From the “Father of our Nation” to the “Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in our Nation”, adult literacy educators have
empowered millions of Americans with the ability to use the English language, read, write and compute at levels needed to function in
various contexts. Whether these educators followed a phonics or whole language approach to teaching literacy, they all taught basic
skills in a functional context of relevance to learners.
Ten Pioneering Adult Literacy Educators in the History of
Adult Literacy Education in the United States
1. George Washington
6. Wil Lou Gray
“Father of our Nation”
7. Frank C. Laubach
2. Susie King Taylor
8. Paul A. Witty
3. Harriet A. Jacobs
9. Francis P. Robinson
4. Cora Wilson Stewart
10. Septima Poinsette Clark
5. J. Duncan Spaeth
“Queen Mother of the Civil Rights
Movement in our Nation”
Harriet A. Jacobs (1813-1897)
“Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself” (1861)
Harriet Jacobs was born a slave and as a little girl her master’s daughter taught her to read and write. When Jacobs got to be
around 12 years old her master got interested in her for sexual favors. Frightened, Jacobs ran and hid in her grandmother’s
house. She hid in a garret of the house for 7 years before escaping to freedom. She became the first former slave to write her
own narrative of her life.
In this extract from her book, Jacobs indicates that she used the A, B, C, approach to teaching reading indicating that she followed a decoding
(phonics) approach to reading instruction. She also used a functional context approach by using the Bible for the instructional material, which is
the material Uncle Fred wanted to learn to read. This illustrates the importance of making the content of instruction relevant to the desires of the
adult learner.
Later in her life Jacobs taught literacy in the Freedman’s Schools during the reconstruction following the Civil War. The materials used
once again were made relevant to both children and adult learners by using African-American illustrations and providing materials
relevant to the life of the learners.
Later in her life Jacobs taught literacy in the Freedman’s Schools during the reconstruction following the Civil War. The materials used
once again were made relevant to both children and adult learners by using African-American illustrations and providing materials
relevant to the life of the learners.
In 1911 Cora Wilson Stewart, Superintendent of Schools in Rowan County, Kentucky, got teachers to volunteer to teach the illiterate
parents of school children. Because of dangers in the hills and hollows, adults could only come to school on nights when the moon was
out. This led to the schools becoming known as the Moonlight Schools of Kentucky. Stewart introduced the first newspaper for adult
literacy learners, she coined the theme “Each One Teach One” and wrote the first series of books for country learners. She was the first
adult literacy educator to address a major political party when she spoke at the Democratic Party convention in 1920.
Country Life Readers
First Book
Community
Development
Compare…….
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First Book
Community
Development
…….and Contrast
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First Book
Sustainable
Development
Soil Conservation On
The Farm
Country Life Readers
First Book
Sustainable
Development
Soil Conservation On
The Farm
Country Life Readers
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Health Literacy
Country Life Readers
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Health Literacy
Cora Wilson Stewart
provided an early
version of Family
Literacy
World War I
Selective Service
reported that 25%
of adults being
called for service
were illiterate,
poorly literate, or
non-English
speaking.
Soldier’s First Book
Instructions to
teachers indicates that
Cora Wilson Stewart
advocated the whole
language approach to
teaching.
Like her other
materials, the Soldier’s
First Book follows a
Functional Context
Education approach.
In the first edition of his Camp
Reader J. Duncan Spaeth thanked
Cora Wilson Stewart for her aid. But
he favored a phonics approach and in
the revised book he dropped his
mention of CWS who favored whole
language. He went on to introduce
the first teacher’s manual for adult
literacy educators focused on a
phonetic system of reading. He also
provided training in teaching nonEnglish speaking soldiers.
World War I Army camp.
Spaeth followed the same
Functional Context Education
approach as used by Cora
Wilson Stewart. But he always
included a sound drill to teach
phonics.
Wil Lou Gray
(1883-1984)
State Superintendent of Adult Education
in South Carolina
Influenced by work of Cora Wilson
Stewart
1923 Initiated “Sign –Your-Own-Name”
and “I’ll Write My Own Name” Campaigns
1932 Wil Lou Gray introduced first
scientific research on adult education
in study of Opportunity Schools she
started demonstrating that both White
and African-American adults of all
ages could learn literacy and other
skills thought by many to be beyond
the “plasticity” of adults.
Frank Laubach,
like Cora Wilson
Stewart earlier,
came up with the
slogan “each one
teach one” but he
popularized the
idea around the
world. In 1955 at
the age of 70 he
started Laubach
International, the
first major
organization for
adult literacy
education in the
United States.
Laubach favored phonics and innovated by using the first visual mnemonics in adult literacy education to help learners learn the sightsound correspondences in phonics. For the letter “b”, using the English chart, one says, See this, this is a bird (pointing to the bird).
Then pointing to the “b” letter with the faded bird beneath it, one says, this looks like a bird and says “buh”, the sound of the letter. Then
the next two columns are used to repeat the words and letter sounds to form a mental association of the sight and sounds of “b”.
