may day message from the frontlines

I found this comment by Kim Solga in response to Margaret Wente's despicable rant about the Quebec student protestors and thought I should post it here. I am not linking to the Wente column because it is so hateful but you can find it over at the Globe and Mail.

Kim made her comment at 5:01 AM on May 1, 2012. And it seems like a perfect May Day post. Thank you Kim! Happy May Day everybody.

I looked up Kim Solga and found these links - this and this. Not sure if this is the same Kim Solga or not but it looks like a good match.

Update: I emailed Kim and it is the Kim in the links. She sent me a lovely reply. She is a good ally in the Please Wake Up Brigade.

And here are those good words randomly tucked away amongst almost 1200 other comments:

I'm constantly amazed at how easily many who comment miss the larger picture of columns like these. C'mon, everyone - think critically about this story!

Are Quebec's students spoiled brats? I have no idea - I don't know any of them. The media image isn't pretty, but, then, the media isn't a public service - it's a for-profit industry in this country. For-profit industries are not generally kind to those invested in not-for-profit ideals.

Are all these students Arts and Humanities majors? Again, I doubt it - there's no census-taker in the crowd, and Stephen Harper has certainly assured StatsCan will be unavailable for comment - but it's very easy to make blind and frequently wholly inaccurate assumptions about demographics.

Every one of us who has graduated from a Canadian university has benefitted - and rightly so - from subsidized schooling. Whether you are successful or not is a matter of many factors - including how our culture, at any given moment, has chosen (or been pushed, by a mix of government and private interests) to value certain kinds of "knowledge" over others. Right now, we're encouraged to believe that only science and business grads will get jobs later, because that's the "real" knowledge that "matters". In fact, smart students across the disciplinary spectrum will find work, because the industries thriving the most right now are those that are creative and adaptive. Just take a look at Apple, famous not just for great computers but also for hiring a lot of very different kinds of people with a wide variety of skills.

As for the rest of us? Sorry, Ms Wente, but we are in fact victims of neoliberal capital's power to pull the wool over our eyes. We're oddly back to the same aggravated discourse about winners and losers, science and business vs everything else that we were having in 2007-08, before the bottom fell out of the markets. Why have the consequences of that fall-out adversely affected the middle classes, and not those far higher up the food chain? And why are we not angrier about it?

Perhaps we're all too busy trying to blame Quebec's postsecondary students for a much, much larger problem.

Update 2: Erika Shaker has another excellent response to Lady Wente over on Rabble.

all sizzle...

Wendell writes on his blog about another industry-driven approach to adult literacy: "with due respect"

"There's a myth that Business is a vital stakeholder in literacy; that Business supports adult literacy work, though it naturally wants us to spend conservatively. But there is no such thing as Business. There are only business people. Some of them are friends of literacy. Some of them are not."

Food for thought.

truthiness in canada

On October 17, 2005, The Colbert Report comedian Stephen Colbert coined the word "truthiness."

Here is how Merriam-Webster defines it:

truthiness (noun)

1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)

2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)

On January 10, 2011, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) released a Broadcasting Notice of Consultation which could legitimize truthiness on Canadian airwaves.

The current wording is broad:
[Media outlets are prohibited from broadcasting] any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading.

The proposed change is an addenum to the previous statement:
[Media outlets are prohibited from broadcasting] any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.

Here is a petition just in case you think we should stick to the original wording.

Keep Canadian Media Honest - Don't Let The CRTC Deregulate Truth in Journalism Petition

Video Games | | Truthiness- The Colbert Report

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

happy international womens day

Who's counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics

In this feature-length (94 minutes) documentary from the National Film Board, Marilyn Waring "demystifies the language of economics by defining it as a value system in which all goods and activities are related only to their monetary value. As a result, unpaid work (usually performed by women) is unrecognized while activities that may be environmentally and socially detrimental are deemed productive. To remedy this, Waring maps out an alternative economic vision based on the idea of time as the new currency."

This documentary also examines Ms. Waring's career as a member of the New Zealand parliament and her ideas about democracy.

Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics by Terre Nash, National Film Board of Canada

Today Tara Hunt wrote about Marilyn Waring on the NFB blog.
And I copied her :)

Have a FANTASTIC International Women's Day women and men, boys and girls.

ch-ch-ch-change?

I hope everybody had a great Adult Learning Week. ABC Canada changed their name for the occasion. Nothing so drastic here. I took a virtual trip south of the border and read a couple of articles over at the New York Times about some change that is happening there.

The first one was about how Diane Ravitch, formerly a staunch believer in standardized testing, charter schools and the power of free markets to improve schools, has changed her analysis of how education works. She now thinks that charter schools have proved to be no better than regular schools but redirect resources from the public system and that testing has become not just a way to measure student learning, but an end in itself.

