May 11, 1999

What Is Family Literacy?
Family literacy is a relatively young concept based on a timeless idea that brings parents and children together to learn. It is unique among other kinds of literacy programs because it looks at literacy issues across two generations. By working with parents and children as a family, rather than focusing on them as individuals, a family literacy program can better reinforce the internal motivation both parents and children must have to succeed together.
The vast majority of the parents who enter family literacy programs can read, but typically they have only limited literacy and basic skills. Most of these parents lack a high school diploma, and the majority of them depend on public assistance to support their families. Despite their best intentions, these parents are in danger of passing this legacy on to their children.

Other parents who attend family literacy programs may be new to this country. Parents who have a high school or college education in their native country may have problems finding well-paying jobs, participating in their children's education, and otherwise surviving without English literacy skills. Parents who arrive in this country with little education in their native language have an even greater problem. They need the chance to build their English language skills, and in doing so to increase their chances for survival and growth and their children's chances for success.

Family literacy offers these families adult education, preschool education, parental support and parent/child interaction time, during which parents learn that they, too, can teach their children. By involving parents and children in a joint education program, family literacy motivates family members to encourage one another in achievement--achievement that encompasses more than literacy skills alone.

There is more to family literacy, however, than just a concept. Family literacy is people: people like Regina Osteen Lynn.

At 17 Regina dropped out of high school to get married. Over the next seven years she had four children and went through a divorce. With low self-esteem, no diploma and few marketable skills, Regina had no choice but to go on welfare in order to feed her family.

Then in 1988, when Regina was 28, a teacher from Walnut Elementary School in Marshall, North Carolina, recruited her into a family literacy program--despite all Regina's excuses, her painful shyness and her heartfelt reluctance to return to a place where she had failed before. Together with her four-year-old son, she boarded a school bus every morning. Over the course of that year Regina was transformed. She earned her GED in 1989, and her children began doing well in school. Regina went on to enter Mars Hill College, from which she graduated with honors in 1994. She turned her life around and is helping others do the same through a career in social services.

Not everyone who participates in a family literacy program achieves all that Regina has, but many make dramatic changes in their lives. Regina's tremendous success is what the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) is working to bring about everyday, in cities and towns across the United States.

NCFL provides leadership for the growing national family literacy movement. It helps create grassroots family literacy programs and the public policy to support them. It fosters a synergy among existing services, encouraging programs like Head Start, Adult Basic Education, state-funded pre-school, and Family Support Centers to redirect services with education as the core. Ultimately, NCFL hopes to establish a family literacy program in every school system in America.

An Integrated Approach
NCFL takes a comprehensive approach to family literacy. Parents and their preschool children join a structured education program together. This program includes four major components: early childhood education, adult education, parent time, and Parent/Child Interaction Time. While NCFL offers training to less comprehensive or inclusive programs serving families, it encourages the inclusion of all four components for maximum success, and as the validator of quality family literacy programs for the U.S. Department of Education, validates only those which include all four components.
Each component provides one piece of a holistic approach to learning. The early childhood education component stresses pre-literacy skills (such as vocabulary building) as well as organizational and social skills, preparing the children to do well in school.

During adult education time, the parents are encouraged to set goals, and to develop their reading and math skills. Some parents work toward passing the high school equivalency exam, and many others prepare to enter other training institutions or the workplace. Still others want to improve their English language skills so that they may survive and thrive in our society.

During parent time, parents have the opportunity to discuss discipline, self-esteem, problems with social services, career options, or other issues.

Parent/Child Interaction Time provides parents and children the opportunity to come together to play, and learn. Many parents realize here for the first time that they can guide and teach their children, and act as their children's first and most important teacher.

All NCFL-sponsored programs have these same four components, even though they may be offered in either a center or a home setting or configured in a variety of time frames to suit the needs of the families served. The four components have proven adaptable to both urban and rural sites, and with families of many races ethnicities, languages and counties of origin.

Source:
National Center for Family Literacy
Waterfront Plaza, Suite 200
325 W. Main St.
Louisville, KY 40202-4251
(502) 584-1133

If you are interested in additional information, or would like to set up a Families Worldwide Chapter in your community, please feel free to contact us via e-mail.

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Salt Lake City, UT 84047
USA

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