Laubach followed the same functional context approach of teaching literacy using materials relevant to learners as used by the earlier
pioneers of adult literacy education.
Witty was a follower of the work of William S. Gray who “fathered” the Dick and Jane readers. In those books, children who were
learning to read could identify with the fictional children and their activities. Witty followed that approach in developing materials for
the Army literacy program. He invented a fictional soldier, Private Pete, who was a literacy student in the Army just as the real students
were. This let the real students identify with the fictional soldier who was learning literacy.
Witty introduced the use of audio-visual
technology in teaching adult literacy.
World War II Filmstrip for Teaching Reading
Soldier literacy students viewed and discussed the filmstrip with no words, then with one word, and then
words in sentences using a “word” (whole language) approach like that used in the Dick and Jane readers.
In the Army Reader, Witty introduced the first use of a programmed or instructional systems approach to teaching adult literacy. The
book had four parts, each with a pre-test and a post-test. If the soldier passed the pre-test to Part One he could skip that module and go
on to Part Two. If he failed the Part One pre-test he had to study the module and then take the post-test and pass it to go on to Part Two.
Like other adult literacy pioneers, in the Army Reader Witty followed a functional context approach and integrated basic skills
instruction in materials with which the soldier learners were familial in their daily lives in camp. Teaching math was made relevant with
tasks such as figuring out how much insurance to get for Mom or Dad or Sweetheart if the soldier did not come back from the war.
A
newspaper
entitled
“Our War”
was
developed
and
included
the first
use of a
comic strip
featuring
Private
Pete and
his sidekick
Daffy.
Another innovation in adult literacy education was the development of a “photo novel” using real people to play the roles of
Private Pete and his sidekick Daffy. This was used in a program for soldiers getting discharged from the Army who missed
literacy training on entry into the Army or whose skills had deteriorated from little use in the war. The book used the same
systems approach as with the Army Reader.
Illiterate and Non-English Speaking Soldiers Fighting for Freedom in World
War II Learn to Read and Write
Writing in the July 1943 issue of “Our War”, a newspaper for the literacy
students of World War II, a student wrote:
“This is my first letter in English. I have learned to read and write so that I
can help protect or country.” Private Porfirio C. Gutierrez
A mother of a soldier wrote to the Army [in original spellings and
punctuation]:
“dear sir: I thank you all for Learning My child to read and wright I don’t
Know how to thank you all Because My child did no know nothing it is
really high apprishated Because I did not have the time to send him to
school I did not have no husband I raised him from a Baby By my self and
that is all my help and I thank you and I thank you when you wrote me
and siad My Boy did that I was so glad I did not Know what to do and I
realy appreshated it.” Very truly yours, M--- W---
During World War II the Army needed personnel with knowledge of chemistry and physiology to deal with chemical and biological
warfare. They sent more highly literate troops to colleges to learn these subjects but found that many lacked the study skills needed for
college level reading and study. So the Army got Francis Robinson, professor of psychology at Ohio State University to develop a study
skills training course for Army personnel. Robinson developed the famous SQ3R formula, the most widely used study skills strategy in
the world. It deals with what the reader does before reading, during reading, and after reading. This general approach forms the basis for
most reading comprehension, study skills approaches taught in college developmental reading courses in the U.S.
Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987)
“Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”
Septima Poinsette Clark
1957-January 7 Opened citizenship school
on Johns Island for African-American
adult illiterates; used “kinesthetic method”
to teach them to write their names, read
South Carolina election laws to qualify for
registering to vote, do other functional
tasks.
1961-Left Highlander to work with Dr.
Martin Luther King in the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
developing citizenship schools and in 4
years trained 10,000 teachers and
registered nearly 700,000 AfricanAmericans to vote in the South.
Clark followed the
whole language
approach in teaching
reading, but like the
other pioneers of adult
literacy, she followed a
functional context
education approach
using materials relevant
to the goals of the
learners.
The so-called “kinesthetic method”
used by Septima Poinsette Clark was
based on a method developed by
Cora Wilson Stewart when she found
that the first thing adult literacy
students wanted to learn was how to
write their names. This overcame a
large stigma of shame for them.
Astonishingly, a simple technique for
teaching illiterate adults to write
their names lead to the eventual
registration to vote of millions of
African-Americans and stimulated
politicians to pass the Civil Rights
laws of the mid-20th century.
Speaking of a cleaning woman who
asked to be taught to read and write in
the Citizenship School on Johns Island,
South Carolina, so that she might
prepare herself to vote, Septima
Poinsette Clark wrote:
“This woman is but one of those
persons whose stories I could tell. One
will never be able, I maintain, to
measure or even to approximate the
Good that this work among the adult illiterates on this one island has
accomplished.
How can anybody estimate the worth of pride achieved,
hope accomplished, faith affirmed, citizenship won? These
are intangible things but real nevertheless, solid and of
inestimable value.”