[Reading-hall-of-fame] Women's History Month

[Thomas Sticht]

March 6, 2024


March is Women’s History Month

*Highlighting Literacy Work by Caroline Clark Myers for Adults and Children*

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

During the U.S.A. involvement in World War I (1917-1918) some 700,000
recruits were determined to be illiterate, many of whom were non-English
speakers. After the World War I armistice was signed, Caroline Clark Myers,
the first  woman hired to teach non-English speaking and illiterate adults
in the Army in World War I, worked with her husband and others and
developed materials and methods of teaching English, reading, and writing
to illiterate soldiers for the war department.

After the war she was the lead author on books for teaching English to
non-English speaking adults based on her experiences teaching during the
war (Meyers & Meyers, 1921). The teacher’s manual for these books outlined
the thoughts behind their development for teaching English to immigrants
stating,

“We desire these newcomers to wish to learn to live as real Americans, we
want them to think and feel as we think and feel about our community and
our country. We want them to wish to develop habits in dress, in choice of
foods, in cleanliness in care of their persons, like the best type of good
substantial Americans and most of all we want them to wish to get habits of
using every opportunity to improve themselves individually to be good
useful members of their neighborhood. We want them habitually to feel a
pride in living in America and in the opportunity to become citizens of
this new country; a pride in its flag and a pride in the great men who have
lived Americans and died Americans (p.16)”.



“It will be observed that the course presupposes the presence of women as
well as men in classes of non-English speaking people. This side of
Americanization has been greatly neglected. The lessons in themselves
suggest ideal complete families of these one time foreign folk with
children that are well cared for, well fed, well trained, living in a clean
well kept home like the best American homes owned by these families because
of their thrift and industry. In homes where happiness reigns supreme where
there is comradeship and where these children grow up to be cultured and
well educated young men and women who are known in their communities as
among the best young people of that neighborhood. Frequently the lessons
suggest the advantages to foreign women to learn English quite as well as
to the young men (p.22)”.



In the late 1920s and through the 1930s Meyers was trained in parent
education at Columbia and other universities. She went on to became a
specialist in parent education in the extension department of Cleveland
College at Western Reserve University. She administered the parent
education  program, developed institutes for parents , helped in the
development of radio programs and taught classes for leaders of parent
education groups.


In 1946 she and her husband started a magazine for children called *Highlights
for Children.* As with the World War I Language in America materials she
and others developed, *Highlights* uses lots of illustrations, puzzles,
cartoons and stories aimed at catching the interest of both children and
their parents. The latter are encouraged to read to their children to
promote the intergenerational transfer of literacy from parents to their
progeny and increase family literacy.

Caroline Clark Meyers stayed active with *Highlights for Children *until
her death in 1980 at the age of 93. Today, the *Highlights* web site
reports that over 1.373 billion copies of the magazine have been mailed,
with *Highlights* products in 60 countries, and in 28 languages!

March 8th is International Women’s Day! Let's *Highlight* that!

Language in America Teacher’s Manual Available Online

*TEACHERS MANUAL THE LANGUAGE OF AMERICA LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY ENGLISH AND
CITIZENSHIP FOR ADULTS* BY CAROLINE E MYERS AND GARRY C MYERS, 1921, Newson
& Company.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Language_of_America/lWwXAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=caroline+clark+myers+google+books&printsec=frontcover
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