[NLA] Adult Education in the US and UK

[Art LaChance]

Thank you for this Tom.

For several years I've listened to the upper echelon of the business,
education, and political arenas state clearly that "We provide the
education, if the student doesn't get it obviously they didn't want it and
it's their problem, but we'll go ahead and provide the adult remedial
education".
I don't know about the UK and how they feel about it but obviously, as you
state here, they see the connection between "education" and economic
stability.
It seems that our (U.S.) position on adult ed is based strictly on the old
reasoning for the GED waaaay back following WWI, and we've lost sight, or
never had it, of the benefits of entreating education for all.

I've also heard from several fronts that in the very near future there will
be two (2) classes of US citizens - those with college degrees and those
without. And if you look real closely you could probably see this developing
now. That separates the haves from the havenots further.  For what purpose?
Develop a never ending exceptionally low skill workforce?  With growing need
for technical skills? With a shrinking welfare system?  Frankly, we don't
have enough prison space.  But then we could privatize the prison system!!

Art


Art LaChance
Gilmer Learning Center
Ellijay, GA

Thomas Sticht wrote:

> Adult Education in the US and UK
> Tom Sticht
>
> I have just returned from a week in the United Kingdom where I went to
> help the governments of the UK, Wales  and the Basic Skills Agency of
> the UK launch the new Wales Literacy Initiative.
>
> During my visit, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Board
> of Directors of the Basic Skills Agency, chaired by Lord Moser, who
> directed the study group that produced the ground breaking Fresh Start
> adult basic skills policy paper a couple of years ago.  Alan Wells, the
> Director of the Basic Skills Agency was there, and Susan Pember, the
> Director of the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit in the Department for
> Education and Skills attended the meeting.
>
> What was so overwhelmingly impressive in the reports given at the
> meeting and elsewhere was the huge effort being made by the UK
> government to increase the access, quality, and quantity of services for
> adult basic skills education. Unlike the depressing state of affairs in
> the United States, where the last three years have witnessed a 1.2
> million decrease in enrollments in the Adult Education and Literacy
> System (AELS) of the United States, and the present prospects for AELS
> funding seem bleak, the UK has put large amounts of money into adult
> basic skills services and initiated large scale efforts involving print
> and broadcast media to create awareness of the availability of basic
> skills programs and to motivate adults to look into improving their
> literacy and numeracy skills. And they are doing all this while also
> participating in a large way in the international war on terrorism.
>
> In Wales, Alan Wells and I spoke at a meeting to launch the Wales basic
> skills initiative. The meeting was attended by some two dozen media
> representatives. The next day I know that at least one national
> newspaper carried a story about the initiative. I couldn’t help but
> recall the meeting in the United Sates at which the National Literacy
> Summit 2000 report From the Margins to the Mainstream was launched and
> there was no media attention given at all.
>
> While in the UK I gave two presentations of a speech that the Basic
> Skills Agency had entitled: A Life In Basic Skills: Some Lessons
> Learned. I covered four lessons that I have learned in my 35 years in
> basic skills work in the US. The lessons were:
>
> Lesson #1: Adults are more likely to learn what they want to learn
> than what they don’t want to learn.
>
> Lesson #2: Adults are more likely to learn what they are taught than
> what they are not taught.
>
> Lesson#3: Adults who spend more time learning tend to learn more.
>
> Lesson#4: Adult basic skills provision tends to  have multiplier effects
> .
>
> However, my visit to the UK offered me another lesson that I did not
> discuss there. This is the lesson of the profound importance of national
> leadership for advancing the AELS . During my  visit I was once again
> convinced of the lack of political will and national leadership for
> adult literacy education that we face in the United States. There are no
> highly visible, honored members of either the Executive or Legislative
> branches of our national government, nor outstanding leaders from
> business, charitable foundations, or elsewhere,  who champion the cause
> of adult education and speak out frequently and passionately in the
> broadcast or print media, or in important national forums, on behalf of
> the need for the AELS and a national commitment to adult lifelong
> learning.
>
> At the end of my week in the UK, I was disappointed to find myself
> thinking that, in contrast to the positive, dynamic, forward looking
> activities of the national leadership in England and Wales, our own
> national adult education and literacy leadership appears moribund.
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