Welcome to the dark side Ms. Ravitch. That is more than a mere name change.

The other, Building a Better Teacher, is about Doug Lemov's eureka moment:

Lemov spent his early career putting his faith in market forces, building accountability systems meant to reward high-performing charter schools and force the lower-performing ones to either improve or go out of business. ...

...he has come to the conclusion that simply dangling better pay will not improve student performance on its own. And the stakes are too high: while student scores on national assessments across demographic groups have risen, the percentage of students at proficiency — just 39 percent of fourth graders in math and 33 percent in reading — is still disturbingly low. ... But what makes a good teacher?

When Doug Lemov conducted his own search for those magical ingredients, he noticed something about most successful teachers that he hadn’t expected to find: what looked like natural-born genius was often deliberate technique in disguise. “Stand still when you’re giving directions,” a teacher at a Boston school told him. In other words, don’t do two things at once. Lemov tried it, and suddenly, he had to ask students to take out their homework only once.

It was the tiniest decision, but what was teaching if not a series of bite-size moves just like that?

Congratulations Mr. Lemov.

I would take exception to "in disguise" of course. The best teachers can make it feel invisible, but even that they do on purpose.The best teachers know that the best teaching and learning happens when no-one is disguising anything.

Every day is different. Every learner is different. And every time we "teach" something, we have to make a different series of bite-sized moves. To see how it is done, head back over to Wendell's blog. Here is the latest example of how those bite-sized moves create a banquet.

Never mind all the successes in the world. Each time we start anew, and "best practice" means what works best for that learner in that moment.

report cards

The news hit the pages of the Globe and Mail under this headline last Friday: Conservatives stop funding for learning organization.

The news is that the federal government will not provide further funding for the Canadian Council on Learning, an organization established in 2004 by a Liberal government with a five-year grant of $85-million to promote lifelong education.

The CCL was established because "In 2004, Canada saw that it had some catching up to do. Canadians were falling behind the rest of the world in some crucial areas. Innovation. Creativity. Skills development. Learning. There was no debate about what we had to do to stop the decline, and begin to improve. We had to figure out what works in education and learning, from early childhood to post-secondary schooling, from job training through adult literacy improvement, and we had to monitor our progress so that we were certain we were always on the right path."

I am not sure that I agree with the basic premise. I see little real world evidence that Canadians are less innovative, creative, skilled and/or learned than their counterparts around the world. In fact, the solutions to our recent economic woes seem to point to a past underuse of the innovation, creativity, skills and learning of many Canadians rather than any deficits in those areas. But the creation of the CCL intrigued me. It seemed to hold promise - perhaps we could create an education think tank that would shine a light on the innovation, creativity, skills and learning of educators in Canada and that this knowledge would inform policy.

The CCL divided its work into 5 knowledge centres: Aboriginal Learning (based in the Prairies, NWT and Nunavut); Adult Learning (based in Atlantic Canada); Early Childhood Learning (based in Quebec); Health and Learning (based in British Columbia and Yukon); and Work and Learning (based in Ontario).

I have had the most experience with the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre. In 2007 I worked on a research-in-practice project that was funded through the ALKC and, in June 2007, I went to an ALKC conference. At the conference I was impressed by the grassroots nature of some of the projects but became aware of a focus on measuring. As time went on, I realized that the CCL was less a "learning organization" and more a measuring organization.

The Globe and Mail article quotes Mr. Cappon about the loss of funding: “What Canada would lose without CCL would be like being a student without a report card of any kind. And we'd be prevented from knowing how far behind the competition we're slipping."

CCL brought us several report cards over the years.

The Composite Learning Index (CLI) measures Canada’s progress in lifelong learning based on statistical indicators that reflect the many ways Canadians learn, whether in school, in the home, at work or within the community. The CLI tells us things like this: "For the first time, Canada's overall score on the Composite Learning Index has declined, dropping two points to 75 in 2009, from 77 in 2008. The decrease is being driven by the Learning to Be pillar, even though there has been an increase on the Learning to Do pillar."

The Projections of Adult Literacy: Measuring Movement (PALMM) provides a statistical “snapshot” of Canada’s adult literacy future through 2031; calculates future adult literacy rates according to province/territory and specific population groups; and generates graphs for incorporating into planning for literacy policy and program interventions. The PALMM tells us things like this: "Although the proportion of immigrants with low literacy skills will decrease by 2031, the actual number of low-skilled immigrants will increase by 61%. However, there will also be an increase in the number of immigrants with higher literacy levels."

