[NLA] A note on co optation

[George E. Demetrion]

Colleagues:

The co-optation is going the other way.  The K-12 (or is it K-3?) 
projected direction is clear.  We'll have a new board focused on
childhood reading, a new director similarly inclined with the power to
shape the future direction of NIFL, but the field of adult literacy  will
have the opportunity to co-opt the  focus on childhood reading in an
agency that was designed in the 1990s for adult literacy in the first
place

Some may feel that there is practically no alternative than to go along
with the projected trajectory (notice how I phrase that in conditional
terms) and to make the best of the situation.  That's a far different
matter than any assumption or hope that the advocates of adult literacy
are going to co-opt what some of us might refer to as the projected
hijacking of NIFL by the childhood advocates, back to adult literacy.  

(Of course, I could be exaggerating the anticipated impact, but that
could be cleared up by some very emphatic and public statements by the US
Department of Education. Department folks, you have the floor.)

Adult literacy advocates might be able to get an oar in and make the case
by showing through "scientifically-based research" that there are strong
correlations between the educational levels of mothers and their
children. That case should and has been made in any event.  But to assume
that adult literacy is going to gain pre-eminence through this strategy, 
is at least as much an act of faith as it is an empirical assessment of
the facts at hand.  It could happen, but I see few signs that point in
that direction.  Still, I acknowledge that it *could* happen, though the
likelihood of it is anothere matter.

For those who are advocating an embrace of current trajectories as
inevitable, first, would they be willing to explain, precisely and
publicly, exactly why they believe that to be the case and why the matter
cannot be successfully challenged through Senator Kennedy's committee.  

Secondly, would those advocating that case be willing to explain
precisely what it is they fear in challenging the current trajectory?  Is
it the fear that the field will  be punished by the Bush Administration
for the temeritous act of actually challenging the appropriateness of the
nominees via constitutional means? Is it the fear that if NIFL remains
focused largely on adult literacy, it will be further marginalized or
eventually eliminated?  Let's also get this on the table in order to
publicly examine it.  Whatever the issues are, I would agree with others,
that we still have a long way to go in making the public and policy case
on the value on the value of adult literacy education to the public good,
though many have attempted to do so.

No doubt there are real concerns  in issuing any challenge to current
projections. And there a cost in taking action contrary to current
projections, including a need for sustained field mobilization.  Yet
there are also concerns in passively accepting the emerging direction,
then doing the best we can to find our place within it.  If  current
trajectories eventually come into place, then one will need to work
within that framework., to be sure.

 What I'm not sure I understand is the willingness of some (many?) to
embrace current trajectories as inevitable in order to make the best of a
situation, where formal institutional power will be ceded from the
current and past adult literacy focus, to a NIFL focused much more on
childhood literacy, perhaps with a bow and even more, to adult literacy. 

 The concern as Andy put it, is not so much an immediate, drastic change,
though the orientation of the  new Board and Director will have a
compelling (chilling?) effect on the agency.  The concern is that over
time, as Andy had writen, the direction for NIFL will shift.  No one has
a crystal ball, of course, but the makeup of the Board and the Director
can only but have a profound impact.

Let's be clear on this, I, too support the notion of lifelong learning
and the importance of linking up adult and childhood literacy, though
that's what I thought was being accomplished through the emphasis on
family literacy.  Also, assuming that current trajectories come to pass,
I, too, recognize the importance of working within those then given
realities AT THAT TIME.

What I'm not sure I understand is the willingness to forgo a focused
challenge to the anticipated reconstruction of NIFL *before* certain
institutional realities come into place, particularly in the light of the
articulated concerns of Andy Hartman and Alice Johnson Cain, seasoned
NIFL veterans who possess a very substantial reading of the tea leaves.


George Demetrion
sophocles5 at juno.com
_________________________________________________________________
Locally, I have found the best way to deal with the groundswell of
>children's literacy advocates (who seem to have no or little interest 
>in acknowledging that a child's success depends more on the parent's 
>literacy than any other factor) is to co-opt them.  So here we started 
>providing children's services, and every time I attend a meeting where 
>children's literacy is the focus I never miss a chance to preach that
the child's
>literacy is wrapped up with the parent's.  This has given us more
>visibility and access to decision-makers for adult literacy advocacy.  
>


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