Author: The Old Crank

Inequity and Literacy

/ The Old Crank

My office sits right between the Occupy D.C. protesters in McPherson Square and another group of protesters camped out in Freedom Plaza. It’s become something of a standard technique now to brand education causes with the “occupy” label, and I realize that this has rhetorical usefulness. But I’m also wondering whether these protests around the world are — or could be — influencing adult literacy advocacy in a substantive way — or at least how we think/talk about the issue.

Yesterday I read the speech delivered by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the Founder and Chairperson of BRAC, upon receiving the first WISE Prize for Education at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) on November 1st. In his speech, Abed made the connection between the occupation protesters and education, referring to education as the “great equaliser.” But what was interesting to me was that improving adult literacy in Bangladesh was BRAC’s first step towards addressing the inequities in that country:

Today, I will talk about how we at BRAC used education as one of the central themes in addressing the issue of inequity over the last four decades. In these difficult financial times, as more and more people rise up to speak for the “99%”, occupying streets across various cities of the world, the issue of inequity has been thrown into the forefront of world politics. How do we begin to address this? We start with education – because education is the great equaliser.

At the time of BRAC’s inception 40 years ago, three quarters of Bangladesh’s population was illiterate. The very first development plan for BRAC aimed to bring 100% literacy to the adult population of the 200 villages in Bangladesh where we were then operating (my emphasis). But the working men and women of these villages saw little utility in literacy and numeracy skills. We therefore put into practice Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s principles on conscientisation, enunciated in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire believed that the confluence of action and reflection created new knowledge and that, through reflection, learners became actors, not mere observers, and authors of their own decisions. Subsequently, all of BRAC’s community and capacity development activities have been based on these principles.

He goes on to discuss the progression of their work from adult literacy to the education of children — describing it as occurring “naturally in the course of addressing inter-generational poverty” — and the use of technology in education. You can read the entire speech here.

Abed’s speech is not a direct call to increase adult literacy around the world in order to address the inequity issues being raised by the occupation protests, but it does put literacy and social change in the context of these protests.

I’d be interested to learn about any discussion of adult education opportunity in the U.S. in the context of the occupation protests. Or any discussion about adult literacy at all in the context of these protests. Are these protests re-framing or influencing adult literacy advocacy? I’d also be interested to hear about any involvement of adult learners in any of the occupation protests.

What the President’s Creating Pathways to Opportunity Report Says About Adult Literacy

/ The Old Crank

Last week the White House released a report, Creating Pathways to Opportunity, describing the ways in which, in their view, they have worked to ensure that “all Americans have the tools to weather these difficult economic times and a clear pathway to achieve economic stability and security.”

The report mentions adult literacy in several places. It’s interesting to read where the administration pinpoints adult literacy within the framework of their education and workforce development efforts.

One of the places adult literacy is mentioned is, not surprisingly, in the section on “Building a 21st Century Workforce:”

A lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills is a challenge that must be addressed for many low-income Americans. If individuals who lack these basic skills are ready to acquire them in order to get a job, then we should be ready to provide an entry point through community partnerships with K-12 schools, community colleges, non-profits, and community-based organizations. For students who have not yet learned the basic skills needed to succeed in college or work while they are in high school, community colleges are receiving support to improve remedial and adult education programs, accelerating students’ progress and integrating developmental classes into academic and vocational classes. [page 29]

The other place where adult literacy appears is in the Adminstration’s discussion of the Promise Neighborhoods initiative. In fact, the vignette featured in this section is about how a Promise Neighborhood project in Athens, Georgia, assisted a parent access adult edcuation services:

Mary (name changed), a public housing resident and mother of a two-year-old, was participating in a “Living Room Conversation” on early care and learning, a focus group hosted by a neighborhood leader with Whatever It Takes, the Athens, GA Promise Neighborhood. She strongly and vocally agreed with the other five parents that “reading to your young child is very important.” When the neighborhood leader asked the parents if they read to their children, all but Mary immediately said yes. When pressed, she said that she didn’t, and when asked why, said that she did not know how to read. Her feelings of embarrassment and shame quickly gave way to gratitude as the other parents asked if she wanted to learn how to read and told her that the public adult literacy/GED program had relocated onto the same campus that houses Whatever It Takes. She enrolled in basic literacy class, has a long term goal of obtaining a GED and post-secondary education, and has a short-term goal of reading to her daughter. Due in part to the community outreach efforts of the Athens Promise Neighborhoods, Mary is serving as a role model for her daughter on their path to educational success. [page 33]

In this report, the Administration places adult literacy solely in the context of certain other initiatives it has been championing — expanding the role and capacity of community colleges, and Promise Neighborhoods. Reading this, one would not have a sense of what the U.S. system of adult education looks like — or that there even is one. Instead, adult literacy instruction is described here as an adjunct to other initiatives. In the Promise Neighborhood example, the outreach by the Athens Promise Neighborhood is credited with getting Mary into an adult literacy program, but it’s not clear what the federal role is in funding that program, or the extent of the program’s collaboration with the Athens Promise Neighborhood initiative.

What’s also interesting is that the Administration recognizes — in the this document, anyway — two purposes for adult literacy education: the first, not unexpectedly, is to improve employability; but in addition, in the Promise Neighborhood example, there is a recognition that adults working to improve their literacy has a positive impact on their children.

GDP Growth and Unemployment

/ The Old Crank

Dean Baker’s take on the news today that the U.S. economy grew by 2.5 percent in the third quarter is clear, concise, and worth reading. Here is a snippet:

It is very difficult to view 2.5 percent growth as much less than disastrous. At this rate the economy is growing just fast enough to keep pace with the growth of labor force.

That means we are making zero progress in reducing the unemployment rate. If the economy continues to grow at a 2.5 percent pace, the unemployment rate will remain around 9 percent indefinitely with tens of millions of people unemployed, underemployed or out of the labor force altogether.

He doesn’t think there was ever a strong chance of a second recession, but thinks that the media promoting that possibility in recent weeks is why this data is being reported so positively.

Shortsighted Cuts

/ The Old Crank

The budget for adult education programs in Pennsylvania was cut by 17% earlier this year. Chester County’s Daily Local News published a story today on the impact of those cuts in the Kennett Square area, where the local adult literacy program’s annual budget has been reduced from $145,000 to $92,000. The story describes the stimulative effects that the investment in adult literacy has had on the local economy.

Many small business owners in Kennett Square, in fact, became successful after going through the Adult Literacy program. Some have started small businesses like restaurants and landscaping companies. Jacobi said 325 to 400 students go through the program every year.

…

“It’s a crying shame,” said Carrie Freeman, executive director of the United Way of Southern Chester County, an agency that provided $31,200 in support for the local adult literacy program this year. “To me, this is an absolutely vital program. People are able to start businesses and hire people and it helps our general local economy.”

…

Jose Hernandez, owner of Greentree Landscaping in West Chester, said he would have never been able to create his business without the help of Adult Literacy.

“I came here in 1986,” he said. ‘I never had the chance to go to high school. I learned English on the streets, but couldn’t read or write English. I picked mushrooms when I first came here. Then in 2001, I went to the (Bayard Taylor) Library to study for my citizenship test. I would never have been able to pass without a tutor.”

Multiply this by the hundreds of other communities around the country where adult education money has been cut and it’s not hard to imagine that these cuts will lead to a further drag on the growth of the economy.