[AAACE-NLA] FW: AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 57, Issue 18
David Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com
Fri Feb 29 17:15:38 EST 2008
Hello Kirsten and others,
I just posted my 500 words to ABC. (See web address for doing this
below). If everyone who reads this message goes to the web site and
lists issues that were not covered -- and that would make interesting
stories in the future -- perhaps they'll pick that up in other news
stories. It only takes a few minutes to give them comments. If they
get a lot of responses they will at least know that people care about
the issue.
David J. Rosen
Adult Literacy Advocate
Djrosen at theworld.com
On Feb 29, 2008, at 4:31 PM, David Collings wrote:
> Colleagues,
>
> The following message is sent on behalf of Kirsten Schaetzel
> (kschaetzel at cal.org).
>
> David C.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kirsten Schaetzel [mailto:kschaetzel at cal.org]
> Subject: RE: AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 57, Issue 18
>
> I was quite impressed with Tom's comments on the ABC News feature
> on adult
> literacy and sent them to ABC World News with Charles Gibson. I
> thought Tom
> stated, eloquently as usual, how much they had missed the boat on
> this.
>
> If others would like to write to ABC World News, the comment
> section of their
> Web site is
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?
> id=3271346&cat=WorldNewswithCharlesGibson
>
> [If the link wraps to a second line, use the address below.]
> http://tinyurl.com/2h76sb
>
>
> Kirsten Schaetzel, Ph.D.
> Center for Adult English Language Acquisition Center for Applied
> Linguistics
> 4646 40th St. NW
> Washington, DC 20016
> Telephone: 202-355-1523
> Fax: 202-362-3740 or 202-373-7204
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
> [mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of
> aaace-nla-request at lists.literacytent.org
> Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 12:00 PM
> To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject: AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 57, Issue 18
>
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>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Chinook helicopters? (Laurie Sheridan)
> 2. ABC Program on Adult Literacy (tsticht at znet.com)
> 3. ABC World News Special on "Adult Illiteracy": your views
> (David Rosen)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:54:39 -0500
> From: "Laurie Sheridan" <laurie_sheridan at worlded.org>
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Chinook helicopters?
> To: "National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE"
> <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> Message-ID: <47C6BD1F.BB87.003F.0 at worlded.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
> Hi, Andrea--
>
> You are spurring me to think all over again about what it does in
> fact mean to
> "outsource" our capacity to make things--the stuff that makes
> other stuff. In the '80's I mostly thought of it in terms of job
> losses and tax revenue, as well as productive capacity. Wasteful,
> definitely, but also potentially dangerous, I think. These days I'm
> also thinking about security issues--not only or even especially in
> light of
> global terrorism, but just as in, what would happen if U.S.
> access to such products were cut off in a war, or other global or
> climate
> disaster? It seems folly to me to "outsource" such things, and
> smarter heads
> than mine are in discussion about this these days. I think they
> are right to
> worry.
>
> BTW--my husband had a good laugh when I told him that Chinook
> production had
> been "outsourced" from PA to NJ--and that is the word they did in
> fact use.
> well, it probably seemed that way to workers who lost their jobs or
> couldn't
> commute or move.
>
> Laurie
>
> Laurie Sheridan, Workforce Development Coordinator World Education/
> SABES Central
> Resource Center
> 44 Farnsworth St.
> Boston, MA 02210
> (617) 385-3737
> lsheridan at worlded.org
>
> SABES: Training Leaders in Adult Basic Education
>
>
>>>> Andrea Wilder <andreawilder at comcast.net> 2/27/2008 6:27 PM >>>
> Laurie, thanks.
>
> I remember in one of my MIT courses in the '80's much discussion
> about getting
> rid of our machinery, the stuff that makes other stuff. Either it
> was used
> somewhere else as is, or melted down to make other machines. What
> a waste.
>
> Thanks for such a comprehensive explanation of the history of the
> Chinook; a
> kind of mixed picture, indeed.
>
> Andrea
>
> On Feb 27, 2008, at 3:35 PM, Laurie Sheridan wrote:
>
>> After a little checking, it appears that Chinook helicopters are
>> still
>
>> manufactured in the U.S., at the Boeing plant in Ridley Park, PA
>> (outside Philadelphia). They are represented primarily by the United
>> Aerospace Workers local 1069. Apparently they lost a lot of
>> warehouse
>
>> jobs there in late 2005, but those jobs were out-sourced
>> to--Swedesboro, NJ!
>>
>> Most Boeing workers nationally are represented by the International
>> Association of Machinists (IAM), and have suffered a lot of job
>> losses
>
>> and concessions in recent years. But the Chinook is still
>> manufactured in the U.S. Interestingly, I also found that at least
>> in the 1976-79 period Boeing took a lot of heat for being involved in
>> a joint venture with an Iranian company to co-produce Chinook
>> helicopters in Iran--during the period of the Shah's departure and
>> replacement by Islamic fundamentalists, and the capture of U.S.
>> hostages during the Carter regime. Made me think about the
>> potential
>
>> security issues that outsourcing key manufacturing can entail.
>>
>> So, it's kind of a mixed picture. When I was a machinist for General
>> Electric on Boston's North Shore (in the 1970-80's), they were also
>> manufacturing engines for helicopters (and mainly, jet engines)--and
>> they still are, but on a much smaller scale than when there were over
>> 8,000 union workers there.
