[NLA] a proposal to "save" the NIFL

[AndresMuro@aol.com]

Tom, Andy, and everyone else: 

I feel that people have been discussing the wrong thing, so I'll insist. A 
while back, I got accused by Heide Wrigley of creating false dichotomies, 
and, of course, she was right. I will use her own words to address the issue 
that we are facing. I think that Tom and Andy are creating a false dichotomy, 
particularly Andy. I know that there are differences in adult and children's 
pedagogies, but there are issues in common that affect both groups. Most 
notably, as Heide referred to out in an earlier message, there are issues of 
culture, immigration and language, that we need to address , and these cross 
the generation gap. (Some kids from Yuma, Arizona went to some world 
championship competition for some high school science project in the NE. they 
decided to cross over to Canada, and when they came back, four of them 
happened to be undocumented Mexicans even though they had been raised in the 
USA from an early age. There are current proceedings going on to deport them, 
even though their parents will remain in the USA). We need literacy experts 
that understand these types of issues and how they affect learning of adults 
and children alike. 

I was invited to speak at the Office of Minority Health's conference on 
Reducing barriers to Health for minorities. I talked about the fact that 
health is one of the most important things in everyone's lives and yet 
serious ongoing health education wasn't mandatory anywhere... and you thought 
that the purpose of schooling is to teach kids and adults important things. 
If people are not healthy they may die much sooner that they ought to, 
regardless of how they may do in the GED, or some k-12 test . I argued that 
health education had to be incorporated into adult and children education 
alike, and I am not talking about teaching people how to wash their hands, 
floss their teeth and put condoms on cucumbers. 

The point is that I don't care one bit if the board is composed of people 
with adult or child, backgrounds, sociologists, anthropologists, 
philosophers, psychologists or whatever else. What I am concerned about is 
the ideological orientation of the board, and with their understanding of 
sociocultural, socioeconomic, linguistic, health and immigration issues   
affecting  learners across the board. These are the questions that we need to 
ask. If  the board is composed of a bunch of back to basics, standardized 
testing, compassionate conservatism, pro voucher,  ideological appointees, 
this is what we need to question, as this does not help children, or 
adults.... and finally, but equally important, as I tell you at the very 
bottom of the page, go to my art website at <A HREF="www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html">
www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html</A> (David: sorry for the free advertising 
I am not selling anyting :-))

Andres 


andresmuro at aol.com

Please see Andres Muro's original paintings at: 
http://www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html
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