The July 2008 literacy educators got a CCL report card. Reading the Future: Planning to meet Canada’s future literacy uses the PALMM to assess the state of adult literacy in Canada and makes recommendations on how literacy programming should be structured and delivered. This report was well discussed on this blog (and here) and in our special bulletin. One of our concerns was that this report makes recommendations about professionalization, teaching methods and time limits that overlook "the rich and varied techniques Canadian practitioners use to teach adults successfully and share in practitioner-based research reports." Reading the Future was a signal to the literacy field that the CCL was not developing knowledge based on the innovation, creativity, skills and learning of educators but was taking a top down approach to develop policy recommendations based on survey data.

In March of last year, CCL presented the adult literacy community with their online literacy assessment tool, also well discussed on this blog. This tool allowed us to develop our own report card on our own IALSS level. CCL told us we could also use the tool to assess learner needs overlooking the fact that the IALSS is a survey tool and is not an appropriate assessment for learning

"In anticipation of renewed funding, CCL had proposed an exciting slate of projects for the coming years."

Many in the list of 10 proposed projects, not surprisingly, seem to be about collecting more data to create more measuring tools. The Literacy Self-Assessments looks to be an expansion of the above mentioned online assessment: "CCL plans to launch a series of free, online tests that will allow individual Canadians to measure their competencies in three areas: prose literacy, document literacy and numeracy. Based on the International Adult Literacy and Skills survey, these tests will also provide teachers and instructors with a convenient means of assessing strengths and weaknesses to ensure programs meet learner needs." Once again CCL is overlooking the folly of using a survey tool to assess for learning and using a standardized test for self-assessment.

That report card argument may resonate in some sectors but I am not sure what literacy workers will think about it. You can probably tell what I think :), but what about you? Do we need these report cards? How do they help us in our work? How do they help learners in their learning? How does the report card argument resonate with you?

places to learn - coming soon?

Hey Wendell. Hey Nancy. Hey Bonnie. Hey everybody. Places to learn!!!!

In 1998, when the UK Labour party was less than a year into it's current 12 year run of electoral success, David Blunkett, then the education secretary, wrote The Learning Age green paper.

As well as securing our economic future, learning has a wider contribution. It helps make ours a civilised society, develops the spiritual side of our lives and promotes active citizenship ... It helps us fulfil our potential, and opens doors to a love of music, art and literature. That is why we value learning for its own sake as well as for the equality of opportunity it brings.

It was a great paper, but nothing happened until last month when John Denham, the secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills, issued an adult learning white paper called The Learning Revolution.

The white paper announces £20m of new money. This "transformational fund" will invest in "innovative new approaches to reach and engage new learners".

People who want to organise their own groups and classes will be supported by a new national campaign for learning, Government announced today. Public and private buildings all over the country will throw open their doors to learners in the evening and weekends, from pubs, shops, cafes and churches to workplaces, libraries and galleries. The buildings will be identified by the new "Learning Revolution" logo and at least 7,000 rooms will be available, with the number expected to grow.

Learning in all its many forms improves our quality of life, happiness and personal wellbeing. While improving people’s skills is one of the most powerful things they can do to realise their career aspirations, we recognise the importance of learning for pleasure and the enormous contribution it makes to the well-being of individuals, neighbourhoods and wider society.

Over the past few years, there has been a quiet learning revolution, but the Government wants to ignite this, raising the profile and take-up of learning wherever it happens, so that all adults and communities can benefit from high-quality, innovative learning that is accessible to all.

It all seems a little more back-to-the-future than revolutionary, but who in these parts really wants a revolution anyway. I will gladly forgive them the hyperbole, plus all the sins of Skills for Life, if they make this work. Or better yet, just let this work.

Wouldn't it be nice to hear something similar from any of our governments? If anyone knows of anything along these lines happening anywhere in Canada, please let us know.

Thanks to Nancy Jackson for telling us about this exciting development.

Guardian Article >>
Wanted: a learning revolution

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) response >>
Realising The Learning Revolution

arts and crafts

Last week Nancy Friday commented on the post titled Pennywise. She told us about Artists, Craftsmen and Technocrats by Patricia Pitcher.

Here's a blurb from the book cover that gives an idea of what's inside ...

Pitcher paints the portraits of the three types of leaders found in organizations: the Artist, the Craftsman, and the Technocrat.

The Artist is people-oriented, open-minded, intuitive, and visionary.

The Craftsman is humane, dedicated, knowledgeable, and wise.

The Artist and Craftsman are "fellow-travellers".

But the Technocrat is another story. Detail-oriented, rigid, methodical, and hardheaded, the Technocrat is the enemy of both the Artist and the Craftsman. His/her analytical thinking leaves no room for fresh ideas and new pathways; he/she follows an uncompromising set of rules he/she believes are right.

