NLA Discussion: Politics and power

[John Comings]

When the idea of the Summit and the development of a document 
("From the Margins to the Mainstream") first came up, an earlier 
document, "Jump Start: the federal role in adult literacy" (1989), 
was proposed as a model.  At the time, Andy Hartman said that when 
the field of adult education came to Congress with that "Jump Start," 
the Congressional staff was impressed that this was a field that knew 
what had to be done to improve and expand services, and so they were 
inclined to support the plan. We didn't get everything that was in 
"Jump Start," but we got some of it. 

Later, I had a conversation with Trish McNeil, who was Assistant 
Secretary of OVAE, about the 1993 NALS document. I asked, "Why didn't 
Congress respond to the NALS findings with increased attention and 
funding to ABE/ESL/GED programs?"  She said, "Because no one came 
forward with a plan about how to address the issue."

"From the Margins to the Mainstream"  had much wider input from the 
field than "Jump Start" and is a more comprehensive plan.  But no 
plan is perfect.

The people who worked on "From the Margins to the Mainstream" and who 
are using it to advocate for increased funding for our field do 
understand the structural nature of poverty and its foundation in 
racism, class, and bad public policies, but the policy-makers (most 
but admittedly probably not all) we are trying to convince believe 
that they are developing policies that will eliminate poverty.  We 
take them at their word and advocate for funding and policies that 
will let us play our part.

As citizens we should attack the structural foundation of poverty, 
but for our field, the classroom is the place where we can have an 
impact on the structure.  I believe that we are doing our part when 
our classes help adults:

1. improve their expertise (in reading, writing, math, and the wider 
EFF framework of skills and knowledge),
2. make developmental changes away from the acceptance of tradition 
and authority and towards critical thinking,
3. build the skills and knowledge needed to change the political, 
social, and economic forces that affect their lives.

It's true that most policy makers only value the first objective, but 
they are not telling us we can't serve the other two.  If we can 
serve all three objectives and measure progress on the first, I 
believe we will be serving the needs of our adult students and 
satisfying policy makers.  Is this an impossible task?


----------------------------------------
John Comings                     Phone: 617.496.0516
NCSALL -- 106 Nichols House      Fax:   617.495.4811
7 Appian Way                     Email: john_comings at harvard.edu
Graduate School of Education     Web:   http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138



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