Contents:

Introduction
January 2002: The Open Mind
November 2001: We Have Stories to Tell
August 2001: Not By Myself...
March 2001: Not Just a Number
January 2001 : Everything We Need to Know
November 2000: Learners' Writings
September 2000: "Quitting the Third Grade"
July 2000: "Voices" from Canada
June 2000: Selections from "The Big Apple Journal"
April 2000: Miscellaneous Learner Writings
December 1999: Learner Writings from Oakland, CA: Level 2
December 1999: Learner Writings from Oakland, CA: Level 3

In the past, adult literacy programs often focused primarily on teaching people to read materials written by others.

More recently, adult educators have emphasized writing as an important skill. This is because writing can be exciting and rewarding. Writing is much more than just putting words on a page. Thoughtful writing pushes the learners to think about who their audience is and what information, ideas, and feelings they want to communicate. Writing can help the learner to think critcally and creatively, analyze problems and issues, and communicate in a clear way to convince or help others to understand and act.

Learners are creating newsletters and collections of poems, stories, and essays. They are writing to public policy makers and others to gain support for adult education and other issues which learners feel are important. Learners are writing personal correspondence to family members and friends, and using writing to communicate more clearly on the job. Many learners are using the Internet as the medium for their writing.

Good writing skills are vital for any learner who wants to move up the education ladder. VALUE also believes that developing good writing skills is an important part of developing one's leadership abilities. We will use this section of the VALUE Web page to publish various kinds of learner writings. Many of these will be borrowed from existing collections of learner writings. But we welcome your contributions, as well. (Send them to VALUE's web site manager, Paul Jurmo, at 14 Griffin Street, East Brunswick, NJ 08816-4806, 732/254-2237. Understand that we will be able to publish only a few pieces at a time, and that your writings might be edited a bit. Remember that professional writers get their work edited all the time!!)

We hope that you will be informed, entertained, and inspired by these writings. Please use them in your education program and adapt the idea of "learners as writers" in creative ways.

Revised 11/9/01