To the Technocrat, the Artist is out of control, "nuts", and the Craftsman is old-fashioned.

Too many Technocrats are admitted into the corridors of power.

This week Suzanne Ahearne sent me this link to this video about "Cultural Recovery." (There is a text version here.)

Suzanne also told me that Arlene Goldbard and other community artists and craftspeople have been invited to the White House in mid-May to discuss the ways in which art and craft can help heal what the technocrats have wreaked (my words :P ).

No sign of any artists and craftspeople being invited into the corridors of power on this side of the border but Yann Martel continues, unbidden, to send Stephen Harper good books.

huffing and puffing part 2

I was catching up on some blog reading and enjoyed this post from Peter Olm over at thought control.

He wrote about accountability and assessment ...and PIGS! in a post called You don’t fatten pigs by weighing them . . .

I apologise in advance if should be crediting someone with coming up with the figurative phrase that happens to be the title of this post. Neither do I liken students to pigs! But the phrase “you don’t fatten pigs by weighing them” has been one that’s come to mind a lot recently, when considering the growing trend towards over-assessment in the education system. It seems that more and more time is being devoted to assessment and data collection and analysis, than there is devoted to developing good pedagogy, curriculum and teaching practices.

huffing and puffing

On Friday I wrote about the National Union of Teachers' position on standardized testing for elementary students in England.

That afternoon I received a newsletter from the Ontario Literacy Coalition pointing me to this release from the Ministry of Colleges, Training and Universities about a "a study on the feasibility of creating an assessment tool, or suite of tools, for the Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) program."

Why?

• Because no single tool currently exists that meets the assessment needs of all streams and transition pathways;
• To provide a means that is compatible with the Adult Literacy Curriculum [due in 2010] of assessing learner skill attainment as part of the Continuous Improvement Performance Management System (CIPMS);
• To advance the work of the Learning Ministries in developing a common assessment environment based on the Essential Skills between MTCU, Ministry of Education (EDU) and Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration (MCI)
• To provide Ontario with the capability of measuring literacy gains across LBS streams and sectors in a way that is compatible with other jurisdictions in Canada and worldwide, building on the 500-point scale common to both the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and the Essential Skills.

And in plain English?

• we want to create a test that will work in all the learning programs funded by the government
• we want to measure students' achievements against a standard developed by the government
• we want the standard to be the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and the Essential Skills
• we want to be able to compare student achievement in Ontario with student achievement in other provinces and other countries

How?

• Evaluate the requirements of the Learner Skill Attainment assessment framework that will form part of the Adult Literacy Curriculum;
• Analyze MTCU, EDU and MCI assessment needs and requirements;
• Identify the range of assessment needs that could be met through a tool or suite of tools;
• Determine stakeholder assessment requirements, considering factors such as ease of use and length of time for test administration;
• Gauge the capacity of stakeholders to deliver assessment services, their training requirements, and ongoing support needs.

In plain English?

• we will make sure that the test will measure student achievement against standards developed by the government
• we will make sure that the test will meet the needs of the government
• we will make sure that the test is easy to administer
• we will determine what training and support literacy workers (?*) need to learn how to administer the test

Professor Smithers will be truly chuffed.

And just to continue with this incredibly garbled metaphor, here is one of my very favourite You Tube videos:

*I am never quite sure what the term "stakeholder" means from place to place.
In this document it seems to refer to different groups in different sentences.

pennywise

There has been a hiatus on the blog. Probably partly because I have been out-of-town on a little trip with my family. The other part I am less sure about. I feel as though I have a lot to say and nothing to say.

We were officially laid off last Friday. I banked some of the March hours for work that needs to be done in April and May closing the grant and making sure that Issue #10 gets to people.

Another group of colleagues are working their last day today. Their work was funded by both Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU). HRSDC bailed out a while ago and MTCU has whittled away at funding until now they are left without funds and no commitment for the future.

Last week, our federal government announced this:

The federal government will hire hundreds of people as its spends an additional $60 million to help process the growing number of claims for employment insurance [EI], Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said Tuesday [March 24].

Our grant from HRSDC was about $160,000 per year. This grant employs 2 people, provides contracts for 5 other people and two other organizations -- one a literacy program -- and supports the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education through an administration fee. We produce two magazines a year, two bulletins, two web forums, a web site and a blog. I will let you be the judge of the value of these 'products' and how these activities enhanced practice in Canada and helped us engage in the national and international conversations about research, practice and professional judgement.

I am not sure what grants my colleagues got but I do know that those grants helped employ about 8 people and supported a library, online learning and countless other professional development opportunities for learners and practitioners.

