnbGrQEZuoupf%2BY%3D&reserved=0>;
served on advisory commissions for three U.S. secretaries of labor and the
Private Industry Council; was awarded the Ms. Foundation for Women's Gloria
Award for Women of Vision
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMs._Foundation_for_Women&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cd82fd47fe16241b3b05908db1fdd458b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638138807448249520%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=uZxFzcuKQGV3NyYyXcwHDMLLhQlZssm7C%2BHhFCj7b5Q%3D&reserved=0>
and
the National Award for Women's Economic Justice. For more information about
  Marano and women’s social justice go online to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Marano
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCindy_Marano&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cd82fd47fe16241b3b05908db1fdd458b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638138807448249520%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FfWlr8z741h3HcUcLbJLxxCvlLapexZZoW5wFGEa%2BAY%3D&reserved=0>;
also see online at Harvard University:
https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/92
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu%2Frepositories%2F8%2Fresources%2F9247&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cd82fd47fe16241b3b05908db1fdd458b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638138807448249520%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ATDf40swXvg2InhfHR2X1vzOMvm5C5RmD%2Fh8O2T8pww%3D&reserved=0>
Star

[image: 🌠] Star Point 4: Sharon Darling, National Center for Families
Learning (Ret.)

In 1987, I chaired a national conference on the Intergenerational Transfer
of Cognitive Skills bringing together speakers from family literacy
programs including one started by Sharon Darling. Two years later Darling
founded and became President of  the National Center for Family Literacy
(NCFL - now Families Learning) in Louisville, Kentucky. I was fortunate
enough to meet with Sharon in1994 in Paris at UNESCO’s World Conference on
Family Literacy where she presented a rationale for the four part approach
NCFL takes to family literacy, stating, “Adults study academic and life
skills while their children are following a quality pre-school programme
close by. There is also a daily interactive learning in programmes for
parents and children. Finally, parents are offered help in coping with
everyday issues and problems during ‘parent time”. For over 30 years
Darling led the NCFL in activities which by 2021 had reached more than 4.5
million parents and children across 150 communities in 39 states and
Washington, D.C..

[image: 🌠] Star Point 5: Benita Somerfield, Barbara Bush Foundation for
Family Literacy

When Benita Somerfield was a Special Advisor on adult education in the U.S.
Department of Education in 1988 we participated in a WOW conference on
improving the literacy of low-income single women. In 1989,  Somerfield was
appointed as the (founding) Executive Director of the Barbara Bush
Foundation for Family Literacy, a position she held for the next 23+ years
until 2012. In 1994, Somerfield participated in UNESCO’s World Symposium on
Family Literacy in Paris where she expressed the importance of
communications media in informing the public about adult literacy issues,
emphasizing the important role that well-known pubic figures, such as First
Lady Barbara Bush, can play in advocating for adult literacy education. She
has worked on international literacy issues in a number of important
positions including as a Member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO
Institute for Lifelong Learning; U.S. Representative to the United Nations
Literacy Decade (2002-2012);  International Committee of the Library of
Congress Literacy Awards.

First Lady Barbara Bush said in her letter to the 1994 World Symposium on
Family literacy “You know the experts are convinced, and so am 1, that if
every man, woman and Child had the literacy skills they need to accomplish
their goals and realize their dreams, the problems of poverty, violence and
disease would certainly diminish. I know this is true because I’ve seen it
firsthand, travelling around the United States, visiting hundreds of fine
literacy programmes, meeting countless dedicated teachers and volunteers,
and listening to so many courageous and committed adult learners tell their
stories.”

During this Women’s History Month and this International Women’s Day the
five organizations founded and/or directed by these five ladies forming the
points of a bright literacy star continue to provide literacy education for
millions of adults and their families around the world. Perhaps soon the
problems of poverty, violence and disease will begin to diminish. Perhaps…

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