[AAACE-NLA] Reply to Debbie Yoho in 51-6
Merle Ayres
merleayres at hotmail.com
Wed Aug 22 12:10:27 EDT 2007
Nancy and all: Very good comments and explanations. I am just getting some
ESL going and its hard but moving forward. I think life long learning is a
good goal. If education and adult learning is economic then its looked as a
line item to deal with other priorities such as dike building, roads.
bridges etc. Many rewards do not come instantly when learning reaches a
certain point, it may be later on in life where it bears fruit.
I think unity of educators is a worthy goal for adult literacy advocates and
it takes a long time for legislatures to buy into it. In Iowa I feel we have
good advocates speaking to the legislature only because we keep them up to
speed on issues that are important to educators , librarians and concerned
citizens.
Merle Ayres
412 8th st. North
Humboldt,Iowa 50548
Tel.1-515-332-4630
Fax 515-332-1738
>From: Nancy Hansen <sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com,National Literacy Advocacy List
>sponsored by AAACE<aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
>To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by
>AAACE<aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
>Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Reply to Debbie Yoho in 51-6
>Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:20:51 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Dear Kevin and other subscribers:
>
> You know, there's too little time/too much to say. But I must speak to
>a couple of points you made in this post. I'm giving my best brief shot,
>Kevin.
>
> I took some of your message personally. Are you a researcher? For how
>long? Do you have a hands-on relationship of some sort or other with the
>clientele you said come from "socioeconomic realities of race, class, and
>gender" categories? In other words, do you really know them?
>
> You wrote:
> << I would just like to broaden the focus a bit: Debbie rightly points
>out that “business interests succeeded in highjacking the adult education
>agenda and recasting it as an ’investment’”, but I would also argue that we
>in adult education bear some responsibility, since we went along with it.
> >>
>
> My comments come from long-term literacy administration involvement in
>the literacy field and I feel you are so wrong in saying that "we in adult
>education bear some responsibility, since we went along with it." Not I!
>I did not "go along" with any of the changes that occurred.
>
> I have hands-on contact with these folks ... you know, the ones whose
>lower socioeconomic status and class designations leave more doors closed
>than open? The ones whom need advocates to break down the wall and open
>the windows to opportunities?? Administrators like Deborah and I had the
>transition to the "highjacking (of) ... adult education" shoved down our
>throats. We did not willingly "go along with it". Far larger/heftier
>powers out there than us -- the small program administrators, who were
>doing the best job we could with the lot we've been dealt -- made that
>decision and told us to live with it.
>
> I saw it coming. When adult literacy was going to be tied to workforce
>funding, I heard the bell ring a death knell for adult literacy skill
>development, for believing that building life skills where reading and
>writing were truly "just the basics" for the learners served. There is
>power in funding. When there is inadequate funding? There's less power to
>have an impact on any decision that is made.
>
> You wrote:
> << Adult Ed has bought in to the argument that its justification is an
>economic one. It’s a case of live by the sword and die by the sword ... >>
>
> Were any one of us, who are in service to the very lowest skilled
>learner, ever given the opportunity to offer any sort of input otherwise,
>to anyBODY who gave a rip or had the power to influence the proposed
>changes??? Not here anyway. I'll let Deborah speak to whether or not
>input was allowed from HER, related to justifying the change to be for the
>sake of economics. I have never "echoed the argument that education is an
>economic benefit to the public good". Who exactly HAS done that?
>
> I did give way to the forces, in their steel-plated armor, who didn't
>give a darn if the beginning reader would be affected by their projected
>changes. The Powers made the changes anyhow. Our agency continued to serve
>the best we could, with the resources we had. We did not foresake our
>learners. However, a lot who died by the sword succumbed to more dramatic
>"deaths" than I did. At least I AM STILL HERE!
>
> Kevin, the sad part is it's the adult learners who are wounded and not
>being served now who are the victims. Researcher Thomas Sticht regularly
>pens the question" "Where are the learners now? The statistics are low."
>The adults are still there. The needy just aren't being served. They have
>just become more invisible than ever. We (Deb and I) never took
>responsibility and chose this for our men and women students. I will not
>own that choice!