We are all probably EI eligible so HRSDC will keep paying us for a number of weeks. And they will use some of that $60 million to process and administer our claims. But we won't be getting any fantastic articles about research, accessible resources, professional development support, conversation, debate, innovative approaches to learning, and so on.

The pretzel logic of unfunding programs and projects that produce resources and advance the so-called knowledge society in favour of funding the administration of income support systems has made me think more about the Guaranteed Annual Income program. The first person I heard talking about GAI was Hugh Segal, a Progressive Conservative Senator. Part of his argument is that we would spend less money ensuring that every Canadian had a liveable income than we do now on administering and policing EI and welfare claims -- that more tax dollars fund the processing of claims, ensuring compliance and the social costs of poverty than income redistribution.

Detractors of a guaranteed annual income will invariably point to its price tag. However, the municipal, provincial and federal governments are currently footing the rather hefty price tag of poverty as it translates into health-care costs, an overburdened judicial system, a myriad of social services that often duplicate each other and the basic loss of human productivity.

Welfare study shows need for guaranteed income, Toronto Star,
by HUGH SEGAL, Sep. 2, 2006

So as you can see, I have nothing to say and a lot to say.

___________________________________________________

More reading on GAI:
Investing in well-being: A guaranteed livable income for Canada, Citizens for Public Justice, Feb 19, 2008
Senator urges debate on plight of poor, Toronto Star, Feb 11, 2008
Guaranteed income, guaranteed dignity, Toronto Star, Mar 05, 2007
Improving Social Security in Canada Guaranteed Annual Income: A Supplementary Paper, Government of Canada, 1994
Plus this list of articles at Liveable Income for Everyone - News.

tireless, courageous and sue-ped up

Sue Bannon from the Midland Area Reading Council has been talking to her Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and here is what happened. Last Thursday Garfield Dunlop, the Progressive Conservative MPP for Simcoe North, stood up in the Ontario Legislature and made this motion:

"I move that, in the opinion of this House, the government of Ontario should provide adequate funding to community-based literacy and basic skills programs so that the agencies can properly address the growing enrolment."

His speech in support of the motion sounded kind of like a literacy worker speaking. Mr. Dunlop either has experience in community-based literacy or he is a good listener. Perhaps a little of both. He brought this issue to his colleagues with passion, compassion and complexity.

You can download a transcript of his complete speech and the comments of the MPPs who spoke to the motion here (PDF 100 KB). Not everybody spoke like a literacy worker. Some kept their politician hats firmly on their heads. Some spoke in support but still have a little listening to do. But many spoke of community-based literacy as we understand it: hard work that takes courage and commitment, where the rewards can be difficult to quantify but are deeply felt, and that continuously creates huge and tiny reward ripples for individuals and communities.

Here is a list of who spoke and some excerpts:

Garfield Dunlop: Progressive Conservative (Official Opposition) Member of Provincial Parliament for Simcoe North.

"...in order to have about 115 learners in their organization [Midland Area Reading Council] right now-and most of the learning is provided by volunteers in our communities - these groups operate on funding of about $60,000 a year. That's for staff time, hydro, heat, computers - $60,000. So basically they're poverty organizations as we would stand today."

Andrea Horwath: New Democrat Member of Provincial Parliament for Hamilton Centre.

"The important piece of this member's motion is to acknowledge that government has a role. Government has a role to make sure that people are prepared and able to engage not only in the economy and economic activity but in the broader social and political activities that a civil society has to offer. ...It is not a matter of inability; it's a matter of lack of access."

Bob Delaney: Liberal (Current Government) Member of Provincial Parliament for Mississauga Streetsville.

"I think it's an important subject that does deserve discussion in the Legislature."

Robert Bailey: Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament for Sarnia Lambton.

"I was very disappointed to learn, when I met with this organization [Organization for Literacy Sarnia-Lambton], that they have been struggling and operating for a number of years with only $63,000 in core funding. This $63,000 covers rent, administration and wages, which as we know is just not realistic in this day and age. In fact, the executive director, who is a retired school teacher, bless her heart, has not even been drawing a wage for the last number of years in order for the program to keep functioning."

Cheri DiNovo: New Democrat Member of Provincial Parliament for Parkdale High Park.

"I hope this valuable motion is taken up by the government, not just in a vote today-which seems inevitable now-but in actual adequate funding."

Mike Colle: Liberal (Current Governement) Member of Provincial Parliament for Eglinton Lawrence.

"There are some very good teachers and some very good volunteers teaching literacy and numeracy."

Peter Shurman: Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament for Thornhill.

