[NLA] Gut response for Art

[Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council]

Fellow listserv lurkers and
{In an effort to keep this "short and sweet" as requested by someone writing
to our moderator, I will address just the part which was made about my
comments and}
In response to Tom Sticht who wrote:

<<Nancy Hanson [sic] seems to think that AELS data on enrollments etc are
presented as indicative of the entire adult literacy education activities
in the U.S. A. But they are not. They are reported as indicative of what
is going on in the AELS, not the entire adult educational activity of the
nation. When I discuss the AELS data I am fully aware that I am not
presenting a "comprehensive" picture of adult literacy education
activities in the nation, but rather a picture of what is going on in the
AELS as I have defined it.>>

The next question should be then:  Who also listened (at the
federal/committee/elected officials level) who also misunderstood that the
AELS enrollment data wasn't all-inclusive?  Aren't they also thinking that,
according to the statistical data provided, the adult learner is
under-served in the U.S.?  From a prior post, unless I again misunderstood,
that was the impression that *I* was left with.

If *you* are aware that you are not "presenting a 'comprehensive' picture of
adult literacy education activities in the nation", are they aware of that
or are they jumping to a different conclusion?  Therein lies the concern
that *I* have.  If the AELS is NOT "a system" representing the whole of
adult ed and literacy programs nationwide then it's mis-named in my view.

Nancy Hansen
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
sfliteracy at mcleodusa.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Sticht" <tsticht at znet.com>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 9:39 AM
Subject: [NLA] Gut response for Art


> In his earlier post, Jon Randall mistakenly referred to the Adult
> Education and Literacy System of the USA as the Adult Education and
> Literacy Segment. The mistake is his because I named and defined the AELS
> as that set of programs that receives funding underr the state grants made
> available through the WIA/Title 2, AEFLA of 1998 (and originating in the
> Adult Education Act of 1966). So by defintion Jon is using the acronym
> incorrectly.
> When I use the acronym AELS I am referring to a part, a segment in Jon's
> terms,  of some larger set of programs, including those of YMCA, YWCA,
> Salvation Army, Department of Defense, LVA, Laubch (before merger),
> corrections, the Job Corps, San Diego Reads, etc. But this larger set of
> programs does not form any system. My Webster's dictionary defines system
> as " (1) a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming
> a unified whole....(2). An organized set of doctrines, ideas or principles
> usu. intended to explain the arrangement or working of a systematic
> whole." The AELS is unfied and systematized through the WIA/Title 2, AEFLA
> and numerous interrelated state laws, rules and regs. There is no
> systematizing, interrelatedness, interdependedness, rules, regs, etc. of
> all the adult literacy providers in the U.S.A. that might form a
> conprehensive adult literacy education system in the U.S.A.
> The totality of places where adults may find literacy and other education
> is undefined in the U.S.A. It may include colleges and universities,
> library tutoring programs, LVA affiliates and non-affiliates, private
> persons, AARP tutors, etc. This totality, if defined and circumscribed in
> some way would still not constitute a "system" because of the lack of
> sysematizing rules, regs., etc.
> Nancy Hanson seems to think that AELS data on enrollments etc are
> presented as indicative of the entire adult literacy education activities
> in the U.S. A. But they are not. They are reported as indicative of what
> is going on in the AELS, not the entire adult educational activity of the
> nation. When I discuss the AELS data I am fully aware that I am not
> presenting a "comprehensive" picture of adult literacy education
> activities in the nation, but rather a picture of what is going on in the
> AELS as I have defined it.
> Marsha Tait would like some sort of comprehensive understanding of adult
> literacy education in the nation and I think that that would be
> interesting, and perhaps useful, too. But that in no way reduces my
> interest in the AELS as I have defined it. And when I say "we lost
> enrollments" I mean from the AELS, not that adults are not getting
> instruction somewhere else. I have made this point a couple of times. But
> it is true that the AELS as I have defined it can lose enrollments, and it
> has. I am concerned about this loss from the nation's third leg of public
> education, the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) of the United
> States of America.
> Tom Sticht
>
>
>
>
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