[AAACE-NLA] Framing adult literacy arguments

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Andres,

I don't think education is a human right, regardless of age.

In an email I wrote last night that  all life is negotiation.

So, what is rock bottom, before the level of negotiation?  I would say a nurturing environment (literally) from a parent--being fed, tended to, washed, everythign physical and emotional that supporta  child's good growth.  That is a human right.

Can a person survive without schooling?  Yes.  Can a person survive in slavery? Maybe, and maybe with a  lot of pysical and psychological damage.  So I would say freedom is a basic human right.

So my idea of human rights is pretty basic.

As to formal education/ schooling--in this culture it is certainly a good thing, but not a necessity, as it is possible to survive without it, as many people involved in the field will say.  In fact, that is one of the tenets of the field:  it is possible to survive and lead a good life without being able to read. 

It is very hard to make a case for adult literacy, when the case is also being made by the same people that there are good people who live in decent communities who are illiterate or low literate.

I think the field has to be willing to come to grips with this problem.

Andrea