Hello Professional Development Colleagues:

 

Forgive the cross-posting, but if you're not on the Poverty, Race, Women
and Literacy List, then I thought you would be interested in the message
from Tom Sticht below.

 

~ Wishing you all the best this holiday season!  Be warm and safe this
Thanksgiving weekend ~ 

 

Jackie Taylor

 

=====================================================

Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:58:40 -0800

From: tsticht at znet.com

Subject: [PovertyRaceWomen 1427]  A Holiday Greeting

To: povertyracewomen at nifl.gov

 

A Holiday Greeting

 

The Pearls of Adult Literacy Education

 November 23, 2007

 

Tom Sticht

International Consultant in Adult Education

 

When you send your Holiday Greeting cards, do you use cards with your
name printed on them, or do you sign them personally? It is easy to skip
this personal touch, and so much more efficient to just have the cards
printed.

But when we do this, we run the risk of  forgetting the deep meaning
that being able to sign one?s name has had in the history of adult
literacy and the struggle for civil rights. Like a chain of pearls, a
major part of this history of adult illiterates and their passion for
learning to write their names can be traced by following the teaching
methods of three great women leaders of adult literacy education in the
United States.

 

First Pearl: Cora Wilson Stewart and the Moonlight Schools of Kentucky

 

When Cora Wilson Stewart wrote about the Moonlight Schools of Kentucky,
which she started in 1911 to teach illiterate adults to read and write,
she recalled  the words of one middle-aged man when asked about why he
wanted o go to school. "Just to escape from the shame of making my mark"

(Stewart, 1922, p. 18).

 

Knowing full well the longing that illiterate adults had to write their
own names, Stewart developed special Moonlight School tablets that were
made up of blotting paper. This was soft, deep paper that was used to
blot up the extra ink after writing with a pen. But Stewart had teachers
use a pointed tool to carve the student?s name deep into the paper. Then
students traced over the indented impressions of their names over and
over until they could finally write their names without using the
tracing paper. (pp. 78-79)

 

According to Stewart, many adults learned to write their names the first
evening of school. She recalled that, "One old man on the shady side of
fifty shouted for joy when he learned to write his name. "Glory to God!"

he shouted, "I?ll never have to make my mark any more" (p. 19)

 

Second Pearl: Wil Lou Gray and the Write-Your-Name Crusade of South
Carolina

 

The motivational power of being able to write one?s own name was used
later in 1922-23 by Dr. Wil Lou Gray, State Superintendent of Adult
Education in South Carolina, as part of an anti-illiteracy campaign
across the state. Called the"Sign-Your-Own-Name" campaign in one county
and "I?ll Write My Own Name" campaign elsewhere in the state, the
Write-Your-Name Crusade aimed to  get adults into literacy programs to
learn to sign their names when voting and in other important situations.

 

The method that Gray used to teach writing was similar to that used by
Stewart, whose books called the Country Life Readers were also used by
Gray in South Carolina literacy schools in the 1920s. According to Ayres
(1988), Gray recommended to teachers that they " use a thorn or hairpin
to trace letters on copy papers prepared so students could practice at
home."

 (p. 101). Ayers suggests that this may have been an early use of what
Ayers calls the "kinesthetic"  method of teaching reading and writing
and that Gray may have been the first proponent of this method for
adults. But the fact that Gray was acquainted with Stewart, her methods
and books suggests that Gray learned the tracing method from Stewart.

 

Third Pearl: Septima Poinsetta Clark and the Citizenship Schools of
Johns Island, SC

 

The magic of a person?s name in writing, and of Stewart?s tracing method
of learning to write one?s name was passed on from Wil Lou Gray to
Septima Poinsette Clark, the great civil rights teacher from the
Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. On January 7, 1957, Clark and her
teachers started the first Citizenship School serving adult
African-Americans on Johns Island in South Carolina. Clark (1962)
recalled that when the teachers asked the students what they wanted to
learn, the answer was that, "First, they wanted to learn how to write
their names. That was a matter of pride as well as practical need. (p.
147).

 

In teaching students to write their names, Clark used what she said was
the "kinesthetic" method which she had learned from Wil Lou Gray.
Teachers were instructed to write student?s names on cardboard. Then,
according to Clark, "What the student does is trace with his pencil over
and over his signature until he gets the feel of writing his name. I
suppose his fingers memorize it by doing it over and over; he gets into
the habit by repeating the tracing time after time." (p.148)

 

She went on to say, "And perhaps the single greatest thing it
accomplishes is the enabling of a man to raise his head a little higher;
knowing how to sign their names, many of those men and women told me
after they had learned, made them FEEL different. Suddenly they had
become a part of the community; they were on their way toward
first-class citizenship." (p.

149)

 

May The Chain of Pearls Go Unbroken

 

When I get a Holiday Greeting card, I like to see a hand written
signature. I know printed cards are more efficient. I know people have
lots to do and pre-printing their cards saves them lots of effort and
time.

 

Still, when I get a card with a handwritten name, I feel more closely
related to the person or persons who sent the card. I feel a continuity
of good will that I don?t get as readily from a printed name. The
written name seems more alive, more personal, more human. And, as an
adult literacy educator, I know how many millions of adults have
overcome shame, social, and political exclusion by learning to write
their names. So I value a handwritten signature on a greeting card. It
makes me feel that the chain of literacy is intact and the "pearls of
adult literacy?s past,"

Stewart, Gray, and Clark,  have straddled the thin temporal boundary of
the 20th and 21st centuries and their work goes on.

 

It is my hope for this Holiday Season that the chain goes unbroken for
the next year, and for all the years to come.

 

Happy Holidays!

 

(Signed in handwriting): Tom Sticht

 

References

 

Ayres, DaMaris. E. (1988). Let my people learn: The biography of Dr. Wil
Lou Gray. Grenwood, SC: Attic Press.

 

Clark, Septima P. (1962). Echo in my soul. New York: E. P. Dutton & C0.

 

Stewart, Cora W. (1922). Moonlight Schools: For the emancipation of
adult illiterates. New York: E. P. Dutton, & Co.

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