"I want to underscore something else. Literacy does not mean that you're stupid or lazy or incapable. It usually means you just plain need a leg up. So that's what these programs are about, and it is extremely important. ... I myself have had the privilege of standing before 100 people and talking to them about my background and why I developed literacy skills and looking at their backgrounds and finding out that there's an array of reasons why they didn't, and watching them so hungry to suck up the knowledge they were getting from that literacy centre, that was teaching them to be as good as they could be by having these basic skills."

Ted Chudleigh: Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament for Halton.

"I would like to bring the attention of the House to the tireless workers and volunteers who tutor these students and what a wonderful job they do. As the member who brought this bill forward mentioned, there are 265,000 hours of volunteer work every year. That's an amazing number. I'd also like to commend the courage of the students. It's not an easy thing to walk into a library or walk into an organization and say, "I can't read and write." That takes a great deal of courage. I would commend those people who do that, particularly later in life."

Garfield Dunlop: Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament for Simcoe North.

"I, for one-and I'm passionate about this because I've got some strong stakeholders in my riding that push me. I'm not going to let this drop. Even if you don't put one cent in the budget, it's not going to drop. We're going to keep nagging you and nagging you and nagging you until this funding for community-based organizations is increased."

And the motion carried. It seems that community-based literacy has a new champion in the legislature. Thank you Mr. Dunlop and all the others who supported this motion. Those of us in Ontario will help you as you keep nagging and nagging and nagging. Those of us in other provinces will use your speech to energize our champions and encourage new people to join their ranks.

equal shmequal

Saturday is International Women's Day. Here is what our government has to say about this year's IWD on the Status of Women page:

Canada's theme for International Women's Day/Week 2009 is Strong Leadership. Strong Women. Strong World: Equality.

The theme reflects the government's firm belief that increasing women's participation and access to leadership roles and opportunities will help women and girls thrive, reach their full potential and fulfill their dreams, and help build a more prosperous Canada.

For Canadians, equality means women and men sharing in the responsibilities and obligations, as well as in the opportunities and rewards, of life and work. In Canada, leadership is key across society - from the private sector, to governments, to the general public - for people of all origins, generations and backgrounds to participate fully in our country's economic, social and democratic life, and ultimately, in improving the state of the world.

Now more bad news. For all those, including Bev Oda, our federal Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women* from February 6, 2006 until August 14, 2007, who think this 'fight' has been won...

The current Canadian government’s budget Bill C-10, tabled by the Conservative party and supported by the Liberal party, contains the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act which threatens women’s right to pay equity. Some people question why this bill is included in the stimulus package as it does nothing to save money, help the economy, or save jobs.

• The Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-10
• The Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act
  (the part of Bill C-10 which refers to pay equity rights)

When this legislation passes:

• Some federal public sector workers will no longer have the right to file complaints for pay equity with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
• Pay equity will be called "equitable compensation issues," and will become something negotiable with employers rather than a recognized human right. This means that a woman's right to equal pay is now an item on the bargaining table and could be traded away for additional coffee breaks.
• Employers will, for the first time, be able to use "market forces" as a factor in determining whether pay equity will be addressed. Pay equity was originally designed to correct a failure in the market that permits systemic wage discrimination against women.
• The affected federal public sector workers will have the right to file complaints with the Public Service Labour Relations Board, but unions will be fined $50,000 if they are found to be helping or encouraging women to fight a pay equity complaint.

And on and on...

This legislation has gone through second reading in Parliament, with third reading and a vote coming up in early March.

If you would like to contact your Member of Parliament to ask them to vote NO to Bill C-10, you can click on this link to send a letter to your MP: http://petition.web.net/psac/node/26

(In the letter, you need to fill out your MP's name, and type your name at the bottom of the letter. If you don't know who your MP is, his or her (still mostly his :P) name will appear near the bottom of the petition once you fill in your postal code).

Here are some links to news and information on this issue:

• Hansard: Bill C-10 - Budget Implementation Act - Conservatives Attack on Pay Equity for Women - Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North, NDP)
• Pay equity spin gives women the kiss-off - HarperIndex.ca
• The end of pay equity for women in the federal public service - Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC)
• PSAC says “pay equity” bill threatens women's rights
• PSAC to fight budget bill
• What you missed in that budget bill - Toronto Star
• A Blow to Women's Rights in Canada - Embassy Magazine
• Parliament to pass budget at 'lightning speed': MPs - Hill Times
• Woman about to lose pay equity rights- Sudbury Star
• PSAC pressuring Liberals to remove wage, pay equity clauses - CP

* The Status of Women portfolio was transferred to to a Minister of State (junior cabinet minister) on October 30, 2008. The first and current Minister of State (Status of Women) is Helena Guergis.

happy birthday mr. miller

Jerry Lee Miller is a well-known and much loved literacy activist from Toronto.
He is celebrating a pretty special birthday this weekend.
Have a great party Jerry and thanks for all your extraordinary wisdom and energy.

