<div dir="ltr">Janet,<br><br>If I read the comments that I have pasted below, I cannot help but conclude that Adult Ed. in New Hampshire sees one of its functions as organizing the learners as lobbyists for more Adult Ed. Given the position of power that the teachers have over ESL and Adult Ed learners, I find this mobilization of the students is an abuse of the teacher's power and a position of conflict of interest. These teachers are, after all, employees of the government that they are encouraging their students to lobby.<br>
<br>In any case, I come back to the point that learning does not just happen in a classroom. That is more the case today than ever in the past. Yet the education establishment clings like luddites to the classroom, and attempts to use its students in that fight. The educators are not challenging their own assumptions about how to help the largest possible number of people.<br>
<br>Steve<br><br><font id="oai31" face="Arial" size="3"><font id="aivj1" size="3">Students
have been the leaders in hundreds of campaigns to gain additional
resources for
their adult education programs on the local, state and federal levels.
.........A recent advocacy campaign for additional funding for adult
education in New Hampshire
included 4,000 contacts from students with the Governor and members of
the
state legislature. </font></font><br id="h-kh"><font id="oai33" face="Arial" size="3"><br id="h-kh0"></font><p id="h-kh1"><font id="h-kh2" face="Arial" size="3"><font id="aivj2" size="3"> a comprehensive strategy that includes political
literacy within the mission of the adult education program,..The tactics,
strategies and skills developed by students to become successful in advocating for
their adult education programs are the same that students will use to get a
stop sign on the corner, an increase in the local school budget, a state law
prohibiting predatory lending practices on the part of financial institutions
and to influence the next state plan for adult education.</font></font></p>
<p id="h-kh4"><font id="h-kh5" face="Arial" size="3"><font id="aivj3" size="3"> </font></font></p>
<p id="h-kh7"><font id="h-kh8" face="Arial" size="3"><font id="aivj4" size="3">Professional
development for adult educators can be built around this concept of student
advocacy. That includes a commitment at the state or local level to helping
teachers to find or develop the materials that are needed in this area and to
insure that all staff hired by local programs understand and agree to the
concept of student advocacy. </font></font></p><br><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Steve Kaufmann<br><a href="http://www.lingq.com">www.lingq.com</a><br>1-604-922-8514
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