[NLA] NIFL Board nominees

[AMW4literacy@aol.com]

If I were asked about the new NIFL Board I would have to say I'm disappointed 
that adult literacy's voice has been left off of it, but who am I to question 
President Bush's new direction in literacy. We who post on the NLA listserv 
have all come to adult literacy to share our literacy gifts with others.  We 
have worked to try to make life better for adults with literacy problems by 
giving of ourselves and sharing our literacy talents. A new direction in 
literacy is here but our hour in adult literacy has not passed. Somehow 
society needs to know that solving literacy problems in this country needs to 
be a joint effort of professionals and people with literacy problems working 
together. Who better to come up with answers than the people who have studied 
literacy and the people who have lived with the problems?  Somehow we need to 
convince our President, our congress and the new NIFL board of this and for 
them to not to give up on adults with literacy problems. These people need to 
see the personal successes of adults with literacy problems. We have 
apparently not done a good job at this.

Before there was an NIFL I don't think there were many adult literacy 
students that could have functioned on a board of this caliber. Due to 
progress in the literacy field there are many adult learners who are now 
capable. Because of various happenings such as the literacy congresses in the 
80's and the 90's, the formation of VALUE, and the literacy summit in 2000, 
adult literacy students are more aware than ever before of what is going on 
our country and the quality of life and the confidence of adult learners has 
improved.

Someone on this list said this is great country to live in if you are in the 
50 percent that is listened to. When I was a student in an adult literacy 
program back in the 80's I read books at the 5th grade level about how our 
country was founded and then books about the makeup of our government. After 
reading these books I was naive enough to think that if an adult learner 
would work hard in this field they could be a part of helping shape adult 
literacy in this country but that's not the way things work.  My 
disappointment is that I did not work hard enough when I had the time to make 
things better for other adults with literacy problems. Before adult literacy 
is changed and called something else I hope we can leave something good for 
others in adult literacy to hang on to.  History has a way of repeating 
itself and maybe 10 to 20 years from now adult literacy will come back the 
way we know it and there will be people like former First Lady Barbara Bush 
and Senator Paul Simon to champion our cause again. 

Archie Willard
Adult Learner
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