carol goar covers a literacy event

Carol Goar attended the booklaunch of Beyond the Book: Learning from our History and wrote this article.

“As he [Allan Quigley] took his audience through a century and a half of breakthroughs and setbacks, several strong themes emerged:

• Literacy has always been pushed to the margins of the school system. Charities, churches and community groups built Canada's adult education network. Politicians and pedagogues were reluctant conscripts. "We live with an unrelenting sense of impermanence," Quigley said.
• The desire to learn is inextinguishable. No matter how self-conscious, poor or oppressed people are, they want to read. No matter how tired workers are, they find the stamina to study. Each successive generation of literacy pioneers has been told its efforts were futile or misguided. Each has proven the naysayers wrong.
• Literacy is inseparable from social justice. People share their skills because they want to spread the gospel, fight poverty, help workers get better jobs, welcome immigrants and strengthen their communities. From the earliest Bible classes to today's adult learning programs, the intent of literacy has been to lift those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid to a place where they can get a foothold and keep climbing.

... No one at last week's book launch expected a secure or comfortable future. Fortunately they know how to produce miracles on a shoestring.”

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