[NLA] Media Alert

[Art LaChance]

Kathleen,
I believe what we're dealing with here is a pervasive attitude among a
large section of the "haves".  The attitude says basically "I got mine,
you get yours, and if you don't it's not my problem".  Now the real
problem here is that all who espouse this attitude are protected from
responsibility in the issue, and can readily find support within the
upper echelons of management, administration, political arenas,
education, media, etc etc. I've heard so many times that I can't count
that "We provide a quality education and if the child doesn't get it
then there must be something wrong with the child", or the adult for
that matter because I see the same attitude carried over into adult
literacy services.
One of my pet peeves is the rate at which we label children with LD
(real or not) and assign the responsibility for illiteracy directly back
to the 7 year old child.  There's that attitude again.
It's already been suggested here and elsewhere that sooner or later the
number of low-skill workers will eclipse the number of low-skill jobs
available.  Then what?  These folks are going to feed their families,
are they not?  Doesn't take a math genius to do the numbers here.
I aggree with you and definitely see opportunity, and need, to
re-educate and reduce the influence.

Art


Art LaChance
Gilmer Learning Center
Ellijay, GA


KathleenBombach at aol.com wrote:

> One of the ways we can help shape the public discourse is to react
> quickly whenever media images are negative about literacy and people
> with limited literacy.
> I watch many news shows, and if I hear one more commentator ridicule
> Florida voters who had trouble reading and marking ballots, reading
> voting instructions, etc., I may lose it. It happened again just this
> weekend. I may make this my current literacy quest--alerting everyone
> when literacy and/or individuals who are or could be literacy learners
> are ridiculed and/or insulted. then I have a good excuse for keeping
> the news channels on.
> Of course, correspondence needs to be polite and sincere, so that the
> media person who commits the offense knows we just want to help him or
> her understand the issues. Short is also better.
> So here is a list of the worst and most recent offenders:
> Tucker Carlson
> Crossfire
> CNN
> New York Magazine
> Talk Magazine
> Weekly Standard
> www.cnn.com/cnn/programs/crossfire
> the email button is on the right of the page title
>
> Fred Barnes
> Weekly Standard
> Fox News
> www.foxnews.com/beltwayboys/
> there is an 'email the show' button midpage
>
> Sean Hannity
> Fox News
> www.foxnews/hannityandcolmes/
> there is an email button in the upper middle of the page
>
> I will entitle these notices "Media Alert" so everyone knows we are
> asking for some work here--an email or a letter. This has worked for
> other groups, so it is worth a shot. In the future I will give the day
> of the show with the offending description along with the name of who
> said something offensive.
> Kathleen Bombach
>
>
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