<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:tahoma, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><P>Amen to what Tom has written. I now am the proud owner of a t-shirt votewithoutfear, in memory of the women suffragists who were tortured in their actions to get the vote for women. </P>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">----- Original Message ----<BR>From: "tsticht@znet.com" <tsticht@znet.com><BR>To: englishliteracy@nifl.gov; professionaldevelopment@nifl.gov; assessment@nifl.gov; diversity@nifl.gov; familyliteracy@nifl.gov; healthliteracy@nifl.gov; learningdisabilities@nifl.gov; technology@nifl.gov; workplace@nifl.gov<BR>Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:40:44 PM<BR>Subject: [Technology 1775] Vote because you can<BR><BR>October 12, 2008<BR><BR>Tom Sticht<BR>International Consultant in Adult Education<BR><BR>Nothing has moved so many illiterate or poorly literate men and women to<BR>seek out teachers of literacy more than the shame of making a mark –X- for<BR>their name on public documents. Among such documents, signing voter<BR>registrations at polling places during elections have played a central roll<BR>in motivating adults to learn to read and write.<BR><BR>In her Country Life Readers:
First Book (1915), Cora Wilson Stewart, founder<BR>of the Moonlight Schools of Kentucky for the emancipation of adult<BR>illiterates, wrote about the value of voting and adult new readers studied<BR>this motivational material. Stewart, writing before women had the national<BR>right to vote, wrote:<BR><BR>“With his vote a man rules.<BR>The man who does not vote has<BR>no voice in the affairs of his country.<BR>He cheats his country, his family,<BR>and himself.<BR>Every man should make use of his<BR>right to vote.<BR>He should always vote for the best<BR>man or for the one who stands<BR>for the best things.<BR>The man who sells his vote sells<BR>his honor.” (p. 53)<BR><BR>During World War I, soldiers in literacy classes learned to read and write<BR>using the Camp Reader for American Soldiers published in 1918. They read<BR>about their right to vote at a time when women’s suffrage was available in<BR>some but not all states:<BR><BR>“In the
United States the people have a voice in the government.<BR>The President of the United States is the choice of the people.<BR>The people choose the President by their votes.<BR>In many states both sexes have the right to vote.<BR>In many states voters pay a poll-tax.<BR>A poll-tax is a tax you pay before you can go to the polls to vote.<BR>Do you have to pay a poll-tax in your state?<BR>In many states only the men can vote.<BR>In many states both sexes can vote.<BR>Do both sexes vote in your state?<BR>In the United States the people choose the government.<BR>The soldier fights for the government the people choose.” (p. 33)<BR><BR>By World War II women’s suffrage was in place across the United States and<BR>in the Army Reader of 1944 soldiers in literacy programs were reminded of<BR>what they were fighting for. Discussing Private Pete, the fictional soldier<BR>that adult literacy learners could identify with because he, Pete, was also<BR>in a
literacy school learning to read and write, Chapter 2 was entitled<BR>What Every Citizen Knows. The chapter says, “Pete is a free man who lives<BR>with free people. Free people have self-government. They have the right to<BR>vote. They have the right to pick their leaders. Then can make and change<BR>their laws.” (p.120).<BR><BR>But even after World War II African-American citizens who were illiterate<BR>were prohibited from voting by Jim Crow laws across the southern states of<BR>the U.S. But this situation was challenged by Septima Poinsette Clark,<BR>sometimes called the “Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in the<BR>United States.” Clark started citizenship schools while working for the<BR>Highlander Folk school of Tennessee and later the Southern Christian<BR>Leadership Conference at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King. She taught<BR>adult illiterates to write their names, read election laws and other legal<BR>documents needed to
meet voting requirements for literacy. In four years at<BR>the SCLC she and others trained some 10,000 teachers and registered some<BR>700,000 African-Americans to vote in the South. With the political power of<BR>the vote, it was not long before politicians were prodded into passing laws<BR>extending civil rights to millions of citizen whose voices had not been<BR>heard due to illiteracy and oppressive voting laws.<BR><BR>Soon, adult literacy learners, and all other American adults will have the<BR>opportunity to once again choose the leadership of the United States. Adult<BR>literacy educators to need to join with the adult educators of times past<BR>and encourage adult learners to learn to read and write so they can<BR>exercise their rights as citizens.<BR><BR>Writing about her work with adult literacy learners, Septima Poinsette Clark<BR>wrote, “How can anybody estimate the worth of pride achieved, hope<BR>accomplished, faith affirmed, citizenship
won? These are intangible things<BR>but real nevertheless, solid and of inestimable value.”<BR><BR>Election day is November 4th this year of 2008. Vote as though your life and<BR>the lives of your children and grandchildren depend upon it! Because they<BR>do! And because you can!<BR><BR>Thomas G. Sticht<BR><A href="mailto:tsticht@aznet.net" ymailto="mailto:tsticht@aznet.net">tsticht@aznet.net</A><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>----------------------------------------------------<BR>National Institute for Literacy<BR>Technology and Literacy mailing list<BR><A href="mailto:Technology@nifl.gov" ymailto="mailto:Technology@nifl.gov">Technology@nifl.gov</A><BR>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to <A href="http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology" target=_blank>http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology</A><BR>Email delivered to <A href="mailto:bonniesophia@sbcglobal.net"
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