NLA Discussion: LVA Conference

[Archie Willard]

This last week, I attended the LVA National Conference in Charlotte,
North Carolina, where many awards were given.  All the different awards
that were given out made me think about where all this started.  A lot
of different people have done so many good things and given of
themselves to teach people how to read.  Where would we be with out
them?

Then I thought about how far adult learners have come in the last ten
years.  Not too many years ago adult learners came to the conference on
only the last day to receive an award.  Now there are student
committees, student advisory boards and sessions for students at the LVA
Conference and the student involvement has just begun.  It may not seem
that the student movement has come very far, but if we look back where
it all started, it has made progress.  Now the students and the literacy
field need to grow from all these things.  We need to move on.  Just as
time passes in our lives, we do things differently as we grow in our
lives.  If we are going to get to where we need to be, the whole
literacy field needs to change and do things differently.  We need new
ideas and even a change in direction somewhat.  We have been asking the
same questions for a long time and wanting new answers to them.  We need
to look at where the energy is in the field of literacy.  At all of the
different conferences that I have attended, it's the adult learners who
bring a lot of excitement and energy to the conferences.

Looking back at myself as a parent, I remember when my daughter went
away to college.  One weekend she came home and asked if we would
purchase a laptop computer and said it would be of great help in
completing her work at college.  Because my wife and I knew little about
computers, it took us some time to see that her having a computer could
help tremendously with her work at college.  We finally did buy her a
laptop her last year of  college.  Now that time has passed and I have
been more exposed to and have used computers,  I see what one can do
with them and how I can reach out and communicate with the rest of the
world.  I'm just amazed at what you can do with them.  Looking back I
feel bad that because of my tunnel vision, I could not see what a help a
computer would have been for my daughter.  This is what I see happening
in adult literacy today.  I hope the literacy field will see all the
things the adult students want to contribute and how everyone could
benefit from them being partners in this field.  I hate to think of
where we will be in ten years from now if we don't look ahead to the
future and have visions.

There are two things I would like you think about.  First, there are a
few adult learners who are working hard to bring the adults who have
struggled with reading from across the country together to form a
national coalition.  This organizational meeting will take place March
27 through 29, 1998, at the Highlander near Knoxville, Tennessee. The
1996 fellows from NIFL have all agreed to work as advisors with the six
adult learners who conducted the literacy academy workshop in Illinois
in August of this year.  A few more people are working to give advice
and  support.  The best chance for this to happen, is if everyone in the
literacy field gives us their blessing and encouragement or whatever
they can offer as support.  Everyone needs to be thinking and talking
positively about this meeting. We will also want the encouragement from
and to be recognized by the different literacy organizations.  I hope we
do not get tunnel vision  and cannot see the benefits from this
happening.  Only if the rest of the world can see us adult learners for
who we really are and accept us for the way we are, can our talents be
discovered and used. 

Secondly, when the literacy summit is being planned, we need to look for
where we are going to get this new energy and new ideas to make the
needed changes in the field of literacy.  The type of people who can
bring this to the summit are needed to have an active part in the
planning of and participating in this summit.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the different students and the people
from the LVA conference who give me their encouragement to keep writing
and to keep advocating in the field of literacy.

Thank You
Archie Willard

Archie Willard
Eagle Grove, IA  50533 (US)
millard at netins.net
FAX - 515-448-3480
URL - http://207.28.234.137/archiew.html