education's moonshot: our challenge

Education's Moonshot: Our ChallengeAuthor(s): Donald L. ClelandSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Nov., 1971), pp. 133-137Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20192919 .

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Education's moonshot:

our challenge

DONALD L. CLELAND

Past President Donald L. Cleland, of IRA, is a member of the

National Reading Council. He describes some of the council's aims and activities. Cleland's interest in Right to Read strongly influenced the 1971 IRA convention theme "...that all

may read."

TN THIS amazing space age we * have been successful in placing

men on the moon and have

probed the planetary system with rockets capable of sending coded telemetric signals back to earth.

Yet, for one reason or another,

we have not been able to solve

many of our social and education al problems.

Dr. James E. Allen, Jr., in a

speech before the 1969 annual convention of the National Asso

ciation of State Boards of Educa

tion, issued the following procla mation :

Therefore, as United States Com

missioner of Education, I am here

with proclaiming my belief that we should immediately set for ourselves the goal of assuring

that by the end of the 1970's the

right to read shall be a reality for

all?that no one shall be leaving

our schools without the skill and the desire necessary to read to the

full limits of his capability. This is education's "moon"?the target

for the decade ahead. With the

same zeal, dedication, persever

ance, and concentration that made

possible man's giant step of last

July 20th, this moon, too, can be

reached.

Supporting this effort, Presi dent Nixon on July 31, 1970 an

nounced the appointment of the National Reading Council "as a

catalyst for the nation in produc ing dramatic improvement in

reading ability for those requiring it, and in encouraging reading by all our people. For the ability to read is essential to the fulfillment of each person's potential, and I

expect the National Reading

CLELAND: Education's moonshot 133



Council to do much to enhance

that ability. With its help the right to read can become a reality by the end of this decade." We in the

teaching profession, and particu

larly those of us dedicated to the

development of language facility in all segments of our school, can

take increased confidence in the

fact that our present Commission er of Education, Dr. Sidney P.

Marland, Jr., is supporting the

Right to Read Effort with a dedi cation and vigor that warrants our accolades.

Primary function of the NRC

The National Reading Council

may be thought of as an impact group, with each member work

ing in his own business or pro fessional community to:

apprise all, not only of lan

guage and reading inadequacies existent, but also of the impor tance of a well informed populace in a democratic form of govern

ment.

encourage parents to take a

more active role in supporting the schools. This should include not

only adequate financial support, but also experiences in the home

that will reinforce those learning

experiences children have in

school. In addition parents should be made aware that children, on

the average, spend about 13 per cent of their time in public or

private schools and about 87 per cent of their time in the home or

other social institutions. It should become obvious that formal edu

cational experiences must be sup

ported and reinforced by social

agencies outside the schools.

encourage those responsible for administering schools to em

ploy only professional personnel who are adequately prepared, in

sisting that each new professional employee have appropriate experi ences/methodology in reading in struction.

encourage employers who

would empldy graduates of our

colleges and universities to enter into a partnership with them in

inaugurating appropriate curricu la that will assure the basic com

petencies required. recommend to appropriate of

ficials in various state depart ments of education that thev re

quire, as prerequisites to certifica tion at both elementary and sec

ondary level, adequate experiences in reading methodology.

encourage school districts within their community to employ reading specialists and/or super visors.

encourage the various certi

fying agencies within state de

partments of education to issue

reading specialist and/or reading supervisor certificates, contingent

upon recommendations of the In ternational Reading Association.

assist in organization of local and state committees of profes sional people, leaders in industry, labor, and civic groups to support the Right to Read effort.

encourage mature members

in their community to become

paraprofessionals.

encourage a cooperative en

deavor between teacher education institutions and the appropriate public and school personnel to or

ganize and conduct training class es for the paraprofessional.

support and encourage con

tinuing efforts of the National

Reading Center to organize a mas

sive tutoring program in the na

tion's schools, and appropriate training experiences for these tu

tors.

Overriding all of the supportive

134 The Reading Teacher November 1971



activities listed above, and many other reading-related activities not

mentioned, should be the suppor tive role every citizen can play in

assuring the coordination of all

reading and reading-related ef

forts, so that a unified thrust will

be directed toward the solution of

this major educational problem.

Reading center plans

The National Reading Center, an arm created by the council as

a foundation, is being funded by a grant from the United States

Office of Education and hopefully will continue to receive its main

support from USOE. As a founda

tion, however, the center can re

ceive charitable contributions from other foundations and pri vate sources to support its many activities.

As the operating arm of the National Reading Council, its ef forts will be directed toward im

plementing charges given by Pres ident Nixon: "to serve as a cata

lytic agent in producing dramatic

improvement in reading ability for those requiring it, and in encour

aging reading by all our people." The National Reading Center

plans, at this point in time, to di rect its skills and energies through these activities:

a volunteer reading program

early childhood language stimulation communications and media

support adult literacy activities and

literacy identification and measurement

materials production and distribution

organization association

involvement business and industry involvement

bilingual reading activities

national reading information service and reporting.

It can be noted that the center

will endeavor to advance the gen eral goals of the Right to Read

effort. Specifically, it will focus

its efforts on the private sector of

society, thereby reaching the out

of-school segments of the popu lace who may be in danger of

becoming or remaining function

ally illiterate.

