[NLA] Beyond Reading: Skills for the 21st Century (longer)

[Rose M Brandt]

Adults need to be able both to interpret and to create graphic
information.  Without the ability to create, they cannot truly
participate as equals.  It is like reading and writing.  Without the
ability to create text or graphics, you are only on the receiving end of
information.  You cannot tell your own story, represent your own data. 
We all know that there are many ways to interpret and represent data. 
People need to be able to represent their own data the way they want it
represented.  

Eileen used the example of a construction worker.  Let me use the example
of a community organizer who wants to raise some money for her
community-based literacy program.  Will her proposal look better if it
has some information represented graphically, such as a timeline?  In one
of my favorite student interviews, when I asked the student about her
goals, she said she wanted to do what I could do, she wanted to be able
to run a literacy program.  I think that anytime we do not entertain the
idea that our students might need a skill that we need, we are limiting
them based on our own expectations and assumptions.

Rose Brandt
Mayor's Commission on Literacy
1401 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Suite 1040
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-686-4400, rmbrandt at juno.com
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