[NLA] Re: Reading Instruction and Policy Advocacy

[Art LaChance]

Eileen,

It appears that your position is based on the thought that all students (?) and
teachers should be left to their own devices to learn or teach those issues that
only they believe to be important.  ?

I offer to you that from my perspective that's exactly what's happening now.
The results speak for themselves.  What's the national drop-out average?  I
think it approaches 40%, and I think it's safe to say that pretty much all those
folks function academically below a HS graduate level.  Secondarily, the norming
process for the 2002 issue of the GED test, as well as the 1988 issue, tells us
that approximately 40% of those who have met the requirements for graduation
from the nations high schools are unable to pass the GED.  That in and of itself
may not mean much til you take into regard that the GED requires about 9th grade
skill mastery in reading language and math in order to pass (just barely, but
still "pass").  Those numbers tell me that overall, our current and past efforts
to "educate" our population is only truly "effective" for about a third, or
probably less, of the American population.  The complicating factors are that
the vast majority of our prison population is functionally illiterate and the
vast majority of our welfare roles are functionally illiterate.  I personally
don't think the relationship(s) here are difficult to see.

I'm looking at the overall concept of "education" and it's function in terms of
the "needs of society" and the resultant drain on my wallet.  Some would hammer
me for not regarding the needs of the individual and for suggesting we employ
stark mandates on personal performance both at the student and teacher levels.

I also believe that the decrease in effectiveness is due in part to the turning
over the control of local education efforts to the community, or states, while
they all depend on federal funds for much of their support. I would approve that
local communities could have control of educational efforts and dictate their
own guidelines IF all prison inmates and welfare receipients were sent back to
the school system and community where they developed their social philosophy(s),
for long term maintenance/housing, without the benefit of federal support to
those communities.
Right now there is no real demand for effective guidelines for the provision of
academic education to the overall population.  Local systems blame the
ineffectiveness on "family values" and of course there are connective issues
there, but how many times in the history of our society do we have evidence to
the contrary?  How many US Presidents came from uneducated households and how
many of them credit a teacher for their success, how many others have succeeded
in spite of those "family values".  Many of those who are reading this list have
reached higher levels of education than any member of their families past or
present.  I could go on and on with this but basically that philosophy says that
families educate children and the schools can't.

The facts are that not many teachers are able to 'teach', for a myriad of
reasons.  Not enough time to teach.  Too many students to teach.  Not enough
expertise to teach.  No clear methodology to permit teaching.  The result of far
too casual an approach to guidelines for the teaching profession, the associated
administration and the students involved.

One must look at the whole picture and evaluate the results and compare that
with the American ideals.  Can we say that what we have now is OK?  It's based
on individual rights to not get, or not ensure, the education if the value isn't
realized, isn't it?  Of course it is.  Then shouldn't my rights of our citizenry
include not having to support an ineffective system financially?  That is a
perfectly viable option if we pursue the 'individual rights' perspective.

As for your last question and what I did and how phonemic awarness fits in?  I
restored their self-esteem, defused the negative emotional energy, and taught
them what they needed to know to read.  Or do math.  Or write.  Phonemic
awareness is part and parcel of the decoding processes for English language.  A
must.  Context comes later, although ideally it all happens at the same time.
The rationale for what we do is subject for another time.

The implications for adult literacy?  Adult literacy is not the problem,  nor
should it be regarded as the solution. The primary causal factor of the need for
adult literacy services is housed within local control of K12 educational
facilities and in the populace that permits it's failure.  Fact is that adult
literacy as a whole only sees approximately 10% of the population who should use
it as a stepping stone to higher levels of life success, out of that group only
half of them reach anything that could be termed 'progress'.  That sounds pretty
much like personal choice already, doesn't it?  Allow adult literacy providers
to continue serving those who need us and direct/redirect attention to repairing
the process that creates the need for it.

Thanks Eileen,

Art



Art LaChance
Gilmer Learning Center
Ellijay, GA

Eileen Eckert wrote:

> I've been waiting to see if anyone else was going to jump into the
> conversation, but I guess not. I'm following up on Art's message, still
> pursuing the policy question of mandating instruction based on phonemic
> awareness.
>
> Art: I fully  appreciate this, your history and how you came to be here, and
> the foundation your philosophy towards adult ed is based on although I feel
> what you say here is just a sampling of the experiences that form the actual
> foundation.
>
> Eileen: Yep, you're right. Student teaching in inner-city Boston,
> anti-apartheid work, Central America solidarity work and travel to El
> Salvador during and after the war (and meeting teachers and others whose
> work was truly revolutionary), community organizing in Bridgeport, CT,
> contact and conversations with "warriors for real welfare reform",
> relationships, reading Paolo Freire, and several pivotal work experiences I
> won't even get into here--yes, all those experiences and more have
> contributed to a passionate belief in the authority and responsibility of
> practitioners and learners to make their own decisions and learn from them,
> developing expertise from the ground up, and to an equally passionate belief
> that the more power is concentrated away from learners and teachers, and the
> more knowledge is frozen in the form of mandates, the less able the AELS is
> to capitalize on and build on the knowledge and skills of its participants.
> Everyone has a history and foundation for their philosophy; parts of it
> <may> lead to unsubstantiated beliefs, but that's addressed through
> "disconfirming experiences," reflective discussion, and other personally
> meaningful learning, not through some pronouncement from on high about the
> correct way of thinking, teaching, etc.
>
> Another excerpt and response:
> Art (on his practitioner research): But what did turn up was overwhelming
> evidence that every one of the 10 students I interviewed randomly and used
> as data for that report showed clear history of an unresolved emotional
> impact within a year of their assessment grade levels as determined by TABE
> when they entered our program.  I have also proven this out over the years
> since, now going on 7 years, that pretty much every adult student who finds
> themselves in adult literacy will have a clearly defined history of some
> emotional difficulty in early grade school that affected their progress, and
> in most cases it can be localized to a very specific incident.
>
> Eileen: Art, this is fascinating, and seems to me to have implications for
> practice beyond your program. It looks like you found that learning to read
> is about more than just learning to read! What if there were a mandate that
> programs and staff have to focus on phonemic awareness? How might that have
> impacted your ability to ask your research question, gather and analyze
> data, and address your findings? And how might a mandate interact with your
> specific interests and understanding? (Again, because argument tends to be
> seen in polarities, I'm not against teaching phonemic awareness; I just
> think it's part of a bigger picture and that a mandate doesn't solve the
> problem of ineffective instruction.)
>
> Another exerpt and response:
> Art: I also worked with multitudes of children in a family literacy program
> here for three years where we addressed the problems children were having in
> kindergarten through middle school.  Many of these children were in the
> process of being diagnosed or had already been diagnosed as LD, ADD, ADHD.
> Without exception we were able to help these kids recover, regroup, and
> return to apparently 'normal' functioning, many of whom also excelled and
> passed up their peers in reading capability and were awarded 'most
> improved'.  This program
> required that I interface with public school teachers, counselors, and
> administrators, and involve myself in various professional case "reviews"
> that included those children.
>
> Eileen: How did you do that? What was the role of phonemic awareness? What
> do you think the implications are for adult literacy?
>
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