Compelling Conversations for English Teachers, Tutors, and Advanced English Language Learners

Millions of people, around the world, have chosen – or been forced – to leave the nation where they were born. Immigration has become more popular – partly due to modern technologies like planes, trains, and cars – than ever before in human history.

Immigration remains a vital, if controversial, topic. Why do people immigrant? How have immigrants contributed to your country? How important is the distinction between legal and illegal? Do wealthy nations have an obligation to open their doors to refugees? What qualifies someone as a refugee? Should nations chose their immigrants? If so, what criteria should nations use? How have immigration laws changed over time in your country? What, by the way, do you consider “your” country? Do you think someone can be a loyal citizen to more than one country? How?

As today’s federal court decision in Arizona shows, the debate over illegal immigration remains alive, often hot, and frequently ugly in the United States. On one hand, the United States celebrates the Statue of Liberty as a national symbol and accepts more legal immigrants than any other nation on the earth. On the other hand, the continuing economic crisis and high unemployment rates have led to widespread resentment about the large number of illegal immigrants. President Obama has called for a civil, open, and honest debate as the United States debates its immigration policies. Many other nations are holding similar debates.

Teaching Tolerance, an exceptional educational non-profit that provides many free resources to American teachers, is asking a simple question this week. How do you teach about immigration issues? Join the discussion here.

Context, as ever, remains crucial. Teaching about immigration issues is far easier in some contexts – such as an intensive English language program – than in other contexts. Teaching the history of American immigration in an EL/Civics class is far easier than discussing current events in my advanced adult ESL classes in Santa Monica. Why? Everyone in the EL/Civics class was pursuing citizenship, and held legal status. On the other hand, the advanced ESL class – on the same campus – was clearly divided between refugees, visa lottery winners, other legal immigrants, and many undocumented/illegal immigrants. With limited language skills and great passion, the topic was too controversial to rationally discuss.

Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and many other English-speaking nations continue to attract immigrants and refugees from around the world. As English teachers, we know the faces and stories behind the statistics. We also know the crucial role that English skills play in creating successful immigration policies. But do we teach about immigration? And, if so, how?

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Illiteracy, the inability to turn abstract symbols called letters into meaningful words, should be a vanishing problem. Unfortunately, in the United States, adult illiteracy remains quite widespread.

How many American adults can’t even read this blog? How many American adults can’t read a simple newspaper article, understand warning labels, or write an effective complaint letter? Can’t read? Take a guess. Five million adults? Ten million adults? Twelve million adults?

According to a new federal study just released, an estimated 32 million American adults remain functionally illiterate in 2009.

Greg Toppo told part of the depressing story yesterday in an excellent, concise USA TODAY frontpage article. Title? Literacy Study: 1 in 7 U.S. adults are unable to read this story. “A long-awaited federal study finds that an estimated 32 million adults in the USA — about one in seven — are saddled with such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children’s picture book.”

Is the situation improving? NO! “From 1992 to 2003, it shows, the USA added about 23 million adults to its population; in that period, an estimated 3.6 million more joined the ranks of adults with low literacy skills.” A U.S. Education Department expert explains. “”They really cannot read … paragraphs (or) sentences that are connected,”

USA TODAY deserves credit for bringing more attention than usual to this avoidable tragedy. President John F. Kennedy famously noted that “a child miseducated is a child lost.” Those lost children have become adults!

So how can we explain these shocking (yet very familiar to experts) findings? How is this possible? Why is this awful situation tolerated? Please don’t tell me that there is a lack of money because the federal government just gave away – without conditions or even pretense of accountability – $350 BILLION dollars to wealthy banks and mega international corporations.

The American public education system is failing on multiple levels. Adult education remains the stepchild of public education. Underfunded, often overlooked, and seldom appreciated, adult education plays a vital role in teaching essential life skills – including reading and writing – to thousands. Thousands of adult educators work long hours in stressful jobs, often part-time without fulltime benefits, to help high school dropouts prepare for a GED and new immigrants learn English. Yet the gap between the objective educational needs and funding to provide a real first world education to these struggling adults remains huge.

“Only the educated are free,” noted Epictetus, a former slave and Greek stoic philosopher, over 2,000 years ago. How free are those 32 illiterate American adults?

Will President Obama address this widespread, documented crisis in public education? Perhaps.
The United States is wasting our capital resources! It’s long past time to invest in our own people, rebuild our inner cities, and recover the American dream. So will Obama reorganize our education system and direct billions needed to provide real universal public education?

Consider me, as so often, a sceptic.

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