>>
>> I guess the good news is that helicopter manufacturing has not all
>> been outsourced and still accounts for a number of good union jobs in
>> the U.S. The not-so-good news is that this giant military
>> machine is
>
>> still operating full tilt and active in Iraq and Afghanistan. So,
>> I'm
>
>> glad to hear the Chinooks are being used to transport needed supplies
>> to Pakistani earthquake victims, too.
>>
>> Laurie
>>
>> Laurie Sheridan, Workforce Development Coordinator World
>> Education/SABES Central Resource Center
>> 44 Farnsworth St.
>> Boston, MA 02210
>> (617) 385-3737
>> lsheridan at worlded.org
>>
>> SABES: Training Leaders in Adult Basic Education
>>
>>
>>>>> Andrea Wilder <andreawilder at comcast.net> 2/27/2008 10:14 AM >>>
>> Hi everyone--
>>
>> I've got a question after listening to Greg Mortenson last night talk
>> about building schools in Pakistan, and responding to the earthquake
>> crisis (2005) with Chinook helicopters transporting food and medical
>> supplies--where are the Chinook helicopters built? What are we still
>> building in this country? Does anybody know?--now that we have sold
>> our tool and die machines to China....
>>
>> Andrea
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
>> LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
>> http://literacytent.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
>> LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
>> http://literacytent.org
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
> http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
> LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
> http://literacytent.org
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:44:42 -0800
> From: tsticht at znet.com
> Subject: [AAACE-NLA] ABC Program on Adult Literacy
> To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Message-ID: <1204231482.47c71d3a72fa0 at webmail.znet.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Five Years Later We Still Don't Exist
>
> Tom Sticht
> International Consultant in Adult Education
>
> In the summer of 2003 NBC news with Tom Brokaw reported on adult
> literacy
> problems in the United States. Now this week of February 2008 ABC
> World News
> with Charles Gibson covered the adult literacy and illiteracy
> problems in the
> U.S. in two evenings. Prior to the broadcasts, the National
> Institute for
> Literacy (NIFL) called attention to the forthcoming series on all
> of the
> discussion lists NIFL sponsors. Just as I did when the NBC program was
> broadcast, I tuned in to see what ABC had to say about the adult
> literacy
> problems of America. And once again I was deeply disappointed.
>
> Five years after the Brokaw report on NBC, ABC again misrepresented
> the problems
> of adult literacy and fostered the belief that what problems there
> are can be
> addressed by well-meaning volunteers. The second program in the ABC
> series
> pointed to a town with a fifth of its adults suffering from
> literacy problems,
> and reported that a committed group has mobilized a 100 or so
> volunteers to
> tutor the adults.
>
> Many of my earlier comments on the NBC report are applicable to the
> ABC report.
> First, after presenting the startling statistics of the millions of
> adults who
> are functionally illiterate, it talked about a few volunteers and
> their good
> intentions but didn't explain the national system of adult literacy
> education
> consisting of the Adult Education and Literacy System
> (AELS) of the United States with some 3000 to 4000 programs and
> federal and
> state funding. , It did nothing to let the public know about how
> the AELS serves
> 2 to 3 million adult learners each year with poverty level funding.
> It did not flash across the nation showing the miserable conditions
> under which
> so many adult educators and their students work. It did not discuss
> the
> extremely precarious position of the AELS in obtaining even its
> present poverty
> level of funding at the federal level. It didn't have an interview
> with
> President Bush, Secretary Spelling or any one else at the policy
> making level of
> the Executive branch of the federal government asking why they had
> not asked for
> any more funds for the AELS in the light of the federal
> government's claims that
> almost half of the adults in the nation, some 90 million, are so
> lacking in
> literacy skills that they are unable to cope adequately in our
> complex society.
> Instead, it featured a single town's efforts to raise some of its
> adult's
> literacy skills using a group of kind, caring volunteers.
>
>> From the ABC series, as with the earlier NBC program, I saw nothing
> that
> would inform viewers that there is a professional field of adult
> literacy
> educators, a national AELS, and that it relies mostly on part-
> time, underpaid
> teachers and thousands of volunteers who thankfully donate their
> time to
> teaching adults.
>
> Still, after watching the show, I expect that a few thousand calls
> have been
> made to one or another literacy hotline. This may be about as much
> as can be
> expected for a field that serves the most marginalized citizens in
> the nation,
> and for an education problem which almost everyone, apparently
> including Charles
> Gibson, expects can be cleared up through the charitable efforts of
> those
> volunteers with a degree of caring. Maybe five years from now with
> the regular
> twice-a-decade attention to adult literacy the problem seems to
> get, our field
> will be recognized and our AELS will be adequately funded. Maybe.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:14:07 -0500
> From: David Rosen <djrosen at theworld.com>
> Subject: [AAACE-NLA] ABC World News Special on "Adult Illiteracy":
> your views
> To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
> <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> Message-ID: <17433752-4886-4E35-BABF-84A5F1A4AE20 at theworld.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
> Colleagues,
>
> What do you think of the ABC World News special on "adult illiteracy"
> that has been airing this week? I want to call your attention to
> the ABC World
> News request for more facts and information (different points of
> view?) on the problem. To provide them with compelling information
> that might
> help them to continue to look at the problem, go to
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3072379
>
> Or use the short form of theURL below:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/272npc
>
> The short videos, incidentally, can be found on the ABC World News
> web site at:
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/search?
> searchtext=illiteracy&from=0&to=9&type=video
>
> or, use the short form:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2zs53f
>
>
> David J. Rosen
> Adult Literacy Advocate
> DJRosen at theworld.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
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>
>
> End of AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 57, Issue 18
> *****************************************
>
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David Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com
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