Sunday, May 04, 2008


It seems that there is a time in life that you need to stop doing things that worked before but have long since stopped working for you now. Working for organizations on grants is one thing I am vowing to never do again. I need to work for some company, group or organization that will allow me to be paid a living wage consistently.


I am a hard worker and can move things to fruition when given a chance. It is so very hard to work at a place that is so transitory when you know you are next to be let go because the grant ends and will not be renewed. Or you will soon be the one booted out of the organization because...you did not bring in enough money or publicity that brings in money. This is a scary way to live when you have obligations to others who depend on you to be the bread winner.

Working for government is the only place I can see where you can slowly nurture innovative programs without the pressure of funding (provided you do this as a small "mole" unit). Since you are civil servants you have job security while having the ability to look at the development of a service or product over a longer time than is allowed in the for profit and especially with not for profit agencies who have such unstable funding systems.

What the country needs is innovation. The rest of the world is leaving us in the dust concerning education; especially in science and math. It would behoove government to focus on education kindergarten through college. However, it is especially urgent to focus on young adults and adults who have been badly served by the system and are without a diploma or GED. It is there I believe that the most movement can occur fastest. When you make a difference in one adult's life you affect their entire family. When mom or dad possess experience with academic success they begin to use their recently acquired knowledge to encourage if not help their children and grandchildren in school. Educators gain at least participatory parents in the schools who support education and the staff there doing it. That makes for a paradigm shift in how learning is viewed at home and the transition of that kind of thinking to learning at school. Learning becomes VALUED!

What I am hoping for at this point in my work-life is to work with a governmental organization that is trying reorganize mass education for adults and young adults who have failed in the system as it is presently structured. In this country we cannot afford to have people discarded and marginalized. We must bring everyone along forward because every citizen has a valuable contribution to provide our society they need the opportunity to do it. As we are beginning to look at how to use available finite fossil fuels in a conserving way while using and searching for renewable energy to operate our lives, the same focus should apply to harnessing the brain power of every citizen!

Although I need a stable income to live a little stress free I realize that with my experience I need to expand into consulting both with grassroots and start-up literacy programs as well as how to design and operate outreach public community libraries. Ultimately, I believe that libraries are uniquely positioned to be the force to catapult the literacy movement far beyond where it is languishing. Once libraries are ready to replace their elitist mantle and become places that seek to serve the masses they can function as both engine and fuel for America's source of informal education. It takes library directors to be courageous to insist on serving the under served as well as to view literacy programs as the way to grow their own patrons who are both grateful and loyal to libraries.

Being in Massachusetts puts me at a distinct disadvantage to locating a place for employment willing to engage in mass education by fully staffing and funding a literacy group that provides cradle to grave literacy services for their communities. There is a high literacy rate here and an institution that is married to what libraries were rather than what they could be.

Finally, a true community based literacy program requires that librarians and literacy staff reach out personally and consistently to organizations, groups and especially individuals that need their services.

If you are interested in doing this kind of work ...hire me!

2 comments:

Ferocious Kitty said...

Welcome back to the blogosphere, Deb!

~Deesha

imatalkaboutit2u said...

Thank you. Mamalicious is such a great blog that I take it as high compliment that you read mine.