Ontario Literacy Coalition's Weblog

Early in the American civil war, gun ships from the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron of the Union Army sailed boldly into Port Royal Sound, South Carolina. Troops on board were primed and ready to engage the confederate army. Instead, they found some 10,000 freed slaves standing in rags, many near starvation, and all unable to read or write.

Why were so many illiterate? In 1740, South Carolina had become the first state to pass a law making it illegal to teach slaves to write. In 1834, it also became illegal to teach slaves to read. While some “house slaves” and lead field workers were highly literate and numerate, for the vast majority, breaking such state laws had very serious consequences. If caught learning to read or write, punishments could include having one’s (writing) fingers chopped off, whippings, beatings, being branded with hot irons, or even being hanged (Quigley, 1987).

General Thomas Sherman was in command of the Northern squadron. Sherman took the decision to “recommend that Washington dispatch superintendents and instructors” (Stubblefield & Keane, 1994, pp. 130-131) to help.

New school buildings rose up. Hundreds came forward. Deprived of reading and writing for so long, they had “an instinctive sense of literacy’s value” (Rachal, 1986, p. 16) and were drawn to the “forbidden fruit” (Swint, 1967, p. 72) of knowledge through reading and writing.

Racism surged back during Reconstruction with a violent, relentless, backlash. Yet, even in the face of punishment and death, Black men and women came forward in the thousands after the Civil War.

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History has multiple interpretations. If we knew more about our roots, we would be better equipped us to avoid the pitfalls of the past and learn from the best of our rich history.

Imagine if the “class of 2008” were to leave a history of your program as a legacy to build upon.
Imagine future learners and teachers adding more student’s or teachers’ stories; locating early artifacts, textbooks and reading/writing materials; or perhaps building up photo album on the beginnings of the program.
Imagine how program histories could be shared electronically and in print; how we could learn from mentors past for today’s policies and classroom practice.
Imagine how surprised some in our communities would be to learn that, in some regions and communities at least, adult literacy courses pre-date local public schools.

But how to get started? Here are some suggestions…and they are only suggestions. There is no one “right way” to learn about our past.
The starting point could simply be asking this question: “Who were the founders of our program?” From this might come: “Who were some of our first teachers, administrators and learners?” Then: “Could we contact them?”
The next step could be to see if one or two of these early learners and/or teachers or coordinators could come to the program and talk about how, where, when and why your program began.

There is no one way or best way to learn about the history of your program. This is but one suggestion.

Learners, teachers, tutors, and administrators alike are beginning to tell their stories–most for the first time. Submissions have been received from those involved in labour literacy, Aboriginal literacy, Research-in-Practice and a variety of diverse programs. Some of these submissions are being posted on this OLC blog and it is just wonderful to see the response.

June 2008: I applied to be a Frontier College Labourer-Teacher because I wanted to be in the midst of something unusual, something challenging and something important. Now, half way through my experience “on the farm”, I can safely say that all of those desires have been more than satisfied.

My first week on the job was dominated by incessant inquiries: am I doing this right? I don’t know what the bud is supposed to look like; and of course, the hugely popular, what should I do if I maybe killed it? We don’t work slowly either and keeping pace with these men (many of whom have been doing farm labour for their whole adult lives) has been tougher than any half-marathon that I have run. The amount of dexterity and mental toughness involved is incredible.

I am taking great joy in my teaching here and the excitement that a student feels. Don’t get me wrong, there is next to no glory to be had as a Labourer-Teacher. The job is not defined by any great educational triumph or monumental social transformation occurring before your eyes. Many long afternoons in the field and those short evenings that you dare steal away for yourself are dominated by gnawing questions: Can I really call myself a teacher when some days make me feel like I understand so little?’ Maybe even more than that though, more than just teaching, I‘ve become firmer in my conviction that people have a limitless well of creativity and genius that can be tapped. Witnessing an expression of awe spread across the face of a man who had never touched a computer before as he manipulates satellite images of his hometown was enough of a demonstration of human potential to make me believe that we can all be so much more.

Mark Dance, is a Frontier College Labourer-Teacher and a student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

For over 100 years Frontier College, a national, volunteer based literacy organization, has recruited university students for a unique program: labourer-teachers share the lives and the work of the labourers they teach, volunteering their services after hours for classes, recreation and support.