[Reading-hall-of-fame] Double Duty Dollars: Educated Mothers, Educated Children

Tue Oct 3 22:01:52 BST 2023

October 10, 2023

 Double Duty Dollars: Educate Mothers to Improve The Educability of Children

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

 During National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2023 several
adult educators discussed with U. S. Senators the link between adult
literacy and economic opportunity. Senator Susan Collins said that, “Low
levels of adult literacy pose significant economic challenges for our
nation. Research shows that a mother’s education level is the greatest
determinant of her children’s future academic success, outweighing other
factors like family income.”
*https://allinliteracy.org/all-in-and-engage-brief-u-s-senate-on-adult-literacys-link-to-economic-opportunity/*
<https://allinliteracy.org/all-in-and-engage-brief-u-s-senate-on-adult-literacys-link-to-economic-opportunity/>

 Getting Double Duty Dollars

 Between 1990 and 2023 when Senator Collins called attention to the
important role of mother’s education in the academic success of her
children, the idea of the intergenerational transfer of literacy from
parents to their children as getting “double duty dollars” was spread
across several regions of the world. A sampling of the spread of this idea
follows.

 *ASIA-PACIFIC REGION*

*Saipan*

Saipan Tribune (2003): “Giving emphasis on adult education will result in
“large inter-generational payoff” and significant savings for the
government, according to visiting international consultant Thomas Sticht.
“It's what I call 'double duty dollars' because every dollar you spend on
adult education, say a mother, will double or more than double in value
because she will certainly educate her children.” Online at:
https://www.saipantribune.com/news/local/flashback---dec-2002-dec-2004/article_f043178d-4b49-582c-9ecb-ff009644ef73.html

* Australia*

 Brown (2020), advocating for adult education, wrote, “Adults who learn
have a positive impact on their families, too. …Sticht (2001) referred to
this as *‘double duty dollars’* meaning that ‘when we invest in the
education of adults we may get multiple returns – in other words, teach an
adult, especially a mother, and children will also learn better.”  Online
at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1257157.pdf

 *New Zealand*

November 1,2001. In a New Zealand Herald interview with Dr. Thomas Sticht,
following his presentation at a New Zealand National Meeting of Workforce
Literacy he  said, “As well as improving productivity in the workplace and
boosting self-esteem, investing in adult literacy rubbed off on the
children of workers, because their parents started reading to them at
home.It is another use of our dollars - they become “double-duty dollars,"
he said.”
                       Online
at:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/literacy-barrier-leaving-us-shorthanded-expert/6MNSRMPJEQTW7YIJYV6YNSE2NE/

*NORTH AMERICA*

 *Canada*

 *National Academy of Education meeting in Toronto, Ontario, 1980*

Presentation by Tom Sticht:  “It may well be that a commitment to the
continued development of youth and adults, that matches our commitment to
the remediation of their children in pre-school and elementary school
programs, would pay double rewards. Through education of the adults, we
might also improve the educability of their children.”

Online at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED262201.pdf

 *Movement for Canadian Literacy   Factsheet
                           *The children of more highly educated mothers
are better prepared with knowledge, oral language and literacy skills when
they enter formal schooling. (Sticht, 1997)  …Every dollar spent on family
and intergenerational literacy programs does "double duty" supporting early
childhood development as well as adult basic education. Online at:
http://en.copian.ca/library/research/mcl/factsht/families/page1.htm

*The Case for Literacy*
<https://brigidhayes.wordpress.com/2023/08/24/the-case-for-literacy/> *by
Brigid Hayes **August 24, 2023*
<https://brigidhayes.wordpress.com/2023/08/24/the-case-for-literacy/>

A few months ago, The Canada West Foundation published a report, The Case
for Literacy in Canada: Life is hard when you can’t read. … However, a
statement in the report has raised eye brows: “…the most effective and
efficient ways to reduce the cost of low literacy, both in dollar and human
costs, are to provide literacy materials and supports early in the lives of
children.” This contrasts with what Thomas Sticht has called “double duty
dollars”, that is, funding adult literacy education improves the literacy
levels of the adults and the educational outcomes of their children. Online
at: https://brigidhayes.wordpress.com/2023/08/24/the-case-for-literacy/

