[AAACE-NLA] Getting Global Literacy With Life Cycles Education

[tsticht at znet.com]

September 22, 2006

White House Conference on Global Literacy
Moves Toward Life Cycles Education Policy

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

In various books, articles, and notes I have argued that given the important
intergenerational effects of parent’s education level on the achievement of
their children, we need to shift our education policies from a focus on one
life cycle, as in lifelong learning, to a policy that focuses on multiple
"life cycles" education.  Such a policy explicitly recognizes the results
of numerous statistical studies that show that parents’ educational levels
are associated with the subsequent literacy achievement of their children.
Life Cycles education policy also recognizes that adult education should be
valued as much as is childhood education, and that nations should provide
adult education systems on a par with children’s education systems.  The
importance of adults' education for children has been succinctly expressed
by the South American educationist, Rosa Maria Torres. She has argued that
"the children’s right to education should include the right to educated
parents."

Now support for the Life Cycles education policy can be found in one of the
three themes of the September 18, 2006 White House Conference on Global
Literacy. This theme was  "Mother-Child Literacy and Intergenerational
Learning". This theme builds on both the decades of statistical survey data
mentioned above and the many years of experience by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in its work on
adult literacy education, as well as research by other international
organizations such as the World Bank and Unicef.

In 1990, which the United Nations designated as International Literacy Year,
UNESCO published a report by Barbara McDonald and myself entitled "Teach the
Mother and Reach the Child: Literacy Across Generations."  This report
summarized international research on the effects of girl’s and women’s
education on children and their educational development at various stages
from before birth to the school years:

Before Pregnancy
Better educated girls/women show higher economic productivity; better
personal health care; lower fertility rates; and hence they produce smaller
families. The latter, in turn, is related to the preschool cognitive
development of children and their subsequent achievement in school.

During Pregnancy and at Birth
Better educated women provide better pre-natal care; produce more full term
babies; provide better post-natal care and this results in babies with
fewer learning disabilities.

Before Going To School
Better educated women produce better children’s health care; better
cognitive, language, and pre-literacy development; and better preparation
for schoolwork.

During The School Years
Better educated women produce higher participation rates in schooling;
better management of homework; better advocacy for children’s education and
negotiation of school/child conflicts; and they produce children who achieve
higher levels of education and literacy.

All this suggests that as the White House Conference on Global Literacy
stated, we should pay special attention to the need for resources to
provide literacy educational opportunities to the millions of less literate
women who will bring the next generation of children into the world.
According to the multiple Life Cycles education policy we should remember
that, when we teach the mothers, we reach the children through the
intergenerational transfer of good health, superior cognitive and language
development, and the transfer of motivation for and the skills of literacy
acquisition.

The Life Cycles education policy does not focus solely on the role of girls
and women on the intergenerational transfer of literacy because there is
also evidence that fathers’ educational levels are also associated with the
education and literacy achievement of their children. In general, we now
have decades of statistical studies, research studies, and practical
experience with adult literacy education to understand that poorly educated
children are the source of adult functional illiteracy, and functionally
illiterate adults are the source of poorly educated children.

The report of the agenda for the White House Conference on Global Literacy
states "Universal primary education and gender parity have been emphasized
in the poorest nations at the expense of youth and adult literacy, and
produced limited results." This argues that more attention needs to be
given around the world to the development of free, fully staffed, well
funded adult education and literacy systems. Perhaps through education
based on a multiple Life Cycles policy, in which children are guaranteed
their right to educated parents, the vicious intergenerational cycles of
functional illiteracy can be transformed into intergenerational cycles of
proficient literacy for all.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net