[NLA] NIFL Board Nominees & a moderately lengthy Response to Tom S.

[Bickerton, Robert P]

Tom, et al,

I agree with the points Tom has made about countering the notion that "if we
just 'fix' K-12 education..." and you know how the rest of this specious
argument goes.

I'd like to propose a somewhat different "response" -- and that is to not
respond at all but to promote a completely different framework.  The
framework I'd like to propose is to revisit what our society tends to regard
as part of our "social contract."  I've been attempting to turn the
following into a "white paper" but events have a way of intervening and
pushing this back -- so here's a less well formed version of what I've been
thinking.

The U.S. doesn't include much in our "social contract"  For example,
universal health care hasn't made it there yet.  But free public education
up to some age in a person's mid to late teens has.  Universal suffrage has.
An equal playing field for disabled adults appears to be moving in this
direction -- I hope to see this become part of our social contract before I
depart this world.  And there are, perhaps, a small number of others that
people might suggest.  From my perspective, what qualifies as part of the
"social contract" and what does not has to do with it achieving such
(almost) universal support.  Further, attempts to undo it may generate some
interest among a small number of people, but cannot achieve the momentum to
do so.  So, for example, if and when vouchers and related efforts to
"privatize" public education gain enough momentum to substantially displace
public schools in more than a community or two, we'd better start worrying
that this leg of our social contract is expiring.  

My recollections are that free public education for children and young
adults dates back to the early years of our nation's industrial revolution.
This was no small struggle and it got over the top because diverse and often
disputing constituencies came to understand they had a common interest in
making this so.  I tend to give unions a great deal of the credit, but we
can still see the major influence that business and industry had on what
some still refer to as the "industrial model for education."  

I believe that model, i.e., that it's OK for from a quarter to half of all
students to not thrive educationally, fit the times in which it emerged --
our economy required very large numbers of relatively unskilled workers, but
that time is past.  And I believe that if we can come together, we can
achieve the broad based consensus of a century ago that this model is
outdated -- that a commitment to public education up to 16 or 18 years old
without a corresponding commitment to ensure each and every one of these
individuals have succeeded in acquiring a very strong basic skills
foundation is no longer appropriate or useful.  I believe we must achieve a
new "social contract" and that is that our society needs to commit to every
individual achieving a minimum level of skills regardless of age.  

It may take several years, even decades to achieve this goal, but I believe
the time has come.  I believe we need to start the hard work of convincing
our friends and neighbors, fellow educators, working people, business and
policy leaders that this is true.  Further, I believe this is absolutely
compatible with our other short term objectives -- but what it does provide
is a clearer path for what these short term goals should be leading to.  Are
we ready to begin?

bob bickerton, MA director of adult education

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Sticht [mailto:tsticht at aznet.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 9:36 PM
To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: [NLA] NIFL Board Nominees


I endorse the efforts to get a better representation of adult educators
and adult learners on the NIFL board. But I also think that there are
other needed efforts. One such need was suggested by 
an NLA posting for Mon, 21 Jan 2002 in which Robert Pinhero raised an
important point about developing literacy that I have mentioned several
times as retarding the development of the Adult
Education and Literacy System of the United States. Robert said that, 
Quote: "During GW's tenure as the Governor of Texas, I testified before
the Texas Legislature on behalf of Community Based Adult Education
Providers. As part of my preparation, I visited with the folks in the
Governor's Budget office and was told that "Governor Bush feels that the
best solution to the literacy issues is to improve the education of
children so that we will not produce more illiterate adults " This isn't
an exact quote but does represent what I was told. In light of that
position, I am not at all surprised that the NIFL appointments reflect
that thinking." Unquote

This is an extremely important point in my opinion, not just for the
NIFL board,  the public and policy makers but for the adult literacy
education field too. Many adult educators hold to the opinion that if
only  childhood education could be "fixed",  the need for adult literacy
education would go away. I believe that this is incorrect and represents
a major misunderstanding of what the AELS is all about as an adult
lifelong education system. Still, so long as we use the term "adult
literacy" this seems to bring to mind the ABC's that children are
expected to learn by the end of the 3rd grade and the belief that that
is better done in childhood than in adulthood.  

In my opinion, the field needs to come up with a solid response to
counter this belief. I have tried different approaches. In one approach,
I questioned the idea that we know how to make all children literate in
high quality pre-school programs in a Research Note of 10/19/99 posted
on the NLA list. I presented data indicating that new analyses of the
results from the only study (the famous High /Scope Perry Preschool)
available that measured the functional literacy skills of preschool
children and a control group of children who did not receive preschool
when they reached young adulthood (age 19) indicates that the two groups
were not significantly different with regard to literacy skills - and
both groups were "functionally illiterate" by contemporary standards
(i.e., they were reading below a 6th grade level).

I am not particularly pleased with taking an approach to putting up
adult literacy education by putting down children's education because I
think both are needed. So later, in a paper entitled The Adult Education
and Literacy System of the United States: Moving From the Margins to the
Mainstream of Education, I tried again to argue against the belief that
once pre-school-K-12 is fixed the AELS will go away by pointing to the
immigrant education that the AELS does and to the changing standards for
education and literacy which renders many of yesterday's successes
today's unsuccessful and I tried to counter ideas about IQ that make
some people think that some adults are too unintelligent to become very
literate or highly educated and so we can just cast them off. 

I have never produced what I consider to be a comprehensive, well
reasoned and artfully articulated, and, to the extent possible,
data-based argument to counter the argument that the AELS will go away
once pre-school-K-12 is fixed that would bowl the public, media and
policy makers over with a "Well, why didn't we think about that?" sort
of impact. But I think there is a great need for such a product. Perhaps
some groups will come up with a report that would be fruitful in
correcting many people's misunderstandings about the AELS and instill in
them an understanding of the need for a (tired phrase, but perhaps
appropriate)-world class, lifelong learning system for adults that could
teach all sorts of important things, including the ABC's if  needed and
wanted by some adults.

Tom Sticht
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