Received: from emout01.mail.aol.com (emout01.mx.aol.com [198.81.11.92]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id LAA26240 for <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>; Fri, 10 Jan 1997 11:17:17 -0500 (EST) From: LitVolWC@aol.com Received: (from root@localhost) by emout01.mail.aol.com (8.7.6/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) id LAA14114 for nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov; Fri, 10 Jan 1997 11:17:44 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 11:17:44 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <970110111743_1241898362@emout01.mail.aol.com> To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Subject: Introduction X-Status: Status: RO Fran - Thanks for the opporunity to introduce myself. We've subscribed to NIFL for years, but just learned of the ESL listserv. My name is Kirk Baker, and I work for Literacy Volunteers of Wayne County. I first started working here as the ESL Director, due to my experience as a volunteer English teacher at the university level in mainland China (Hubei, Hunan). I've also taught ESL for our Board of Cooperative Education and for a local community college. After growing up in rural Upstate, I feel very much at home in Wayne County. We don't have any urban centers at all, so two big issues for me are transportation and childcare. I'm also very interested in the works of Paulo Freire and how it applies to rural development, especially rural adult education. Wayne County employs more migrant farmworkers than any other county in New York State for about 2 months each year. We serve about 100 of them, entirely with volunteer ESL tutors. Migrant ESL is a high priority here. Also, empowerment of those who are at the mercy of their employers, the police, the government. Migrant farmworkers are basically an imported third world, in terms of labor, living conditions and civil rights. Although labor camp conditions have improved slowly, labor conditions (real wages, work hours, etc.) and civil rights have decreased rapidly over the last ten years. Rural and community development, empowerment of the dispossesed, and religion are some of my major interests. Hope to hear directly from some of you facing the same at LitVolWC@aol.com Kirk Baker Director Literacy Volunteers of Wayne County
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