[NLA] Discussion: Working effectively with the media

[Catherine King]

Hello Janet:

At this time in history, it may be the best time to
point out in a national campaign that to "Be an American" 
has always meant to:

(1) Be involved in educating ourselves--self-improvement

Which, in turn, means to:

(2) Be involved with our future--personal and national
(3) Be involved with different others in our communities
          and in the world.

Through a more generalized national campaign that 
includes all the above positive movements identified
with schools, colleges, libraries and the arts in communities,
a  more pointed emphasis on literacy and adult ed
programs could be "bandwagoned" in that could
downplay or avoid the "illiteracy" stigma.   

Illiteracy may carry a stigma, but "self-improvement" and
"Opening the mind, and reaching beyond is as American 
as apple pie" do not.  

A large national campaign could/should include more
than only adult education programs, but a renewed
raising of the issue of involvement and re-commitment to 
general education, libraries, social institutions, the arts, etc.  

This would mean an indirect approach to illiteracy.  
Any direct attack on "illiteracy" in the public arena must
face the great wall of public attitude, shame, etc., that
the Iris movie showed so well.   It's dead in the water 
before it even gets started.   

For those who really need help, and for those who know 
they need help, it's usually too close and serious for even 
humor or calls to courage to soften the situation.   Even
close family members have trouble "moving" many of 
them.  Their sense of integrity and their social standing in 
their families and communities are, in their minds, too 
much threatened.   That's my suggestion, for what it's worth.

By the way, "Driving Miss Daisy" was on TV the other night,
and in it there is this wonderful scene at the graveyard where 
Morgan Freeman (?) admits to Miss Daisy that  he "knows 
his letters," but does not know how to read.   I presume this
wonderful and versatile actor is on your list of celebrities?

Catherine King 


 ---- Original Message ----- 
From: Janet Isserlis <Janet_Isserlis at Brown.edu>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 1:01 PM
Subject: Re: [NLA] Discussion: Working effectively with the media


> >  Perhaps some of
> >these celebrities might become (or are?) national advocates for adult
> >literacy.  Shall we ask them?
> 
> Colleagues,
> 
> Are we able to ask them in a way that honors adult learners and 
> doesn't pathologize "illiteracy" (a term I hate)?  For me, this is 
> the crux of the matter.  How to advocate, launch a campaign that 
> results in meaningful action, and not in diminishing capable people 
> into those who need literacy, as if it is some gift.  Instead, we 
> need to find ways to speak to the strengths that many adult learners 
> already possess while acknowledging that access to learning is as 
> important a human right as life, liberty and the pursuit of 
> happiness.
> 
> The thing that has made me uncomfortable about other 
> literacy/awareness campaigns is that they lack a sort of informed 
> message that doesn't create a Stanley and Iris dynamic -- where some 
> caring reader helps some brave non-reader.  I don't mean to sound 
> cynical - mostly I'm not; I think, though, that a half-way campaign 
> is worse than non.
> 
> Others?
> 
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