Improved instruction

Activities such as those envi

sioned by the National Reading Center, assuredly, will have a sal

utary impact on the overall Right to Read effort. Activities of a

corrective or remedial nature as

Speakers Bureau

The National Reading Coun

cil has established a speakers bureau as one of its Right to

Read activities. According to an announcement from NRC, the bureau solicits volunteers

to speak on functional illiter

acy and develops appropriate audiences in the speaker's lo

cale.

Speakers from diverse back

grounds at all levels of society are needed. The current roster

includes corporation presidents,

educators, entertainers, sports

figures, housewives and stu

dents. The bureau invites both

volunteer speakers and requests for a speaker's services any

where in the country. To volunteer or to request a

speaker, write Mr. Grant Doe,

Director, Right to Read Speak ers Bureau, National Reading

Council, 1776 Massachuestts

Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. Telephone 202 387 6444.




conducted by our public and pri vate schools will help immeasur

ably to bring the goal as stated by former Commissioner Allen to a state of reality.

Viable reeducation programs conducted for the inservice teach er will, again, have a beneficial effect on present classroom prac tices. Only the most naive would

question the advisability, at this

point in time, of launching a con

centrated effort to improve read

ing skills and abilities of those members of our society needing

such help. But what about the school child of the eighties, the

nineties, etc.?

Shall we continue, in decades

ahead, to provide therapy for chil dren who do not profit from pro cedures employed in the class room? Shall we continue to use

outmoded instructional materials? Will we be satisfied if we should find in the classroom of tomorrow those instructional aids which

neither supplement nor augment sound instructional practices? Will an intensification of current prac tices solve our reading ills? To pro

vide appropriate therapy ?

yes !

Despite advances in instructional

technology, some children may not

progress in reading skills and abil ities at a rate commensurate with their maturational growth. To the other questions posed we must

give an emphatic?No! The battle for literacy will be

won in the classroom?with the teacher as the foot soldier of the

campaign. He is the crucial ele ment in any effective procedures employed in the classroom. In

directly, the battle will be won at headquarters

? the training grounds conducted cooperatively by the colleges and universities and the public and private schools.

Quality teacher education, coupled

with continuing inservice educa tion is the desideratum. Thus future generations will acquire language facility which will en able them to build a valid con struct or model of their environ

ment or reality.

A new input

The International Reading As

sociation, the most prestigious sin

gle organization in its field,

through its Commission on Quality Teacher Education and other ap propriate scholars stands ready to lend its expertise to the United States Office of Education in the

launching of improved teacher education programs, both preserv ice and inservice.

No matter the level of achieve ment in any line of human en

deavor, progress calls for im

provement. If we demand such

improvement, we are, therefore, calling for a new product. Then,

we need a new input. This input must be a cooperative thrust, in

volving all segments of society that would have a vested interest in quality teacher education. The two main thrusts, however, must

come from our teacher education

institutions and our schools. The time is long past due when we can think of the colleges and uni versities as the producers and our

schools as the consumers.

A new partnership must emerge, each social institution and seg

ment of society making appro

priate contributions, so that those to whom we trust our children can organize the optimal reading/ learning environment, and can ju

diciously reorganize it so the lan

guage skills manifested by each student will enable them to build a valid construct of their environ

ment or reality?a desideratum

136 The Reading Teacher November 1971



that must be realized for each

member of society in the decades

ahead.

It might be well for each of us

to reread Section 4, Article II

(Nature and Purposes) of the By laws of the International Reading

Association: ". . . to promote the

development among all peoples of a level of reading proficiency that is commensurate with each

individual's u n i q ue capacity." Those of us who are dedicated to

the development of language fa

cility in our students, live in the

most propitious time in the his

tory of education in the United

States. To the knowledge of the

writer never has the political force, financial support, professional en

couragement, or moral persuasive

ness undergirded an educational

program such as the Right to

Read. The challenge is crystal clear?the Right to Read effort

must be brought to a state of frui

tion. If we should fail in this mag nanimous adventure, and perish the thought, shall we ever again receive the blessings of the United States government as we have for

this decade?

Names in the national Right to Read Effort

James E. Allen, Jr.

Elliot L. Richardson

Sidney P. Marland, Jr.

Ruth Love Holloway

Louis G. M?ndez, Jr.

Mrs. Richard M. Nixon

Walter W. Straley

Donald G. Emery

Julia Hamblet

Reuben Burton

Former U.S. Commissioner of Education

whose Right to Read proposal in a 1969 Chicago speech to the National Association of State Boards of Education now serves

as a touchstone for the effort.

Secretary, U.S. Department of Health,

Education, and Welfare, parent

organization to the U.S. Office of

Education.

Commissioner of Education, USOE.

Director, Right to Read, USOE, since

July 1, 1971.

Director, Right to Read, USOE July 1970-June 1971.

Honorary Chairman, National Reading

Council, a group commissioned by President Nixon in 1970.

Vice President, American Telephone &

Telegraph Company and Chairman, National Reading Council.

Director, National Reading Center, an

action arm of the National Reading Council.

Associate Director, Right to Read, USOE.

Associate Director, Right to Read, USOE.




education's moonshot: our challenge

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