[NLA] Adult Literacy &n the American Dream: A Brief Review

[George E. Demetrion]

Colleagues:

What follows is a brief review of Forrest Chisman's new essay.  What I
find notable are two things:

a) That Chisman has considerably broadened what he views as the valued
purposes of adult literacy education to include much more than the
workplace focus that he had emphasized over a decade ago in his
influential report Jump Start.  This shift in itself makes the article
notable, particularly given Chisman's influence on policy.  As many of us
know, Jump Start played an important role in laying the groundwork for
the National Literacy Act of 1991 and NIFL.

b)  Also of note is Chisman's linkage of the value of adult literacy to
the ethos of U.S. democracy.  As he puts it at the end of his essay, the
cause of adult literacy should be "driven by the inalienable right of all
Americans to be free and equal" (p. 13).  This is quite a shift given
Jump Start's rationale of grounding the primary purpose of adult literacy
to the role of meeting the human capital needs of the post-industrial
economy. Chisman doesn't discount the importance of economic reasons, but
provides a more inclusive rationale linked to those identified in EFF and
in the document An Action Agenda for Literacy.

The other preliminary point is that Chisman's emphasis on "American
principles and the American experience" (p. 1) doesn't denote a single
mind-set or narrow focus, as the role of dissent (as we have just
witnessed on this listserv) and certainly that of pluralism are part and
parcel of American principles and experience. With Chisman, I think what
is important is that a political culture be established for the politics
of literacy in the United States that is indigenous to this nation's
experiences and founding (1776, 1787, 1791) political principles.  The
perpetual quest for "the more perfect union" is far from an embrace of
the status quo.  Rather, it helps shape the framework through which
viable politics is plausible within the context of this nation's
political culture.  This view is shared by Jessie Jackson Jr., who
co-authored a book that has as part of its title "A More Perfect Union"
where he has eloquently linked the ideals of US democracy to that of
racial equality, a point of view worthy of our most thoughtful
considerations.

One final comment. I believe it is imperative not to cede the imperfect
US constitutional and democratic tradition to the neo-conservatives, but
with Jackson and others, to contest with and against them on the meaning
of this "more perfect union" and how it becomes enacted in the life of
this nation.  With Chisman, I believe it is this tradition that leads to
the pathway of an articulate politics of literacy indigenous to the
political culture of the United States of America.

If I write any more, I might as well re-write the review that follows.

George Demetrion
Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford
sophocles5 at juno.com
________________________________________________________

Adult Literacy and the American Dream:  A Brief Review
(Chisman's article available at http://www.caalusa.org occasional papers
at CAAL)

Thanks to Forrest Chisman for this for this highly accessible and
significant essay.  I concur with him on the importance of linking the
rationale for adult literacy education "squarely on mainstream American
principles and the American experience" (p. 1) through which to establish
a viable bi-partisan, broad-based consensus-driven middle ground.
 
Passing over the historical analysis to keep this message short, the
multplicity of reasons that Chisman describes in support of adult
literacy linked to "economic prospects, social standing, civic
participation, personal safety, and self-esteem" (p. 11) reflects an
inclusive pluralism upon which such a national consensus could be
established.  In a more formal academic sense, John Rawls (2000) refers
to these rationales as "primary goods, which are "basic things
needed...in the light of the political  conception as persons, as
citizens who are fully cooperating members of society."  As Rawls further
describes "primary goods," these "are things citizens need as free and
equal persons living a complete life; they are not things it is simply
rational to want or desire, or to prefer or even to crave" (p. 58).
 
For Rawls, primary goods are essential to establish what he refers to as 
"a well ordered society" upon which the vitality of a civic
constitutional democracy depends, for its own vitality and legitimacy. 
Thus, when Chisman identifies "adult education and literacy [as] a very
high  priority for the United States--one of the dozen or so 'must do's'
on the national agenda for the foreseeable future" (p. 1), he is making
an argument quite analogous to that of the political philosopher John
Rawls in his under-
appreciated works, "Political Liberalism" (1993) and Justice as 
Fairness:  A Restatement" (2000).  The principle that both Rawls and
Chisman are upholding is the integrity of constitutional and civic
democracy, the most cherished political value of the United States of
America, the very basis for which the nation stands.  To put it in
Rawlsean terms, "Justice as Fairness" is the American Way.
 
Chisman's final point in engaging in "empirical investigations of how
self-interest and principle intersect" (p. 13) also represents a major
potential galvanizing force that could lead to the broad-based national
consensus as to the purposes and values of adult literacy education,
which Juliet Merrifield as well as many others have sought amidst the
contested ground.  This draws simultaneously on both the pragmatic and
idealistic traditions of the "American experience" and a way of mediating
the tensions between democracy and capitalism where images of
"investment" in literacy can imperceptibly merge with broader rationales
linked to the strengthening of the public good.  With Chisman, I believe
that such space represents the nexus through which the field can both
define itself and explain its rationale in a broad public/policy context.
 The challenge for the field is to walk through the eye of this needle.
 
In drawing out this clear framework in linking adult literacy to the
ethos of U.S. constitutional democracy and identifying a spectrum of
important areas where literacy intersects with critical life goals of
work, family, community, life-long learning, and self-development,
Chisman provides a broad road map of a way out of the morass in which the
field is current
ly enmeshed.
 
In broad strokes, Chisman's pluralistic understanding of the profound
impact of adult literacy education within the lives of individuals and on
the public sector intersects in substantial ways with the fundamental
values of the Equipped for the Future project, An Action Agenda, and much
of the research stemming from NCSALL and other major adult literacy
research 
centers.  
 
In linking such pluralism to the ethos of American constitutional and
civic democracy, Chisman adds something else, the basis for establishing
a public philosophy to undergird adult literacy education within the
context of the political culture of the United States of America.  When
Chisman 
states that the rationale for adult literacy "must be based squarely on
mainstream American principles and the American experience" (p. 1), I
believe it is to this tradition to which he speaks.
 
Let us listen to the better angels of our calling.  In the words of John 
Dewey, Creative Democracy--The Task Before Us.

George Demetrion
Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford
30 Arbor Street
Hartford, CT  06106

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