East End Literacy
A Women's Discussion Group

East End Literacy is a community-based reading centre for adults who live in down town east Toronto. In 1987, we began a women's discussion group. We didn't have much of a plan. We were developing a series of basic readers at the time, written with adult learners about their own lives. We thought that there was a shortage of women, and women's concerns, in what we had done so far. A women's discussion group, we thought, would generate manuscripts to "correct the imbalance." But of course the group did much more than that. It changed the way we looked at literacy. This article is about what happened to three of the women in the group: Rose, Debbie and Dorothy: what they learned and what we learned from them.

To get the group started, we called all the women in our program and asked them if, and when, they could come to a group. There are about 40 women learners in our program. Most work with volunteer tutors for about two hours a week, whether here at the reading centre or in their own homes. No one seemed to mind that we didn't have a plan, other than to talk. "I have some things to say that nobody wants to hear," said Eleanor darkly. "You mean no men? Great!" said Rose. But some women felt too shy. They valued their personal, private relationships with their tutors and they did not feel ready for a group. A lot of women wanted to come, but they were too busy. They worked days or nights or weekends or all of these; they had small children and other family members to take care of and it was just too hard to get out, even with baby-sitting money provided. That was the first thing we learned. The rate of illiteracy in our society may be slightly lower for women than for men, but the barriers to taking advantage of literacy programs are much higher.

Still, about a quarter of the women in our program did attend the women's group at one time or another, with some coming regularly. We met once a week. After a few weeks, it was pretty easy to identify the factors that enabled these six women to come regularly. They were childless. They had been labeled mentally retarded in childhood and had never been trained for the workforce. They were "free" of the responsibilities of adult life.

One day in May, we decided to walk through the conservatory in Allen's Gardens, a park in our neighborhood. We were sitting outside eating sandwiches when Eleanor said, "It's time we did another book."

“What would it be about?” we asked.

“About how our parents make us give up our kids, and they shouldn't have done it,” Eleanor said.

“Children's Aid shouldn't take our kids away,” said Linda.

“Social workers shouldn't butt in,” said Eileen.

In our early meetings, we had spent a lot of time talking and writing about experiences like these. Several of the women in the group had lost their children and/or been sterilized against their wills. It seemed to us that everything we heard in the early meetings of the women's group was a form of the question, “Why don't we have the right to grow up?”

One day we showed the group the Video “Stand Up For Your Rights,” by the Catalyst Theatre Company of Edmonton. This is the best resource we have ever seen for people who want to talk about the issues surrounding the label of mental retardation. It is about taking control of your life, and fighting for the right to make informed decisions about love and work and having a family.