Adult Education

Saturday was teacher training day at the Y for those of use volunteering to teach adult literacy. They started in the middle of the night (8.45 am), but as I managed to get to sleep before 2.00am the night before it wasn't too painful. We covered a lot of material in six hours, including some fascinating information regarding the difference between teaching adults and children, and the reasons why adults who have never read in the past come to the classes.

Here are some of the facts/stats that we were given:

General

- 90 million (nearly half) American Adults have limited basic reading and writing skills.

- 17% of Missourians score in the lowest five levels of literacy.

- 950,000 Missourians age 16 and older (28%) do not have a high school diploma.

- Children of parents who drop out of school are six times more likely to drop out than children of parents who finished school.

- Children's literacy levels are strongly linked to the educational levels of thier parents, especially their mothers.


St Louis City (pop age 16+: 306,308)

-35% at Level 1 (National Adult Literacy Survey)
-66% at Level 1 or 2
-37% lack a high school diploma or equivalent


St Louis County (pop age 16+: 775,060)

-16% at Level 1 (National Adult Literacy Survey)
-37% at Level 1 or 2
-17% lack a high school dipolma or equivalent


Missouri (pop age 16+: 3,939,284)

-17% at Level 1 (National Adult Literacy Survey)
-46% at Level 1 or 2
-25% lack a high school diploma


National (pop 191 million)

-21-23% at Level 1
-25-28% at Level 2 (46-51% at Level 1 or 2)

"Literacy experts believe that adults with skills at Levels 1 and 2 lack a sufficient foundation of basic skills to function successfully in our society."

Many factors help to explain the relatively large number of adults in Level 1: 25% of adults in Level 1 were immigrants with limited English. 60%+ did not complete high school. 30%+ were over the age of 65. 25%+ had physical or mental conditions that kept them from fully participating in work, school, housework or other activities. Almost 20% had vision problems that affected their ability to read print.

-adapted from NIFL: Frequently Asked Questions


There are, of course, more students than tutors. We do this all one to one. The students come to us requesting assistance, often they don't want freinds, family or collegues to know that they are learning. They need more people to help, it requires an hour or two of commitment a week and two Saturdays for training, they provide materials, locations for teaching in (public venues), matching tutors to students and assesing the level of the student. It is worth it.

In other news, I watched a hawk carry off the rabbit that had been eating my veggies today. Spectacular.