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

Thu Mar 9 00:50:46 GMT 2023

Thanks Tom, this is very interesting and all new to me.

Jan

Jan Turbill
0438 098 641
jturbill at uow.edu.au
Sent from my iPhone

On 9 Mar 2023, at 8:55 am, Thomas Sticht <tgsticht at gmail.com> wrote:

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.

[🌠] 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>)

[🌠]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!

 [🌠] 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

[🌠] 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..

[🌠] 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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