[Reading-hall-of-fame] Adult Literacy Activities in September

[Thomas Sticht]

9/2/2024
*September Highlights Adult Learners and Educators*
*Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)*

With five major causes for celebrating adult learners and educators, I note
that September kicks off a new academic year for adult literacy education
across the Nation.

*On September 3rd* in the United States we celebrate Labor Day to honor the
workers of the world. Adult educators especially recognize those workers
who have sought out help in raising their literacy skills to meet the needs
of modern workplaces. Writing for the International Labor Organization
(ILO), Barbee (1986) developed guidelines for developing and delivering
literacy programs for workers, including the recommendation that:

 “Literacy training should be built into vocational and technical skills
training. Literacy and knowledge go together. Literacy cannot be taught
without building on existing knowledge and it seems reasonable to use job
knowledge as the content of further literacy development for adults. The
research in "functional context" and other competency-based and
individualised training clearly bears this out. It seems likely that this
would also hold true in most societies. This would mean that in planning
vocational and technical skills training programmes a literacy component
should be built in using "functional context" principles (p.32).”

Today, adult educators in the U.S. are following this guidance and helping
thousands of labor force members increase their basic skills with support
from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, Title 2: The Adult
Education and Family Literacy act which provides financial support for
integrated vocational and basic skills education.

*On September 8th* the world celebrates International Literacy Day, the day
the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) awards literacy prizes to institutions, organizations, and
individuals whose actions are dedicated to the struggle against adult
illiteracy throughout the world.

Serving for 25 years as a member of UNESCO’s International Literacy Prize
Jury that selected the winners of these literacy prizes I  learned two
important lessons: (1) adult literacy programs generally produce multiplier
effects, meaning that important outcomes beyond the learning of literacy
are frequently forthcoming and (2) adult literacy programs often have
intergenerational consequences,  meaning that improving adult literacy,
especially that of women, increases the likelihood  that children’s
literacy and education will improve.

Regarding the intergenerational effect of adult literacy education, Rosa
Maria Torres, a member of the UNESCO International Jury for Literacy Prizes
observed that  “To educate children, it is essential to educate adults, not
only (illiterate, poor) parents and caregivers (including teachers) but
adults in general. Because it is adults and the adult society who make the
critical decisions that affect children’s well-being and for the sake of
children, for the present and for future generations. … the children’s
right to education should include the right to educated parents.”

*On September 10th  *I celebrate my 88th birthday and honor the numerous
adult educators and learners I have had the opportunity to work with for
some 55 years in over half a dozen  nations around the world traveling over
a half million miles to advocate for adult literacy education. See Sticht
(2018) for an overview of much of this work in adult education.

*On September 11th*, we honor those whose lives were ended in 2001 by the
suicidal bombing by terrorists of the World Trade Center towers in New York
City. Seven months later, I was in New York to present a seminar at the
Literacy Assistance Center (LAC), one of the premier adult literacy
organizations in the nation, where I found adult educators struggling to
move forward (Sticht, 2017).

Later, Jan Gallagher (2002) of the LAC wrote, "..at the Literacy Assistance
Center (LAC) — located six blocks from what we still call Ground Zero — we
continue to be affected by last year ’s  terrorist attacks and their
aftermath in ways large and small. We cannot escape the fact that the adult
education programs we serve — and, more to the point, the poor,
working-class, and immigrant students they serve — continue to be affected
by the economic, political, and social consequences of living in a city
that has been bombed and in a nation that is at war."

Even now, adult literacy educators continue to serve adult learners who
suffer the terror that results from fighting chronic poverty,
marginalization, and social exclusion. But the educators know that adult
literacy education is a formidable weapon against terrorism in both war and
peace. It is a weapon still drastically in need at the present time.

*On September 16-20*, we celebrate National Adult Education and Family
Literacy Week to recognize the importance of adult literacy education in
improving the overall literacy of families. This was documented over 30
years ago in a newspaper article in Education Week by Peter Schmidt (1991).
Entitled, “When Mothers Take Literacy Classes, Children Reap
Benefits,” Schmidt said, “Literacy and job-training programs for low-income
mothers appear to have a secondary benefit of improving the educability of
their children, a study by a women's employment group asserts. …After
taking part in the programs, the study found, the mothers were more likely
than before to read to their children, to take them to the library, to help
them with homework, and to take an active interest in their
schools--activities presumed to have contributed to the youngsters'
educational improvement.

The study…was conducted by Wider Opportunities for Women Inc., or wow, a
Washington-based, nonprofit training organization. "What this research
tells us is that even very modest investments in the training of mothers
can have a positive impact on the educability of their children," said
Cynthia Marano, the executive director of wow. "Such investments can
contribute to ending the cycle of illiteracy," she argued. "Dollars spent
on such programs perform 'double duty.'"

Today, adult educators in the U.S. are making these investments in
developing family literacy with funding from the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act, Title 2: The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act and
tens of thousands of adults and their children are seeing the world better
through the lens of improved literacy.

References

Barbee, D. (1986). Methods of Providing Vocational Skills to Individuals
with Low Literacy Levels: The U.S. Experience. Discussion Paper No. 1.
International Labour Office, Geneva (Switzerland). (Available online using
a Google search).

Schmidt, P.  (1991, September 4).When Mothers Take Literacy Classes,
Children Reap Benefits. Education Week. (Available online using a Google
search).

Sticht, T. (2017). Fighting Illiteracy in Times of War. Available online at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320024840_FIGHTING_ILLITERACY_IN_TIMES_OF_WAR_An_anthology_of_brief_historical_notes_by_Tom_Sticht
Sticht, T. (2018). Mainstreaming Marginalized Adults: The Transformation of
Adult Basic Education in the United States. Available online at:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas-Sticht/publication/324604141_Mainstreaming_Marginalized_Adults_The_Transformation_of_Adult_Basic_Education_in_the_United_States/links/5ad8ba70a6fdcc29358632e6/Mainstreaming-Marginalized-Adults-The-Transformation-of-Adult-Basic-Education-in-the-United-States.pdf
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