[NLA] When Your Working Days Are Over

Tue Apr 2 19:30:15 EST 2002

You know, NLA listserv subscribers, sometimes reality checks about why we
all exist come to our table?  Federico gave us that in this e-mail!  I'm
amazed that more people didn't respond to his poignant and emotional story!
I *missed* your story the day it arrived, Federico.  I was "cleaning house"
this afternoon and discovered it.

What a wonderful reminder about personal dignity and pride that learning
life skillscan offer.  These rewards are are so far above any standardized
test score could ever measure!  Your experience with 68 year old Hilda
should make you feel as though your cup runneth over!!  Her sons must be so
terribly proud of her.

I didn't have a "coming to the light" experience quite as poignant as this
tale, but Federico, one of the most delightful men I have ever served came
to me through the Veteran's Administration facility.  He was enrolled in
their outpatient physical therapy care.  He couldn't fill out the activity
sheet, he told his councelor.  For the first time in his 66 years he was
telling someone ouside his family that he could not read.

He and his elderly wife drove each day, three times a week, from a smaller
community an hour away from the V.A.  He was wheelchair bound, but always
had the brightest smile on his face.  When I registered this fine veteran,
he told me he had raised 12 children.  I was astounded!  "How did you do
that?" I asked in amazement, and with that broad grin on his face, he
responded, "With the help of a fine woman."

As his tutor taught him to read and write from the very basic skills
onward - Englebert at least could hold a pencil, but little more - he gained
his self-confidence and new health created by the rehabilitation program he
was in.  He was beginning to write notes to his kids when he left our
program.

But the highlight, before his departure, was joining our New Reader Group to
participate in an Open House of a facility called EROS near Sioux Falls, SD.
I was worried.  Here he was in a wheelchair that was going to need to
traverse its hilly and multi-level surroundings.  But not to worry at all.
Lo and behold the day of the event brought not just our student, but one of
his sons.  His son drove the van *and* Dad's wheelchair.  AND, when everyone
else had "worn out" and were leaving for the day, Dad and son remained
behind to continue seeing even more -- both with those broad, toothy smiles
on their faces.  You know what they say:  Like Father like Son!

It was a profound experience for his Dad was what his son said at the end of
the experience.  Englebert had heard all about this place that "saw the
earth from satallites above", but he never thought he'd be able to take such
a wonderful tour of it -- much *less* be able to read the descriptive signs.

Life experiences.  That's why we are here to provide literacy to those
outside the fields of employment -- whether at the end of the trail, or
during the travel down life's pathway.  Thnks for sharing your story,
Freerico.  It brought tears to my eyes and will be shared with others in our
program.

Nancy Hansen
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Salas, Federico" <Federico.Salas at nhmccd.edu>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 11:15 AM
Subject: RE: [NLA] When Your Working Days Are Over

Thanks, Tom for your wonderful reminder of the value of literacy for our own
personal dignity as human beings.

With different names and circumstances, over 130 years after Uncle Fred
learned to read, I was privileged to have a student in one of my classes who
showed me the importance of learning to read for her own self esteem no
matter how late in life or how removed from the workforce one might be.
This story changed my life because it made teaching adults my passion, not
just a part-time job:

In the late 1980's I was teaching an ESL I class; most of the students were
false beginners, but there was an elderly Hispanic lady, Hilda, who at 68
was not only the oldest member of the class but also the only one completely

illiterate.  She had been away from school for over 60 years! Hilda would
come to class faithfully every morning, usually being there even before I
arrived.  She was unable to sign her own name, so I printed a card with her
name for her to be able to copy on the sign-in sheet.

I taught her how to hold a pencil, how to form her A, B, C's...  She learnt
to sound out the most basic words of our language, and with an enormous
amount of difficulty slowly started to progress along the first chapters of
the required textbook.
As the year went on everyone progressed toward completion of the level;
Hilda was only able to complete about 20% of the materials in the course.

