[NLA] Searching for adult litercy experts

Mon May 6 15:46:49 EDT 2002

Tom, Andrea and others:

Sorry that it took me so long to get to this e-mail response.  It's been a
typical Monday.  First of all, allow me to clarify, that I do not feel I
deserve the high honor of being called "An Expert" in adult education.
Humble Midwesterner that I am, Nancy Hansen also knows that her 40-something
trained volunteers, placed with adult learners on a one-to-one basis here,
wouldn't want the label either.  But thanks anyway, Andrea.

Can *any* of us really portentously proclaim we are The Experts?  Adult
education is diverse.  It's diversity is due to who the population *is* that
we serve in the name of AELS throughout our nation.  Our Sioux Falls, SD,
program (tiny-by-comparison-to-Massachusetts' LARGE programs and others)
*has* heard some individual learner success stories.  Some of which I have
shared here.  But ...

On to the discussion you brought up, Tom.  "Where are the adult literacy
experts?"

Andrea is absolutely right about "be(ing) plenty burned to have so-called
'experts' descend on me."  Because I would feel just that.  Literacy experts
in the field, if they exist, likely don't have an accurate picture of who
the hard workers at grassroots are and what they are accomplishing unless
they've gotten their hands dirty, so to speak, in the AELS.  I wouldn't want
anybody coming into *my* arena with The Answer in scienfically explored
studies unless they got their feet wet for at *least* a decade working
face-to-face with learners.

You see, Tom, it's like a reality check sitting next to a 45 year-old man,
who has covered up his lack of literacy skills in the finest way, and watch
his face as he discovers A Word he could never spell before.  My latest
reward last week was seeing a 60 year-old discover that the prefix /un/
meant "not" when it was placed in front of "loved"!  He said, "I never knew
all my *life* what that word **meant**!  I've been saying it wrong forever!"

The researchers (experts) may have done some sort of scientific study in
order to say (drum roll):  "THIS methodology WORKS!"  We pracititioners know
that whatever that highly effective method might be, it may *not* work
99.99% of the time for *every* one.  The "worker-bees" are tolling with
individual human beings here.  Their individual needs, strengths,
weaknesses, brain development, environmental influences, family backgrounds,
learning styles, barriers to learner etc etc etc all come into play in the
final result of their successfully learning to read, write and spell.

Yep Andrea!  I'd also like to know "how many Nancy Hansen's there are out
there", because I feel painfully alone in my comments.  I *know* there are
*great* literacy providers out there because I have had the good fortune of
meeting some of them.  And they have good programmatic and tutor training
tools if they are affiliated with Laubach, Literacy Volunteers of America OR
Wilson Language Training.  They all offer tools to provide
volunteer-friendly instructional environments.

Why are the practitioners being so silent on this issue and the
"evidence-based education" topic?  Could it be that they are just so
strapped for time and money that they don't *have* time to write their
comments?  Maybe Laubach's Executive Director Peter Waite (or somebody else
on his staff) lurking in the background here can even *tell* us all just how
*many* volunteer coordinator/administrators there are in the Laubach
Literacy umbrella who are like me!   (LLA is now merging with Literacy
Volunteers of America where there are anOTHER "thousands of volunteers" at
the grassroots.)

For me?  There's no need for additional material design because I think
we've found it in a combination of Laubach, Wilson Language Training and
several series supplied by publishing houses who cater to adult education.
We'd like to see a broader base of volunteer-friendly manuals about teaching
writing, but other than that, we are happy with the current materials we're
using.  Books-on-tape have continued to be developed.  There are
more-and-more computer software opportunites to purchase.

Andrea posed this interesting question, you see:  "...I wonder what she
(Nancy) would like to have, other than more money, what she feels would
improve her program."