To hear more of Jerry Lee Miller's wise and wonderful words, please click here.

more meanderings

Here are some of the comments by literacy learners on Carol Goar's article, Put education focus on ABC not PhD:

From a Literacy Group

Here are four comments from literacy students in Toronto about the need for literacy programs:

-- I can do anything that is needed in my job, like drywalling, painting, framing and carpentry work. If I could read and write very good, I would be able to own my own business. I feel good that the literacy program is helping me to reach my goal.

-- My tutor says that I'm reading and writing better. I can read the subway signs now. I feel good that I can help my child more, too.

-- I'm 21 years old. I want to go to college to be a nurse. I need to improve my English skills first. I feel comfortable at the literacy program, and I am learning.

-- I'm a mom and I work part-time. When I come to the literacy program, I improve my literacy so that I can help my son with his homework. Also, I want to reach my goal of a full time job.

Submitted by Jumping In Group

literacy meanderings

Here are some of the comments by literacy workers on Carol Goar's article, Put education focus on ABC not PhD:

Reality Check
As a volunteer with a local Literacy program, I can assure you that the problem is real. And let me be clear, it is local agencies like ours who are making the difference, not governments. While we receive funding from the Ontario government, that funding has not increased in 10 years. We now have to do a significant amount of fund-raising to keep our program going. Without the efforts of our local community and dedicated staff and volunteers, there might be no literacy training at all.
Submitted by Binger

Needs Adult Literacy
Thanks for bringing attention to this issue. As someone who is working in the 'trenches' with adults whom have either fallen through the education system's cracks, or whom are in need of upgrading assistance so they can find employment, I must say that I am disappointed in the government's lack of support, both provincially and federally. There has been a great deal of attention focused on retraining for employment, and although this is important, what we have found in our literacy centre, is that huge numbers cannot be retrained because their literacy skills are too low, and/or they do not have a grade 12 diploma, because they left school and got jobs that did not require one. Now they must have one. Someone once said that the health of a society is judged by its weakest members. These members, who are trying to better themselves, and contribute to our society, deserve our support.
Submitted by literacywarrior

Literacy is the Foundation
Ontario workers are being laid off by the thousands and are demanding access to upgrading. Yet the Ontario government continues starve literacy & essential skills programs offered by community-based agencies, school boards and colleges. There is overwhelming research that the investment into literacy training would boast our economy, our GDP and an individual's skills & quality of life. The government just announced the adoption of the "Creativity Economy" characterized by thinking skills, information use, and teamwork. Guess what literacy programs teach along with the 3 Rs? Those exact skills along with continuous learning and communication skills. What is our government waiting for? When will they invest in the vision they claim to believe in?
Submitted by Literacy Worker

literacy in Ontario
First of all let me echo the previous comment - the reductionist policy that promotes literacy as important only in relation to employment is short-sighted and ultimately damaging to our communities and culture. Far from supporting creativity or a "learning culture" the provincial policymakers and their counterparts at the federal level have systematically undercut the notion of literacy as learning and access to literacy learning as a right. Carol, you have been one of the very few public champions of literacy - and it would be great if you could connect with literacy students and providers in the province so that their real need and concerns could be heard.
Submitted by Maire

What literacy learning is all about
Carol, in an earlier comment I suggested that you might want to connect with literacy students and providers - a good place to start might be at Wendell Dryden's blog - Wendell is a literacyinstructor in New Brunswick - here's the link to his blog http://wendell-communitylit.blogspot.com/ It is well worth a visit - I guarantee that you will get a unique and powerful "view" of what literacy learning and teaching is all about
Submitted by Maire

And for the aforementioned Wendell's response - and what I wish I had said - click here.

infernal machines

Greater participation in shared culture enriches that culture; it does not deplete it. Freedom in this digital age includes the ability to have unrestricted access to public goods, which in turn produces more public goods. Laurence Lessig (among other things, founder of the Creative Commons) has explained this phenomenon at a TED conference on the strangling of creativity by protective intellectual property laws. Lessig frames the problem as a war between the read-only culture induced by copyright laws and an emerging read-write culture wherein creativity is democratized by access to and re-use of prior artistic works.

On the notion of the Commons,
indicommons.org

Stanford professor Larry Lessig, the Net’s most celebrated lawyer, cites John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights and the "ASCAP cartel" in his argument for reviving our creative culture.

If we agree that literacy is culture and that culture is read-write, and the process of creating culture includes mashups and remixes, and that "Culture is not a finite resource" ... why are we allowing people to talk about literacy like this?:

The causes of the literacy market failure can be traced to a few simple facts. ...Markets only work well when both buyers and sellers have a clear idea of the costs and benefits that would be associated with the purchase of additional literacy skill and this is clearly not the case with most Canadians, or their policy makers.

