literacy

[AlohaSteven]

Besides, in order to be deliberately political the correct homonym for the particular usage in I probably shouldn't but "A tough roe to hoe for the teachers"? Hopefully the teachers aren't that political when teaching language skills would need to be capitalized as a name in the eponymous court decision. I am glad the teacher Jane deliberately left the typo intact as a sort of Poe's Law lightening rod, further stimulating thought and discussion. A good teaching technique, that.

It is interesting this topic has neither exploded with outrage at implications of race and culture which have been raised vis a vis illiteracy and education nor become bogged down in the swamp of historical arguments regarding perspective on who, exactly, the illiterates are and which language set is the gold standard of literacy. As with all those recent swarthy brown immigrant Mexicans in Texas not being highly literate in English (Texas historically having been part of Mexico before annexation by the expansionist USA, btw) the lily white Pilgrims whose collective butt was saved from starvation by the native Amurk'un Injuns (as they say in Texas) were basically illiterate in not only the language of the land to which they were coming in search of religious freedom, but the Pilgrims were also functionally illiterate regarding the land itself, what to expect, and how to best cope, adapt, and eventually thrive. Fast learners, though, in at least that particular regard. I contend a big part of that which makes America genuinely great -and America genuinely is great, in so many ways- is the diversity of the many languages spoken by Americans of many different origins and cultural traditions. English as a language in common rather than the only language is a tremendous strength of these United States.

Truer words were never spoken (in any language) than Bullwinkle's when he commented "I still believe that increasing literacy rates on island is the cheapest and simplest method to address many of the social issues we face untouched in this topic but the 800 pound gorilla in the room, Is the possible correlation between literacy, rage episodes and abuse of family members ... another topic me thinks .... but a close relative to this issue."

Such a close relative of this topic, I am sure, that those illiteracy rates among prison populations are highly conspicuous as being essentially the same incidence found by Canadian researchers for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders among the prison population.

In my humble opinion the place to most cost-effectively start in genuinely addressing illiteracy is with maternal health and nutrition. Good prenatal and postnatal care serves to keep intact the whole scope of abilities potential within the child. When we neglect this critical period of development and the child is damaged by exposure to alcohol, cigarette smoke, and other drugs and toxins the entire future of that child is changed (and not in a good way) before it is even born. Quality support and care needs to continue through at least infancy (alcohol ingested in mothers' breastmilk does as much damage to the developing neonate's brain as does alcohol coming via the placental blood supply during pregnancy). Prevention programs informing women of brain damage caused by prenatal alcohol use are just one component of the comprehensive approach needed to eliminate drinking during pregnancy; prevention includes screening, identification, education, treatment and follow-up as needed. The economic savings and eventual pay-off to the community and taxpayer for supporting healthy pregnancies is absolutely huge.

In working with students whose first language is not English, or whose subculture speaks a variant of standard English, I suggest to them that our goal is not to extinguish or belittle the ethnic argot with which they are most comfortable and conversant but rather to expand their range to include another set of possibilities. Sometimes using pidgin will bring better results than using standard English. Having the ability to flip a switch inside one's head and speak in standard English when it best serves the situation, however, can be useful.

Part of my job when I worked as a university professor visiting teachers in the public schools and assisting them to improve their practice (for the record, I also am an experienced public school teacher; it is the height of arrogance for university professors who have never taught in the public schools themselves to attempt to instruct public school teachers about anything) I sometimes encountered a bit of peeved resistance regarding teachers not correctly modeling standard English. For example, a teacher who habitually mispronounces "especially" as "ex-pesh-elly" ends up with a classroom full of students who also mispronounce this word. While not the end of the universe, when they do so during a scholarship interview or job interview this may not serve their best interests. Attempting to work with teachers about their mis-modeling of pronunciation or encouraging students to develop the ability to be literate in more than one form of language is simply rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic if incidence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (along with other toxic drug effects) is high and increasing in a population.

A dime spent on effective FASD prevention yields thousands of dollars in savings and increased revenues over the subsequent several decades. Communities can make few investments as wise as investing in FASD prevention through effective support of healthy pregnancies. Really want to see increased literacy? Reduce incidence of FASD. Guaranteed instant results which last a lifetime.



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It is not our part to master all the tides of the world but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
J.R.R. Tolkien

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