 *United States*

*Adult Education in **Pittsburgh,
PA
                                                       *Referring
to Don Block, former director of Literacy Pittsburgh, Whipple (2018) says, “A
colleague of Block’s described adult education as “double-duty dollars.”...
Family literacy programs …becomes a kind of parenting education as well as
literacy,” says Block. “Now they’re learning how to play and teach their
child.”  Online at:

https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/what-does-adult-education-look-like-in-pittsburgh/

*United States Congressional Hearings Citing Double Duty Dollars
                *

*The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL)
                                   *Hearings Before a Subcommittee on the
Departments  of Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education and Related
Agencies.. The National Coalition for Literacy May 13 , 2003.. If our
nation is to meet the challenge of the changing global economy, …it will
have to invest substantially more in adult education …Adult education
researcher, Thomas Sticht asserts that the federal government can get
double duty dollars by … focusing on the intergenerational transfer of
cognitive skills and functional context education … His paper (attached)
explains how this can be accomplished”  Online at:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Departments_of_Labor_Health_and_Human_Se/HD-b8YoAxngC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=The+National+Coalition+for+Literacy+(NCL)+Hearings+Before+a+Subcommittee+on+the+Departments+of+Labor,+Health,+and+Human+Services,+Education+and+Related+Agencies..+The+National+Coalition+for+Literacy+May+13+,+2003..&pg=PA1371&printsec=frontcover

 *National Council of State Directors of Adult Education*

Statement of Dr. Randy Whitfield, chairperson of the National Council of
State Directors of Adult Education in hearings before the Subcommittee on 21
st Century Competitiveness of the Committee on Education and the Workforce,
… March 4 2003. Mr. Chairman…When you teach an adult, according to reading
expert Dr. Tom Sticht, you get ``double duty dollars,'' because your money
helps the parent learn, who, in turn, helps the child learn.  If you leave
no adult behind, you will definitely leave no child behind.”

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-108hhrg86682/html/CHRG-108hhrg86682.htm

 *THE BRITISH ISLES*

*United Kingdom*

Alan Tuckett Inaugural Professorial Lecture, 7 October 2015, University of
Wolverhampton.

“There is powerful evidence that adult learning has positive health
effects, prolongs active life and shortens the period of morbidity. …
Adults who learn have a positive impact on their families, too: in what the
American academic Tom Sticht called a double duty dollar. Teach an adult,
but especially a mother, and children will learn better, too (Sticht,
2001). Online at:
https://issuu.com/unionlearn/docs/jesus_and_history_and_thunder_and_l

*Ireland*

*National Adult Literacy
Agency
                                   **Dugan
(2009): … *policy aimed at increasing parents’ basic skills may have large
effects on children’s learning. … as one US authority on intergenerational
effects of literacy observes (Sticht 2008) If we could find ways to provide
education for adults we might get “double duty dollars”. We pay for the
adults’ education, and we get improved education for both the adults and
their children.’ Onlline at:
https://www.nala.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/A-cost-benefit-analysis-of-adult-literacy-training-research-report-2009.pdf

*EUROPE

                     *

*Geneva,
Switzerland

*Literacy
Across Generations. It is the thesis of this paper that …money spent on the
education of women … produce 'double duty' effects. Monies spent on the
education of women contribute not only to the development of the women, but
also to the educational participation and achievement of their
children.*” *Sticht,
T. & McDonald, B. (1990). Teach the Mother and Reach the Child: Literacy
across Generations. Literacy Lessons. International Bureau of Education,
Geneva (Switzerland). Online at:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED321063.pdf

*Paris, France*

Speaking  at UNESCO’s World Symposium on Family Literacy in Paris in 1994 I
touched on  ideas about mother’s education and the intergenerational
influence this has on their children’s educational achievement; ideas
 expressed so well by Senator Collins above. At UNESCO House I noted that “…It
has long been recognized that the level of education of the parents, and
especially mothers, can have a positive effect on the education of children
*…**f*unds invested in well designed programmes are ‘double duty dollars’
that yield benefits to both parents and children. Governments …should know
that they can obtain multiplier effects for their investments in adult
literacy education. … by investing in the education of adults, they can
improve the education of children”. Online at:

https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000117073/PDF/117073engo.pdf.multi

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