QUALITY STORYTENTS

A resource for family, early childhood and community literacy workers

Both these concerns are valid. Although family literacy is difficult to categorize in terms of skill sets, skills do matter. The range of activities a family chooses to undertake will be bounded by the skill levels of its members, just as a family's activities can be limited by poor health or economic insecurity. Too, it is true that skills nurtured within the context of family are apt to be family- and socio-culturally specific. Family literacy is not necessarily incompatible with other literacies. Yet, mismatches can exist between the culture of learning and skill use in a household, and those called for in socially constructed institutions like public schools or the workplace.

Our society has reacted to these two concerns through resource creation, broadbased promotional campaigns, and small group or individual interventions. The goal of these activities has been to change how and what individuals and families learn to bring them more into line with the norms and expectations of educational testers and employers. So, for example, many family literacy programs and projects look for higher grades or fuller employment as logical, successful outcomes for learners.

Often, these interventions appear as external resources or "add-ons" to what families are already doing. An individual or family is encouraged to come out to an information session or ten-week program. Sometimes, more drastic measures are called for, and interventions attempt a more basic transformation of the culture of learning and skill use in individual homes. In both cases, under the slogans that "parents are a child's first and most important teacher", and "it takes a village to raise a child", society has taken a greater interest in what and how parents are teaching their children (Kerka, 1991).