>
> << Those of us who work as adult educators and researchers need to move
>beyond the market rhetoric. Ours is a field bent on social justice, and we
>need to reclaim the moral imperative for lifelong education as a universal
>right. >>
>
> And ... how exactly, Kevin, are we, of a field that is so 'done in by
>the armored sword bearers' to "reclaim the moral imperative"??? Where is
>our power? As dyslectic reader Archie Willard asked on this NLA listserv,
>who is speaking for adult learners in that place where power matters?
>(NOTE: Not one NLA subscriber had an ANSWER for this reader leader?!)
>It's easy to say, standing from the outside looking in, that reading and
>lifelong education is a "universal right", but how does that happen? Where
>is the power that will cause that change to occur?
>
> I believe that the rug has been pulled from under the CBO's around the
>nation - not of their choosing, but because the Powers could do it. I
>think there are folks in the adult ed field who still believe in the
>advocacy of building life skills, to improve the quality of life of adults
>without reading fluency and the skills to communicate.
>
> I'm of the opinion that we were powerless to stand against the soldiers
>who plowed into the literacy field in their steel armor heavily armed to
>kill.
>
>On my wall, I have this message sent to me by another adult learner, Harry
>Seda of New York state, that reminds me why I am still here:
>
> Learning to do,
> Doing to learn,
> Learning to live,
> Living to serve.
> Yours for literacy,
>
> Nancy Hansen
> Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
> sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com
>
>
>Kevin O'Connor <OCONNOHJ at bc.edu> wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
>
>I would like to follow up on Debbie Yoho’s post in Volume 51(6). It was an
>excellent and insightful analysis into the role that neoliberal
>globalization plays in the current state of adult education. I would just
>like to broaden the focus a bit: Debbie rightly points out that “business
>interests succeeded in highjacking the adult education agenda and recasting
>it as an ’investment’”, but I would also argue that we in adult education
>bear some responsibility, since we went along with it.
>
>Adult Ed has bought in to the argument that its justification is an
>economic one. It’s a case of live by the sword and die by the sword: we
>have echoed the argument that education is an economic benefit to the
>public good, and now we are locked into the cold logic of the neoliberal
>cost-benefit argument, an this argument makes aspects of a truly liberatory
>socially just educational dialogue impossible.
>
>As Michael Apple pointed out, “Neoliberalism transforms our very idea of
>democracy, making it only an economic concept, not a political one” (2006).
>This market model replaces the concept of democracy, with its focuses on
>the goals of the community, with an economic concept whose focus is solely
>the choices of the individual. It assumes that the sum of individual goals
>will sum to a pursuit for the general welfare, and it takes for granted
>that each person strives in a supposedly equal race.
>
>But all individuals do not have an equal chance in this race; the erroneous
>conflation of capitalism with democracy overlooks the socioeconomic
>realities of race, class, and gender: “Looking at education as part of the
>mechanism of market exchange makes crucial aspects literally invisible,
>thereby preventing critique before it even starts” (Apple, 2006). The
>market model deraces, declasses and degenders and calls it fair. Yet equal
>treatment for all is not fair; it ignores institutional and social
>prejudice and the ways that racism and sexism systematically exclude women
>and minority groups from truly equal participation.
>
>Co-opting the rhetoric of the economic Right wing was a tactic that won
>additional funding, but it is a strategy that will cost adult basic
>education in the end, as it (and perhaps much public higher education) gets
>“winnowed” down to an exclusive focus workplace skills, rather than
>lifelong learning, and critical literacy. Students are not mere capital to
>be refined in factory-schools; they do not exist only as workers but also
>as are family and community members.
>
>Those of us who work as adult educators and researchers need to move beyond
>the market rhetoric. Ours is a field bent on social justice, and we need to
>reclaim the moral imperative for lifelong education as a universal right.
>We need to remember the other roles of our learners, and make them part of
>our advocacy without resorting to the easy answer of economic need. If we
>live by the sword, we die by the sword. If we do not speak of education as
>a human right, as a fundamental part of the principles of a diverse
>democracy, then who will?
>
>
>:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>Kevin O'Connor
>Doctoral Student, Curriculum & Instruction
>Boston College
>Campion Hall, Room 119C
>oconnohj at bc.edu
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