[AAACE-NLA] causes of low literacy

[David Rosen]

Hello George and Merle,

Another way of looking at this is to re-frame the problem.  Perhaps  
"causes of low literacy" could be described as "obstacles to strong  
literacy."  I don't think you were suggesting, george, that there is  
one cause of low literacy, but rather causes (plural), so Merle, I  
don't interpret George as saying that "poverty is the reason for all  
the problems of literacy" but rather that family poverty is one  
obstacle to strong literacy of children, and maybe for adults, too.   
Many of the other causes George has described such as learning  
disabilities, moving from school to school in the early grades when  
reading is taught and thus missing a critical piece of instruction,  
and others, are each obstacles.  Whereas "illiteracy" is a "swear  
word" as you put it George, and even "low literacy" may be viewed by  
some as a pejorative label, obstacles (not barriers) are generally  
viewed as difficulties or challenges to be overcome or removed.

But why is poverty an obstacle at all?  I am sure we all know  
children from very poor backgrounds who have learned to read well.   
For some it is an obstacle not too difficult to overcome For example  
if they have families who love them and believe in them, if they have  
determination and confidence to learn, if they don't have learning  
disabilites, if they have parents or siblings who read to them, and  
if they have effective reading teachers, then poverty is a minor  
obstacle or not an obstacle at all. [ A recent good example of this  
is the journalist and jazz musician James McBride's book about  
growing up poor, _The Color of Water_. ]   But, if a child has a  
reading disability and -- because of poverty -- attends an under- 
resourced school where there is inadequate reading teaching, and if  
the parent(s) cannot possibly afford a tutor -- then poverty is one  
of several serious obstacles to strong literacy.

Poverty is a literacy obstacle for some adults, too, who want to  
improve their reading or other basic skills.  They cannot afford  
private tutors. They may live in impoverished rural areas where there  
are no adult literacy programs. They may work two minimum wage jobs  
to feed their families and thus have no time for literacy classes or  
tutorials, even if they are available.

As people who care about literacy, our attention needs to focus on  
finding the obstacles and, one-by-one removing them. As public policy  
advocates, a tool of policy analysis might be to ask to what extent  
does legislation succeed or fail in identifying and removing these  
obstacles.  I would argue that our federal legislation fails for  
example, to require screening and where appropriate assessment of  
adult learning disabilities and to offer resources and remedies to  
reduce the learning disability as an obstacle to increased literacy.   
I would argue that in many states, NCLB, ironically has left more  
children -- who will become adults -- behind, as it has exacerbated  
dropout rates.  It is time for "Leave No Obstacle Standing" education  
policies, those which help those who want to succeed to overcome, not  
succumb, to the obstacles.

David J. Rosen
Adult Literacy Advocate
DJRosen at theworld.com


On Jun 10, 2006, at 7:32 AM, <gdemetrion at msn.com>  
<gdemetrion at msn.com> wrote:

> Merle and others,
>
> Thank you very much for your comments.  This is turning into much  
> more of a discussion and project than I had originally planned when  
> I put together various snippets on the causes of low literacy from  
> various reports.  As I'm working through this, it's becoming  
> clearer that the murky issue of causation is highly problematic. I  
> think the point is to find accessible language that draws out  
> correlations between literacy and poverty, learning disabilities,  
> the legacy of racism, etc, as I agree that none of these "cause"  
> low literacy. even as they contribute profoundly to it  The whole  
> issue of what is literacy--its relationship and differentiation  
> from reading, writing, and numeracy skill development also needs to  
> be more clearly defined.
>
> What I've done so far is:
>
> A)  Compile various statements on low literacy from various reports
> B) Put my two cents into the mix without a great deal of the  
> extensive kind of concentration I would give to a published article
> C)  Obtain and incorporate field feedback (an ongoing process)
>
> I think there's a lot more to do before one can offer a definitive  
> statement, which was not my original intent.  I'm not necessarily  
> the best person to do that, but what I will do, over time, is to  
> take in additional commentary and work more deliberatively toward a  
> synthesis, which I will then post here.  At that time, perhaps  
> there would be another writer who would like to take over or work  
> with me in creating a more refined document, which I think is the  
> task at hand.
>
> This does deserve time. However, in addition to my day job (which  
> is also sometimes a night job), I'm working on a new book outside  
> the field and my quality concentration is really on that project-- 
> that, and the fact that our two grandsons (age 5 & 2) are now  
> living with us, which is an interesting "project" in its own right.
>
> So I do have limited time here, but I acknowledge the importance of  
> this important work on the "causes" of adult illiteracy (to use a  
> swear word) and will do what I can reasonably do to move this  
> process forward.
>
> If anyone would like to collaborate in completing this work, please  
> contact m off-line at gdemetrion at msn.com
>
> Best,
>
> George Demetron
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Merle Ayres
> Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 4:54 PM
> To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] causes of low literacy
>
> George: I am still not convinced that poverty is the reason for all  
> the
> problems of literacy as you have stated. Working  parents mostly  
> left up the
> teaching to the schools and didnt have time to interfere.with day  
> to day
> learning. " what did you learn in school today" aw nothing can be a  
> general
> response. The schools are left off the hook to easy.  Of course low  
> economic
> status make it more challenging to the teacher to get kids to learn.
> Sometimes I think what you learn in teacher ed. classes has little  
> to do
> with kids learning. In college you have the utopia environment and  
> then in
> the real world you get what you see in students. I often thought  
> back in
> classes in college that what did that do in helping kids learn.   
> Colleges in
> general are not connected with the real world. Here I go on my soap  
> box.and
> treading on someone. Many general ed classes have little to do with  
> helping
> kids learn as we got filled with too much content and little practical
> knowledge.
>
>   I am not all cetain and maybe showing some bias as what do the  
> learning
> institutions do to get teacher prepared, what book makers do to get  
> beat
> results or what school administers who care how the tests come out  
> fiqure in
> on  how the kids move up in class. These factors are not  
> addressed.  I may
> be way off on some of this but wanted to express some of these issues.
>
> Merle Ayres
> 412 8th st. North
> Humboldt,Iowa 50548
> Tel.1-515-332-4630
> Fax 515-332-1738
>
>
>
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David Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com