[AAACE-NLA] "Spring Uprising" in AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 35, Issue 20
Martin E. Senger
mesenger at netbox.com
Thu Apr 13 06:19:01 EDT 2006
Couldn't have said it better myself, George! Kudos!
-----Original Message-----
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of George
Demetrion
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 2:38 PM
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] "Spring Uprising" in AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 35,Issue
20
Thanks Kearney,
Hello Kearney,
I appreciate your courage in entering into the Lion's Den here, so to
speak, given the undeniable, though far from uniform liberal-progressive
leanings of a great many members of this list.
The operative word in your statement is "inculcation." If I know
anything about this list, it is the incurably argumentative (in the best
and not so best sense of the term) nature of this list. A search of the
archives on many major topics will likely disclose much debate and
nuanced thinking on a great number of subjects that would fall under the
purview of the Literacy Tent. Even within the liberal-progressive
predominance, at least among the writers of this list, there is more
than a fair range of diversity of perspectives on any given topic,
notably a range, which speaks of anything but inculcation, and no
(hopefully well thought out) view is unwelcome whether from the left,
the right or any and all points between.
The other point I would argue is that the political is inescapable
within the pedagogical. I know that this can be read as a Freirian
slogan, but I've argued this same point in some depth from a more
reformist, Deweyean position, and have provided what I would consider as
evidence to back up the point. And yes, Dewey was essentially a
reformist (though a radical one) rather than a radical per se in that he
sought to work within the framework of democratic capitalism, and also
thought that the American Dream was a fine ideal, as long as it was, in
fact, realizable and understood in its many faceted dimensions.
But, more to your comments, at least from my view it would be hard to
not notice the anti-immigrant pandering of our US congress and the
incredible labeling of (undocumented/illegal, choose your term)
immigrants through the single term, "lawbreaker." Now immigration
policy is a debatable issue, so finally to your initial question, the
topic itself is quite germane to the teaching of literacy on the
assumption that relevant content in itself has a place in an adult
literacy curriculum. I would agree that a fair airing of the issues is
what is called for, which in my view, would include any well thought out
position across the ideological spectrum.
Also, and to push this a bit with you, in terms of your charge of
"partisan," your polemics (masquerading, dressed-up, uninformed,
socialist-worker, etc) themselves are indicative of a sort of
partisanship, one that may routinely hear on Fox News or perhaps the
halls of Congress.
Be that as it may, your commentary adds to the political and pedagogical
literacy of this list.
Best,
George Demetrion
Radical Middle of the Roader
-----Original Message-----
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of Kearney
Lykins
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 12:12 PM
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] "Spring Uprising" in AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol
35,Issue 20
A Classroom Reaction to a Curb-side Account of the
Spring Uprising
Colleagues,
Question: How are the partisan sentiments and
arguments that infuse "Spring Uprising" relevant to
teaching people to read, speak, write and listen to
English? Answer: A lot, if one's pedagogic emphasis
includes the inculcation of leftist ideology among
members of our most at-risk populations. I used to
think that Leftist Advocacy masqueraded as Literacy
Advocacy. This seems to no longer be the case; the
masqueraders don't bother to get dressed up anymore.
Lauding the efforts of uninformed middle-schoolers for
skipping school, or praising the "out loud" demands of
their more august high school peers hardly qualifies
as subject matter that helps the professional
development of the general readership of this
discussion group. Such blatant political promotion
does not serve the greater goal of The Literacy Tent,
unless of course you see the promotion of leftist
ideals as the greater purpose. And if that is the case
then you should take your arguments to a more
appropriate forum, perhaps "The Socialist Worker." I
hear the dress code there is quite relaxed. I'll still
be right here trying to teach people to communicate in
American English.
Kearney Lykins
ESL Teacher
Virginia Beach, VA
Kearney_Lykins at yahoo.com
(757) 496-7345
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Spring Uprising (Lynda Terrill)
> 2. The "Skills" vs "Knowledge" Debate
> (tsticht at znet.com)
> 3. Re: Spring Uprising (Heide Wrigley)
> 4. Time Magazine article on School Dropouts:
> Does a GED Really
> do the job? (David Rosen)
>
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 17:08:21 -0400
> From: "Lynda Terrill" <lterrill at cal.org>
> Subject: [AAACE-NLA] Spring Uprising
> To: "National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by
> AAACE"
> <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> Message-ID:
>
<7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8FF4BEE0 at MAIL.cal.local>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hello,
>
> I am posting the following article on behalf of its
> author.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Lynda Terrill
>
> *********
>
> A Curb-side Account of the Spring Uprising?
