NLA Discussion: Volunteer

[Andres Muro]

Please do not get me wrong. I am very proud of the work volunteers do,
their effort and their dedication. Furthermore, I am also very proud of
those who spend considerable time and effort to run programs with
volunteers. Finally, I am in favor of using volunteers for any field.
However, the bulk of work in a field, regarding of it,  should be done by
experts. Volunteers should be supporting the work of experts under
close supervision. The only reason so many volunteers are used in
Literacy is because historically people thought that anyone could teach
reading and writing. People with great intentions volunteered for the
easy task, and it became a common practice. The problem with
volunteerism is not that we need to devote more time to train volunteers
and to develop more continuity. Instead we should pay people who
sincerely want to make a career out of teaching, and require that they
receive extensive training. 

Andres Muro 
<AndresM at NMAIL.EPCC.EDU>