Growing Bolder: A workbook on growing old and herstory for women in literacy programs

by Anne Moore and the Women's Group of Action Read.
1995 Garlic Press
Review by Janet Isserlis and Sandy Chuang

Growing Bolder is for literacy learners at multiple levels and with a range of ability in English. It gives learners ample opportunity to learn about health, ageing, women in Canadian herstory, and about themselves. The Women's Group of Action Read has been working together since 1991, learning about reading, writing, women's actions, health storytelling and herstory. This group and their facilitator, Anne Moore, have developed in Growing Bolder an important text that is interwoven with numerous skills related to reading, writing and numeracy. The result is a very useful model for all of us working in literacy and language development.

While acknowledging that the book may not meet every woman's learning needs, the authors generously grant permission to copy sections of it for educational settings. Literacy workers and learners can choose topics of interest or exercises that will support their ongoing work within the classroom. A strong point of the text, aside from its content which ranges from herstory, health, elder abuse and celebration of ageing, is in the way it integrates skills work (an often dirty word to people in participatory settings) with stories. Important skills work is contextualized within each section; for example, math exercises are used in interpreting social security data for older women. Language and comprehension questions are designed to generate discussion and further reading and writing.

Sandy Chuang, a learner in a parents' language group at Carnarvon Elementary School in Vancouver, selected readings she thought would appeal to our class, and agreed to write this review with me. She wrote:

"Whenever I get a new book, I usually choose one article which looks more interesting for me to read. If it satisfies me, I keep reading the remaining parts of the book. Otherwise, I give up.

"In this book, Growing Bolder, 'Emily Carr' is my first target. Why? When I arrived in Vancouver two years ago, I noticed an elementary school and an art college in Granville Island both named Emily Carr. I guessed Emily Carr must be a famous artist. But what about her age, her life? So, when I found out her name in this book, I was very excited. Finally I knew who she was and learned a little bit about her life.

"Then I continued to read the other stories which, like 'Emily Carr,' also attracted me very much. Personally I prefer real stories to novels and I think these stories help me a lot to understand the Canadian 'herstory. Because, before I read these stories, I had known nothing about the Canadian women from the past. I like reading these stories but I don't like very much the following exercises because some are quite easy (Choose the word, p.32 and p.36) and some require your memorizing the details of the story (Find the missing word, p.35).

"Reading further to Part Two (inviting readers to share their own stories), I found it more interesting than Part One (biographies of notable Canadian women) because we don't need to make up stories but just try to say what we know. As English learners, we have a good chance to practice English by telling the stories of our own and sharing experiences with each other. I like this section most.

"As for the section 'Growing Older,' I like the poems of 'Warning.' I don't think I have the courage to act as the writers say when I get old. Actually I didn't think too much about ageing but these poems make me feel comfortable for getting old. Old people still have a great fun and could create another style of life.

"I like this book. Although it is not huge, it makes me think a lot about us women. I also admire these writers for their effort in editing this book."

Sandy later added that she liked the book because so many of its selections are written by ordinary people. We struggled with the word "ordinary" because none of the women whose work enabled this book to be developed are particularly ordinary at all. But maybe that's the point. Growing Bolder is a celebration of the extraordinary in women everywhere.

Janet Isserlis has done literacy and English language work with adult refugees and immigrants in the U.S. and Canada since 1980. She is participating in CCLOW's feminist literacy curriculum project. Sandy Chuang is a mother of two children and likes to draw cartoons. She is a participant in the parents' group at Carnarvon Community School in Vancouver.

The women of Action Read write about themselves: "Our group is an important place where we can be together and enjoy each other. We talk about our problems and what to do about them. We help each other learn to read and write. We wish there were more women's literacy groups out there and that it was easier to get funding."