>
> by
> Anthony Bernier
> (530 words)
>
> 11 April 2006
>
> Reports coming in from across the nation, from
> large cities and small agricultural hamlets,
> announce that young people have become the vanguard
> of this Spring Uprising in opposition to the House?s
> recent attempts at immigration policy reform.
> Yesterday, young people mobilized through cell
> phones, Instant Messaging, blogs, and all manner of
> information devices as they did two weeks ago,
> peacefully filled streets and town squares with song
> and protest defending their families and communities
> in numbers unprecedented for any protests in
> American history.
> History will show this broad and thick grassroots
> youth movement not only exceeding in size the
> anti-war and civil rights movements of the
> 1960s/70s, but would justifiably claim the scale of
> mobilization and significance of the Paris Commune
> in the spring of 1871. [for a thumbnail review of
> the Paris Commune, see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_commune]
> In cities as dispersed and diverse as Houston,
> Phoenix, Atlanta, Okalahoma City, New York, Salt
> Lake City, Los Angeles, high school students marched
> miles to the middle school and stood outside calling
> their younger brothers and sisters out into the
> streets. In Oakland, youth formed an unarmed
> phalanx 10-blocks long and filled the lawn in front
> of City Hall, before moving on the Federal Building.
> And in small fly-over towns such as those rimming
> the agricultural belt of California?s massive San
> Joaquin Valley, cities such as Frenso and
> Bakersfield, and towns such as Aptos, Watsonville,
> Hollister, and Salinas, untold thousands likewise
> chanted and demonstrated ? exercising the rights to
> free expression effectively denied many of their
> parents. These are by far the largest public
> mobilizations in the history of many of these
> places.
> And already they have suffered fatal retribution.
> On Thursday, March 30, 14-year old Anthony Soltero
> took his own life in Southern California after the
> assistant principal at his middle-school threatened
> to send him to prison for three years, deny him the
> right to walk for his graduation, and fine the boys?
> mother because Anthony was ?truant? during a massive
> school walk-out two days earlier.
> Irrespective of how one feels about immigration
> reform policies, a huge generation of young people
> is arising and assuming an unheard-of degree of
> civic responsibility taught by no after-school
> program and written about in no text-book driven
> advanced placement ?government? course.
> In 1962, at the dawn of a new student movement,
> Students for a Democratic Society envisioned the
> birth of ?participatory democracy? in its Port Huron
> Statement. ?We are people of this generation,? the
> preamble declared, ?bred in at least modest comfort,
> housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to
> the world we inherit.? With these words a
> comparatively wealthier, privileged, and formally
> educated generation attempted to make its mark on
> their culture.
> With this Spring Uprising, however, a far more
> marginal generation begins to make its own claims
> for full citizenship. With far more at risk than
> expulsion at the Dean?s hands, this even younger
> generation prefigures its own march toward the
> center of history, asking not for approval or
> protection from parents or administrators. With
> this movement they demand out loud that America
> live-out the full meaning of its otherwise
> full-throated creeds.
>
> Anthony Bernier
> Oakland, California
>
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:54:28 -0700
> From: tsticht at znet.com
> Subject: [AAACE-NLA] The "Skills" vs "Knowledge"
> Debate
> To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Message-ID:
> <1144796068.443c33a41edaa at webmail.znet.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> April 11, 2006
>
> The Great "Skills" Versus "Knowledge" Debate and
> Adult Literacy Education
>
> Tom Sticht
> International Consultant in Adult Education
>
> Earlier I posted a note on the aaace-nla list about
> knowledge and reading.
> Here I have revised that piece slightly in light of
> new evidence that
> the decades old debate about "phonics" [ synthetic,
> decoding emphasis]
> versus "whole language" [analytic, meaning emphasis]
> still rages in
> education circles. Now this debate appears to be
> being joined by another
> decades old debate, the "skills" versus "knowledge"
> controversy.
>
> On the "skills" side of the debate, the BBC News
> education service reported
> on April 11, 2006
>
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/4897272.stm]
> that
> the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said
> that "The national
> curriculum should be fundamentally reformed with
> more focus on skills than
> specific subjects." The Association "wants
> ministers to give children
> "entitlements" to broad skills, such as creativity
> and physical
> co-ordination, rather than specific knowledge." The
> ATL general secretary
> Mary Bousted reportedly said at a conference,
> "skills" were needed, rather
> than knowledge on its own. Subjects could be used to
> "illustrate" them."
>
=== message truncated ===
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