Literacy: Spanning the U.S.
SBLC Director Brings Attention To Adult Literacy
Struggle
Sadly, more than 80,000 adults living in Baltimore City
don’t have a high school diploma, according to the South Baltimore Learning Center
(SBLC), a community-based nonprofit that provides functional literacy,
workforce development, life-skills training and career preparation services to
adults in the Baltimore area.
For people between the ages of 25 and 64 without a high
school diploma, the unemployment rate is 21.9 percent, according to SBLC
officials who also note that a chronic lack of education and literacy skills
perpetuates Baltimore's poverty problem.
Noted by her peers for her passionate efforts to further
adult literacy, SBLC’s executive director, Tanya Terrell wants to call more
attention to the battle, as Adult
Education and Family Literacy Week commences on Monday, September 24, 2018.
SBLC serves more than 900 adults each year, ranging in
age from 18-80.
“Everyone has a fundamental right to an education,” said
Terrell, a 21-year resident of Baltimore who, prior to coming to SBLC worked in
workforce development at Associated Black Charities.
“In my opinion, when we look at the scale and
pervasiveness of illiteracy in Baltimore and/or high percentage of people who
never completed their secondary education, the problem is not with the
individuals,” she said. “The problem is with a broader system that needs to be
addressed and where we all need to lend our advocacy and support. READ
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Local literacy program aims to better integrate adults
into the Butte community
In a corner of the Butte Public
Library, a man and a woman studied a computer screen together. Both adults
were working through a multiple choice question about a short passage they had
just read. They picked one choice, then another, then a third before submitting
it to the online learning program. The two had chosen incorrectly, but an
explanation box popped up to help them understand the right choice. They talked
through their thought processes before moving on to the next question.
Michael Crowe and Sallie Brewer repeat this pattern for
about an hour every Friday as part of the Butte Literacy Program, Inc. Crowe is
working with Brewer to pass the Language Arts portion of the HiSET test, which
replaced the GED a few years ago. The two work one-on-one along with the
handful of other student-tutor duos in the free program that has aimed to
educate and empower adults in the Butte-Silver Bow community for 30 years.
“I joined this program to find freedom in my choices and
seek out what I want,” Crowe said. “I want to earn my high school diploma so I
can get a job and support myself.”
Crowe, 28, was born in Butte but moved around a lot as a
teenager, mainly through the foster care system. He completed part of his high
school education in Post Falls, Idaho, but when he moved back to Montana, that
class time didn’t transfer. Crowe said he didn’t want to start high school over
again, so he gave up.
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“This program allows us (tutors) to impact individuals by
increasing their ability to get a job and interact within the community more
knowledgeably,” said Brewer, who has been volunteering as a tutor for eight
years. “They’re no longer afraid to do things and their personalities widen.”
In Montana, there is a high percentage of adults between
25 and 64 with a high school diploma. The National Center for Higher Education
Management Systems reported that percentage at 94.38 in 2015, the second
highest in the country. But that percentage among adults aged 18 to 24 is 83.84
percent—over three points below the national average and 11 points below the
rest of the state’s adult population. READ
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Citizenship
ceremony highlights ‘beauty and value of diversity’
Marolina
Montanez was 4 years old, her younger sister Guadalupe just 2 months old, when
their family moved from Mexico to Colorado. They have since established lives
and families in the United States. Marolina lives in Colorado Springs with her
two young children. Guadalupe lives in Castle Rock with her two kids.
A
significant difference between their home country and the U.S. is safety, they
said. While visiting Mexico six years ago, their father was shot and killed.
“The
freedom, the opportunities you have here are not the same there,” Marolina, 31,
said.
Alongside
nearly 40 other people from 17 countries, the sisters became U.S. citizens at a
Sept. 15 naturalization ceremony at James H. LaRue Library in
Highlands Ranch.
The
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) hosted the hour-long
ceremony, which had about 50 attendees from family members to library staff to
county residents who were simply interested in the event.
The
ceremony began with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a series of speakers.
During an Oath of Allegiance, the new citizens stood with their right hand in
the air as they recited a pledge to abide by and support the nation’s laws.
Many held a small American flag in their left hand. Then, one by one, they were
called to the stage to receive a certificate of citizenship.
Each
year, the USCIS welcomes 700,000 to 750,000 citizens during naturalization
ceremonies across the U.S., according to the USCIS. To become a U.S. citizen,
applicants must meet a set of general guidelines, go through an interview and
pass a naturalization exam. READ
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Tifton pushes for adult, family literacy
WALB:
9.24.2018 by Marilyn Parker
Adult Literacy Specialists said one in five people in
Georgia do not have a high school diploma or GED.
The number of those in the Tift County area without a
diploma or GED has gone down because of programs like the Literacy
Volunteers of Tifton-Tift County and classes held at Southern Regional Technical
College (SRTC).
“When I was taking the classes, I felt kind of bad about
myself because you know sometimes people will look down on someone with a GED
compared to a high school diploma," Hampton said.
Hampton’s story is similar to many taking adult
education classes at Southern Regional Technical College.
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“One in five adults in the city of Tifton and in the
state of Georgia cannot read or write. In Georgia that’s about 1.1 million
adults, ” said Bonnie Sayles, the executive director of a program that offers
tutoring to students at the college and for those getting their GED’s.
“Basically to help them become self-sufficient, get a
better paying job, or move up in their jobs,” said Sayles.
Sayles said it also impacts the community.
"Illiteracy rates tend to be highest among the
economically disadvantaged and are associated with unemployment high crime
rates, welfare. We have gone down where we used to be in 1999 about 33 percent
of the people in Tift County did not have a high school diploma, it’s now 20
percent of the adults,” she added. READ
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