T. Scott Murray,
Addressing Canada's Literacy Challenge: A Cost/ Benefit Analysis (page 7)

Can literacy skills be purchased? If so, who are the buyers and who are the sellers? Would any of us describe the work in which we engage as a commercial transaction? Or any kind of transaction at all?

Would any of us apply the ethic of the commons, so appropriate to finite resources, to the infinite resource that is human intellectual and creative capacity?

Would any of us describe our work as part of the read-only culture?

Or would we describe it terms of the creative commons--the mashup, the remix--where people come together to share and develop their intellectual and creative gifts both individually and collectively?

The failure to fund literacy programs and projects in ways that meet the needs and dreams of Canadian communities and individuals is not a market failure. It is a failure to listen, a failure to be inclusive and a failure to be respectful. It is a failure to recognize and value the riches that already exist within those communities and individuals and it is a failure to learn how those gifts are activated and mobilized. It is a failure of the imagination.

common ground

This video is a bit wordy - too much reading for a video IMHO - but I think Friday of stimulus-budget-week might be a good day to be thinking about the Commons. Not just the House of Commons.

"In a just world, the idea of wealth—be it money derived from the work of human hands, the resources and natural splendor of the planet itself—and the knowledge handed down through generations belongs to all of us. But in our decidedly unjust and imperfect world, our collective wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few. There is be a better way—the notion of the commons—common land, resources, knowledge—is a common-sense way to share our natural, cultural, intellectual riches."

(from In a global crisis, a reintroduction to ‘The Commons’ | rabble.ca)

Learn more at OnTheCommons.org.

lapsed

The Ontario Literacy Coalition has prepared a document about the recent Canadian Budget: Implications of the January 27, 2009 Federal Budget for the Ontario Literacy Field.

Many items in this document are relevant to literacy workers beyond the borders of Ontario. You can download a 588kb PDF of the document by clicking here.

The document outlines some of the spending that may benefit literacy programming such as the enhancements to Employment Insurance benefits, the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership (ASEP) and the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers; the creation of a Strategic Training and Transition Fund and a Community Adjustment Fund; plus infrastucture projects such as those aimed to repair, retrofit, and expand facilities at post-secondary institutions and local and community cultural and heritage institutions such as local theatres, libraries and small museums.

This next bit is especially relevant (but not news?) to those who have responded or are planning to respond to requests for proposals from the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES).

Implications for federal funders:
The budget indicates departments have not been accurately forecasting their spending which resulted, in 2007-08, in the highest level of lapsed funds (the amount of funding that is appropriated by Parliament but not spent by departments) in recent years at $7.6 billion, or about 9 per cent of appropriated funds. (Page 210)

Note: The Federal Government’s Public Accounts has reported lapses in literacy spending for the last few years. There may be increased scrutiny of the spending on literacy. (Click image to see numbers more clearly).

sigh.

Under the National Literacy Secretariat, we used to be able to see which literacy projects had been funded by checking out the Grants and Funding Program pages. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) has a proactive disclosure page where:

On 21 October 2005, the Government announced its commitment to proactively disclose the awarding of grants and contributions over $25,000 as part of its Management Improvement Agenda. ...Beginning on 31 May 2006, and every three months thereafter, this Web site will be updated to include information on grants and contributions awarded in each fiscal year quarter by Service Canada on behalf of Human Resources and Social Development.

You can see all the HRSDC grants but cannot tell which grants were funded as literacy projects. I am not sure if this where you can find literacy projects. I cannot find the Literacies grant here.

what did you learn?

Here are the program response recommendations from the Canadian Council on Learning as stated in their report Reading the Future (page 52). Click the graphic to see it full size :P






Here are the "Best Practice" program responses to each market segment from DataAngel as stated in their report Addressing Canada's Literacy Challenge: A Cost/ Benefit Analysis (page 37). As above.

And here is the trailer from Entre les murs (The Class):

Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood. Directed by Laurent Cantet.

This film shows learning the way everybody who has ever tried to help anybody learn anything understands it. It shows how learning does not happen by tick boxes, charts, timelines and goalsetting. It shows how learning is chaotic, free-ranging, exasperating and energizing;

• that 17 'teachable moments' fly past every minute and no-one can catch them all;
• that the moments when a teacher and student find a way to communicate authentically are transcendent but often fleeting; 
• that when students can control the context, process and content, learning is meaningful and deep; 
• that everything matters forever; and 
• that the most difficult thing to do is to say what you learned at the end of it all.