I think most practitioners like myself, Andrea, could do a heck of a lot
more to have a more effective program if it were possible to put money out
front instead of lagging behind, dragging all dreams down with the lack of
it.  In the past I have had learners come to me with spectacular suggestions
for something they want us to consider purchasing and I have to say, after
looking at the price tag, that we don't have it in the budget.  I even have
had learner volunteers say in discussion about projects they want to do, "It
all stops right HERE with the Buck!"

For me -- if I could dream anyway?  I'd have additional staff support for
individual learners so they'd get more than an infrequent call from this
director, another tutor trainer who could help our council keep our
volunteer tutors' skills upgraded at least once every quarter and provide
New Tutor Basic Training more than twice a year, more opportunities for
technology with knowledgeable staff providing guidance on a 1-to-1 basis,
the opportunity to buy airline tickets and make reservations for ALL SFALC
learners who want to participate in the upcoming "Further Educational
Opportunity" of the LLA/LVA conference in San Diego instead of just two
learners, local community research revealing the numbers of non-readers we
still have not reached right here in our little corner of the world and
where they are in this community, and more effective long-range planning
experts at our access. To our funders this would be unrealistic
visualization.  We want too much for such a small program, they'd say.

Our program has to justify every penny we request.  It makes it impossible
to Dream Big for our adult learners.  But I still think we've been able to
do a pretty darn good job of assisting our learners to grow.  Our literacy
program focuses on helping one-person-at-a-time.  They aren't a lump in a
box.  They are all important and all different with a variety of needs.

Perhaps The Experts should be an advisory group of the learners themselves,
you know?  Who better to tell us which method works well than those who have
walked the path of illiteracy and experienced the pain of not being able to
sit on the bus or the subway or the train or the airplane with a book in
their lap, enjoying the word, glorying in the painted pictures they see
before them in their book.  The non-reader or adult with limited literacy
skills just wants to "blend into the crowd".  Learners have even told me
that they want to be just like everybody else.  "Why is that so hard to
understand?" one middle aged man asked me.  I couldn't come up with an
answer, because it SHOULDN'T be that hard for all of "us experts" to figure
out.

Not an expert - just a friend to learners,
Nancy Hansen
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
Sioux Falls, SD
sfliteracy at mcleodusa.net

----- Original Message -----
From: <AWilder106 at aol.com>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: [NLA] Searching for adult litercy experts

> Tom,
>
> In relation to your clear-eyed post:  I am thinking of Nancy Hansens's
> volunteers.  It seems to me that she knows her community pretty well, she
has
> been a school teacher, and she knows the small program volunteer field.  I
> wonder what she would like to have, other than more money, what she feels
> would improve her program.  Video examples of good teaching to help train
her
> volunteers?  She would probably know.  How many Nancy Hansens are there
> across the country? (Hello, Nancy!)  Hundreds, I expect. I think it would
be
> interesting to see some people with experience and more than good ideas,
GOOD
> KNOWLEDGE, work with her (and her volunteers) and maybe a handful of other
> teacher/administrators to DESIGN program upgrades that would help her and
her
> students out.  As I recall, Nancy is Laubach (or is it LVA?) and this
gives
> her a solid base.
>
> If I were in Nancy's place, as a school teacher and thinking of my
previous
> career in the classroom, I would be plenty burned to have so-called
"experts"
> descend on me.  So it would have to be a real collaboration.  Maybe the
> additional money could be worked out somehow, I don't know.  But the
> "experts" would have to be prepared to do A LOT of listening.  And I think
> the experts would have to be a team, and each person should have a
specialty
> to contribute--like you talk about designing functional literacy programs.
>
> It is spring and I like to see grass grow (it grows pretty fast at his
time
> of year) so maybe that is why I am thinking "grass roots."  Ever notice,
once
> you FERTILIZE the grass it grows a lot greener and a lot faster?  I
believe
> this is called CAPITAL INVESTMENT by the economists....  (City slickers
call
> it something else, I expect farmers do, too.)
>
> Andrea
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>

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