[LearningDisabilities 1398] International Literacy Day and Healthtsticht at znet.com tsticht at znet.comThu Sep 6 21:50:29 EDT 2007
September 6, 2007 International Literacy Day and Health Tom Sticht International Consultant in Adult Education The theme for International Literacy Day September 8, 2007 is literacy and health. This is a theme that brings together two great scourges of the world today: illiteracy and ill health. But these are not new threats, nor is this the first time that illiteracy and ill health have been paired. Too often it is thought that literacy is something that one must first get before it can be applied to solving important problems like ill health. But that is a myth. The fact is that one can be developing literacy while also working towards better health. One can learn literacy and health information at the same time. Teaching Literacy in Health Contexts in Kentucky Teaching literacy and health together was clearly illustrated in the early part of the 20th century by Cora Wilson Stewart. She founded the Moonlight Schools of Kentucky to bring literacy to the illiterate country folk of Rowan County. In her Country Life Readers, First Book, Stewart (1915) taught reading using what today we would call a "whole language" approach integrated into a variety of functional contexts for the hill and hollow people of her county. One such functional context was health. In one lesson, she taught basic sight word reading using a lesson about the health problems caused by flies. The reading for the lesson went as follows: "Here you are, Mister Fly. I know where you have been. You have been in all kinds of places. You have been to the pig pen and to the cattle pen. You have been to the slops from the sick man. You have been feeding on a dead dog. Now you have come to bring the filth from all of these things to my table. I know what you will do with all this filth. You will drop it into my soup. You will put it in the baby's milk. You will put it on my bread. You will put it on my butter. You will drop it on the meat that I have cooked for dinner. If I let you live you will spoil our food. And if we eat it, we may all be sick. What shall I do? I will kill you, Mister Fly." Teaching Literacy in Health Contexts in India One of the greatest literacy educators of all times was Frank Laubach. Unlike Stewart, Laubach was a very strong proponent of phonics. However, like Stewart, Laubach engaged in teaching literacy in functional contexts, including the integrated teaching of reading and health information. Like Stewart's focus on diseases spread by flies, in one of his lessons for adults in India, Laubach dealt with diseases spread by mosquitoes (Laubach,& Laubach, 1960, p. 257). He called this Fiction with a Lesson. The reading accompanying the reading lesson read as follows: "Stop Mosquitoes! Mosquitoes carry malaria. Malaria makes many people very sick. Malaria may make you sick. It may make your child very sick. The best way to stop malaria is to kill the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes grow in still water. In the little streams and in the lakes the mosquitoes make their home. They like to live in the swamps too. They grow in wells that have no covers on them . Here are four ways that you can kill mosquitoes: 1. Drain the swamps . 2. If you can't drain swamps, pour oil on them . 3. Cover the wells . 4. Get fish for your lake . If you do these four things, soon the mosquitoes will die. You will not get sick with malaria. You will have good health. You will find that the work in killing mosquitoes will be worth the trouble. " [note: this is an abridged version of the reading passage for this lesson.] Teaching Literacy in Health Contexts in World War II During World War II, Paul Witty, a professor of reading instruction, was called upon to develop literacy programs for tunctionally illiterate soldiers. Using a whole word or whole language approach, Witty developed a number of innovations for teaching adult literacy, including the first comic strip for adults learning to read. In a special newspaper for soldiers learning to read, the September 1945 issue included a comic strip entitled Pvt. Pete Keeps Healthy. In this strip, the fictional soldier Private Pete and his sidekick, Daffy, discuss what to do after a long march: Daffy says: I'm glad that march is over, Pete. Pete: So am I. But if we keep fit, marches won't be hard for us. The first thing is to look for blisters. Another soldier says: That's right, Smith. Blisters can cripple any soldier unless he takes care of them. Every man is taught how to care for his feet That's part of first aid. After Daffy and Pete take off their clothes to take a shower, Daffy says: When do we use this foot powder, Pete? Pete says: We should use it after the shower, Daffy. It will keep us from getting athlete's foot. Waking up the next morning, Daffy says: Pete, I think I could lick the world this morning. Pete replies: It is all a matter of keeping fit. I feel the same way. This International Literacy Day, with its theme of literacy and health, adult literacy teachers are urged not to wait until adults have reached some arbitrary level of literacy before teaching them important health information. Instead, teach adults to read and write while they are also learning about health. This way, more adults can stop diseases spread by flies and mosquitoes, they can understand how to keep themselves and their families healthy, and both parents and children can wake up like Daffy and say, "I think I could lick the world this morning!" As Private Pete says, "Its all a matter of keeping fit!" Thomas G. Sticht International Consultant in Adult Education 2062 Valley View Blvd. El Cajon, Ca 92019-2059 Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133 Email: tsticht at aznet.net
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