[AAACE-NLA] More thoughts on How Adult LiteracyAdvocacy CanSucceed

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Unfortunately, "values" is in bad odor these days, as is "lifestyle."

However, there may be some American values that transcend ideologies, and I am trying to get at those.

Americans who work in AID projects learned some years ago that in order to make change within a culture it is useful to know what the culture values and how it thinks;  I am thinking myself of really basic changes like clean water, sanitation, vaccinations,and in our discussion, adult literacy.

"Self-help" is one of those American values.

Maybe someone can come up with a catchy tag that incorporates "democracy." However, "democracy" has taken a beating. is taking a beating, and without a paragraph explaining why democracy is a good thing in America,I don't think we can get far with it as part of a  slogan. But I don't want to stop anyone from trying.

As to the democracy of education in Cuba, Andres's point--democracy should extend to what you can read, too, and we do keep arguing about that in this country--a good thing.

I think that "self-help" implies that a person goes out and TAKES ACTION. 

Andrea