One day she called me aside telling me she wanted to show me something; we
sat in the back of the classroom where we had a love seat.  Trembling she
opened her purse and produced a small torn piece of white butcher paper.  On
it, scribbled in pencil, were two words:  José and Jesus.  With tears in her
eyes she told me:  "Mr. Salas, I am 68 years old.  My children are grown men
now, but last night for the first time in my life I was able to write their
names.  You don't know how happy that made me!  I owe it all to you."  I
told her she didn't; that she owed it to her own determination to learn, to
her hard work, and perseverance in spite of her age.  She cried.  I cried.
Then she asked me if I would help her write them a birthday card;  it was to
be the first time those men would receive a note from their mother.  That
was her objective.  That became my objective.

Her story redefined for me what a success story really is; it showed me how
to measure meaningful progress regardless of performance on standardized
tests.  Administrators, policy makers, and many who think our literacy funds
need to be targeted toward the "productive" workforce to the exclusion of
our Uncle Freds and our Hildas, for whom learning is a matter of dignity and
personal pride, do the country a great disservice.  Our strength as a nation
is not only measured in terms of our productivity but also in terms of the
dignity and true freedom of our people.  That freedom can only be real if
people are literate.

federico

Federico Salas-Isnardi
Director of Adult Education
Corporate and Continuing Education Division
North Harris College
16416 Northchase Dr. #200
Houston, TX 77060
(281) 618-1170 -voice (281) 618-1179 -fax
federico.salas at nhmccd.edu

"Educating Our Global Community"

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Sticht [mailto:tsticht at aznet.net]
Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 8:43 PM
To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
Cc: tsticht at aznet.net
Subject: [NLA] When Your Working Days Are Over

Research Note                  March 24, 2002
Tom Sticht

When Your Working Days Are Over..What's The Sense of Literacy?

Is there a reason for governments to support literacy education once a
person's working days are over? After all, where's the return on
investment? In 1861, Harriet  A. Jacobs wrote her book, "Incidents in
the life of a slave girl written by herself." In it she tells the story
of her work to help an older black man, a slave like her, learn to read,
not for improving his productivity at work, but to reach for a greater
reward for himself at the end of his life. In Jacob's own words, which
includes her renderings of dialect, she describes an incident that
occured around 1850:

Quote: "I knew an old black man, whose piety and childlike trust in God
were beautiful to witness. At fifty-three years old he joined the
Baptist church. He had a most earnest desire to learn to read. He
thought he should know how to serve God better if he could only read the
Bible. He came to me, and begged me to teach him. He said he could not
pay me, for he had no money; but he would bring me nice fruit when the
season for it came. I asked him if he didn't know it was contrary to
law; and that slaves were whipped and imprisoned for teaching each other
to read. This brought the tears into his eyes. "Don't be troubled, Uncle
Fred," said I. "I have no thoughts of refusing to teach you. I only told
you of the law, that you might know the danger, and be on your guard."

He thought he could plan to come three times a week without its being
suspected. I selected a quiet nook, where no intruder was likely to
penetrate, and there I taught him his A, B, C. Considering his age, his
progress was astonishing. As soon as he could spell in two syllables he
wanted to spell out words in the Bible. The happy smile that illuminated
his face put joy into my heart. After spelling out a few words he
paused, and said, "Honey, it 'pears when I can read dis good book I
shall be nearer to God. White man is got all de sense. He can larn easy.
It ain't easy for ole black man like me. I only want to read dis book,
dat I may know how to live; den I hab no fear 'bout dying."

I tried to encourage him by speaking of the rapid progress he had made.
"Hab patience, child," he replied. "I larns slow." At the end of six
months he had read through the New Testament, and could find any text in
it.":End Quote

Should a government of the people, by the people, and for the people
deny education and literacy in the 21st century to any adults who, like
Uncle Fred, do not seek to learn to read and write to improve work
skills for productivity, but rather for the simple dignity that comes
from feeling that with improved literacy they "know how to live?"

Last year we learned that some 10 million of our fellow adult citizens
were so lacking in literacy that they could not even take the National
Adult Literacy Survey. This year the President of the United States
asked for no more funding for adult education and literacy development
than we had last year, which amounted to less than $200 per enrollment
in the Adult Education and Literacy System of the United States.

How far have we come in the 150 years since 1850? What would Uncle Fred
say today? Have we learned fast? Have we got all the sense?
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