CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
When we look into our own
hearts and begin to discover
what is confused and
what is brilliant, what is bitter and
what is sweet, it isn't just ourselves that we're
discovering.
We're discovering the universe.
Background to the Problem
The subject of literacy, which involves much more than the conventional
school-based skills of reading and writing, has been viewed as problematic
in Canada and, in particular, in the province of New Brunswick for at least
the past decade. Literacy is defined in the International Adult Literacy
Survey (IALS) in a broad sense as, "the ability to understand
and employ printed information in daily activities at home, at work, and
in the community
- to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential"
(Statistics Canada, 1996a, p. 2). Corbett (1982) points out the destructive
role
of the media in convincing the masses that there is an appalling illiteracy
rate in
adults that simply cannot be explained in the United States [or by
extension in Canada] where there has been a long standing system of universal
public
education. Meanwhile, illiteracy has come to be associated with shame
and pity and the adoption of a negative image of low-literate individuals
as helpless,
hopeless, and disinterested in changing their situation (Fagan, 1998). |