[AAACE-NLA] Help Needed-Constructs for the Message

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Colleagues,

A lot of education is social policy, that is, government supported.  Various rationales for adult education are given, and various rationales are given on this list.  Advocates try to link up what they want to achieve in adult literacy with various rationales as to why they want to achieve it.  Sometimes the links are clearer than others.  Different legislators resonate to different rationales.  For example, Paul Simon thought it unfair that some adults didn't know how to read and write or were low literate--I think he saw it as a human right.  Others see it as a wise business investment, a wise human investment, the basis of democracy, etc.  All these views are represented in government and in ourselves, on this list.  The amalgam which results in legislation is what we call social policy.  It may be loosely coupled to what is achieved, and how that achievement is judged is often questioned.

Andrea