Marcia (and others who are using the elections as the basis for lesson
plans),

The "Democracy in Action" issue of The Change Agent, which you can find
online at www.nelrc.org/changeagent, includes articles by learners who
express their alienation from the political system as well as learners
who feel more engaged. The issue looks at democracy and political
engagement as partly a matter of voting *and also* a matter of other
kinds of civic engagement. 

There are lots of student pieces, and they provide a good basis for
discussion.

Some of the student writing has even been recorded, and students can
listen to it online while they read along in the magazine — great for
ESOL learners.

Also, look for our "History of Voting Rights" activity (on our website
under "In the Classroom"/"Extras"). It gets students up and out of their
chairs and moving around the classroom as they "walk through" an
exercise that demonstrates who had voting rights in this country and
when.

Cynthia Peters

-- 

Cynthia Peters
Change Agent Editor
World Education
44 Farnsworth Street
Boston, MA  02210
 
tel: 617-482-9485 ext. 3649
fax: 617-482-0617
email: cpeters at worlded.org 
 
Check out The Change Agent online at: 
www.nelrc.org/changeagent 



>>> On 10/13/2008 at 1:49 PM, in message

<6B55D1884D0A264184CF543866AFCCF303A1556B at btc2000-dc2.bellingham-tech.edu>,
"Marcia Leister" <mleister at btc.ctc.edu> wrote:

> We have been reading an article in the ABE/GED class I teach. It is

by

> John de Graaf. In it he mentions that the U.S. is at "the bottom of

the

> pack" in voting rate. I asked my students why they thought this was

so

> and the responses were enlightening. They said they couldn't relate

to

> the candidates, they didn't feel the candidates were really

addressing

> their lives. They also  made comments about regardless of who is in

> office, they don't see their lives changing for the better all that

> much. This is the place where we start our discussions.

> Marcia

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov 

> [mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of

> tsticht at znet.com 

> Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 6:41 PM

> To: englishliteracy at nifl.gov; professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov;

> assessment at nifl.gov; diversity at nifl.gov; familyliteracy at nifl.gov;

> healthliteracy at nifl.gov; learningdisabilities at nifl.gov;

> technology at nifl.gov; workplace at nifl.gov 

> Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2590] Vote because you can

> 

> October 12, 2008

> 

> Tom Sticht

> International Consultant in Adult Education

> 

> Nothing has moved so many illiterate or poorly literate men and women

to

> seek out teachers of literacy more than the shame of making a mark

-X-

> for

> their name on public documents. Among such documents, signing voter

> registrations at polling places during elections have played a

central

> roll

> in motivating adults to learn to read and write.

> 

> In her Country Life Readers: First Book (1915), Cora Wilson Stewart,

> founder

> of the Moonlight Schools of Kentucky for the emancipation of adult

> illiterates, wrote about the value of voting and adult new readers

> studied

> this motivational material. Stewart, writing before women had the

> national

> right to vote,  wrote:

> 

> "With his vote a man rules.

> The man who does not vote has

> no voice in the affairs of his country.

> He cheats his country, his family,

> and himself.

> Every man should make use of his

> right to vote.

> He should always vote for the best

> man or for the one who stands

> for the best things.

> The man who sells his vote sells

> his honor." (p. 53)

> 

> During World War I, soldiers in literacy classes learned to read and

> write

> using the Camp Reader for American Soldiers published in 1918. They

read

> about their right to vote at a time when women's suffrage was

available

> in

> some but not all states:

> 

> "In the United States the people have a voice in the government.

> The President of the United States is the choice of the people.

> The people choose the President by their votes.

> In many states both sexes have the right to vote.

> In many states voters pay a poll-tax.

> A poll-tax is a tax you pay before you can go to the polls to vote.

> Do you have to pay a poll-tax in your state?

> In many states only the men can vote.

> In many states both sexes can vote.

> Do both sexes vote in your state?

> In the United States the people choose the government.

> The soldier fights for the government the people choose." (p. 33)

> 

> By World War II women's suffrage was in place across the United

States

> and

> in the Army Reader of 1944 soldiers in literacy programs were

reminded

> of

> what they were fighting for. Discussing Private Pete, the fictional

> soldier

> that adult literacy learners could identify with because he, Pete,

was

> also

> in a literacy school learning to read and write, Chapter 2 was

entitled

> What Every Citizen Knows. The chapter says, "Pete is a free man who

> lives

> with free people. Free people have self-government. They have the

right

> to

> vote. They have the right to pick their leaders. Then can make and

> change

> their laws." (p.120).

> 

> But even after World War II African-American citizens who were

> illiterate

> were prohibited from voting by Jim Crow laws across the southern

states

> of

> the U.S. But this situation was challenged by Septima Poinsette

Clark,

> sometimes called the "Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in

the

> United States." Clark started citizenship schools while working for

the

> Highlander Folk school of Tennessee and later the Southern Christian

> Leadership Conference at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King. She

> taught

> adult illiterates to write their names, read election laws and other

> legal

> documents needed to meet voting requirements for literacy. In four

years

> at

> the SCLC she and others trained some 10,000 teachers and registered

some

> 700,000 African-Americans to vote in the South. With the political

power

> of

> the vote, it was not long before politicians were prodded into

passing

> laws

> extending civil rights to millions of citizen whose voices had not

been

> heard due to illiteracy and oppressive voting laws.

> 

> Soon, adult literacy learners, and all other American adults will

have

> the

> opportunity to once again choose the leadership of the United

States.

> Adult

> literacy educators to need to join with the adult educators of times

> past

> and encourage adult learners to learn to read and write so they can

> exercise their rights as citizens.

> 

> Writing about her work with adult literacy learners, Septima

Poinsette

> Clark

> wrote, "How can anybody estimate the worth of pride achieved, hope

> accomplished, faith affirmed, citizenship won? These are intangible

> things

> but real nevertheless, solid and of inestimable value."

> 

> Election day is November 4th this year of 2008. Vote as though your

life

> and

> the lives of your children and grandchildren depend upon it! Because

> they

> do! And because you can!

> 

> Thomas G. Sticht

> tsticht at aznet.net 

> 

> 

> 

> 

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