Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 September 1986 — Page 15

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

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ABC, PBS TV networks join forces in fight against adult illiteracy

ABC and PBS will launch a major effort to help curb adult illiteracy in September with Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS), an unprecedented national television and radio campaign which begins with two one-hour prime time documentaries. On September 3 the ABC “Closeup” unit presented “At a Loss for Words: Illiterate in America,” narrated by ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings. On September 17 at 8 p.m. the Public Television Outreach Alliance will present “A Chance to Learn” on PBS. (Check local listings). The PBS documentary is procuded by WQED/Pittsburgh. To back PLUS, which has been under develoipoment for more than a year, a majority of the 314 PBS stations and 212 ABC affiliates are working with over 300 local PLUS task forces around the country. Over 90 national organizations representing education, business, religious and civic leaders support PLUS. “At a loss for Words: Illterate in America” and “A Chance to Learn” have been planned as companion documentaries. The ABC program, sponsored by IBM, examined the roots of illiteracy and its cost to the nation. The PBS program will take the next critical step and point to the many program, both innovative and traditional, / which are helping adult learners today. Major funding for the PBS program, and PBS outreach efforts, comes from the John D. Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is produced under the auspices of the Public Television Outreach Alliance. ABC will also focus on illiteracy on other news and information programming in September. “This Week With David Brinkley” (September 7) and ABC’s “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” (in a multi-part series beginning September 8) will examine the problem, as will “ABC News Nightline” and “20/20.” ABC will also broadcast a major campaign of public service announcements to bolster the project. ABC Radio will produce minidocumentaries, news features, and -» public ravice announcements on illiteracy and distribute them to 1800 radio network affiliates. National Public Radio will target the Hispanic community with news

ADULT LEARNER: Bonnie Sue Williams beams after accepting an award for Outstanding Achievement in Reading from the Watts Adult Education Center during “A Chance to Learn,” a PBS documentary airing Wednesday, September 17 at 8 p.m. E.T. (check local listings). It is part of Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS), a landmark collaboration between Capital Cities/ABC and PBS.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 people of other coutries.” Scholarships are awarded to American graduate students, teachers and^ professors to study, teach, lecture and conduct research abroad, and to foreign nationals to engage in similar activites in the United States.

Copingi

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 patterns of regular occurences of the behaviors indicated in the quiz. A capable counselor can be helpful in making an accurate assessment. Here’s how to avoid the pain of frustration which leads to the nervous breakdown: Always have a goal or plan. Mingle. Be friendly with people. Maintain good health (perfect health is impossible). Focus on the good things in your life. Forget the bad. Turn every negative thought imeediately into a positive one. Deal with problems as soon as they occur. Discuss them with a friend. Help make someone else happy. Take a break from your chores. Don’t overdo it. Be sensible about your work. Dr. Faulkner may be written to at Post Office Box 50016, Washington, DC20004.

and feature pieces on three of the network’s Spanish language programs. Nearly 30 pieces will be produced between September and March, funded by NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. From October through May, 1987, ABC will address illiteracy in entertainment and children’s programming. An “ABC Weekend Special” for children will incorporate illiteracy into its story line, as will a daytime serial, “Loving.” Plans are underway to develop story lines on illiteracy for several prime time series. “Good Morning America” is also expected to cover the issue. There will be messages on ABC sports programming as well. The PBS focus has been on outreach, led by the five stations of the Public Television Outreach Alliance: KET/Kentucky, KCTS/Seattle, KUON/Nebraska, WETA/Washington, D.C. and WQED/Pittsburgh. Since December, when PLUS was first announced at a press conference at the Library of Congress, the Alliance outreach office and four regional offices have coordinated the formation of more than 300 PLUS task forces in the markets where ABC and PBS have affiliated stations. PLUS task forces are preparing communities for the demand on literacy services expected as a result of national programming. Task forces’ major goals have been to assess literacy needs and to establih a central telephone number for literacy questions. Experts estimate that 23 million adult Americans do not have the basic reading skills to pass the fourth grade. They cannot read newspapers, job applications, or street signs. Medicine labels, appliance instructions, even greeting cards, baffle them, literacy experts

say. Illiteracy costs the country billions of dollars each year in unemployment, welfare, crime, lost industrial productivity, and unrealized tax revenues, according to the U.S. Labor Department. “PBS and ABC are not literacy experts,” says Margot Woodwell, PLUS Project Director for PBS. “But we felt we could have a tremendous impact on the problem if we not only broadcast programs to raise public awareness, but also helped to prepare communities in advance to take advantage of the publicity about illiteracy. That’s been the purpose of our task forces.” “Most Americans would not rank illiteracy as one of this country’s most serious problems. We think that after PLUS programming about illiteracy airs, they will” says John Harr, PLUS Project Director for Capital Cities/ABC. “Capital Cities/ABC has made an extraordinary programming commitment to this issue. We hope that television can bring help to those who don’t have the basic skills to succeed in a society that is growing more and more complex.” Executive producer for “At a Loss for Words: Illiterate in America” is ABC News Vice President Pam Hill. Thomas Lennon is producer and co-director with Pat Cook. Executive producer for “A Chance to Learn” is Tom Skinner, Executive Vice President WQED/Pittsburgh. Barbara Holecek, veteran producer/director for the PBS science series NOVA, is producing the documentary. John Harr, Vice President, Office of Communications, Capital Cities/ABC, and Margot Woodwell, Vicepresident and Station Manager, WQED, are coproject directors for PLUS.

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Racism!

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 core. This explains not only the lack of black managers, but also the reluctance of America’s major corporations to reject the blood profit of apartheid. While we know that the problem is racism, what can be cone about it? One solution is already being acted upon by a number of black managers. They’re joining already established black businesses or they’re starting their own. In this way their expertise is being used to more directly assist black community development while also building their own careers. Those minority managers who choose to remain in corporate America also have a responsibility, however. And our prayer is that they will never forget this truth: either you work to change the system from within or the system will change you.

Franklin Road. Music includes everything from jazz to rock to blues, with Mingo Jones, bass, and Dan Smith, drums, along with vocalist Jimmy Guilford. It happens every Thursday through Sunday, from 8 p.m. to midnight. You can dance to the music of 3-Way Street. CITY TAPROOM Music in the club, 18 S. Pennsylvania St., is from 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, with Carl Hines on keyboard. From Thursday through Saturday thr musicians from around the town, Mainstreen, has music for you to listen to from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. THE COTTON CLUB The all-new Cotton Club, 2816 E. 38th St., has The Chi-Lites Sept. 6. Call Mary, 849-4382 for more information and reservations. THE PLACE TO START The oldest jazz club in Indy, 54th Street at College Avenue, presents jazz the way you like it. They do jazz right! Andrea Perry, piano, and Thomas Whitted, drums, are featured each Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m. Admission is free. Each Thursday Jimmy Coe and special guests play from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. AH musicians are welcome. This week. Sept. 5-6, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., the Johnny “Mr. Vibes” Lytle Quintet, with special guests, are featured. TO ALL MUSICIANS Accomplishment: The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. Activity: It’s one thing to be active in our work for the Lord, and

quite another thing to be effective. Adversity: It’s easy enough to b pleasant when everything goes like song. But the person worthwhile i the person who can smile whe everything goes dead wrong (Fror Pocket Wisdom). Rumors: A rumor is like check—don’t endorse it until yoi are sure it’s genuine. Beware of j half-truth. You may have gotten th wrong half. Michelobi CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 which we do business,” says National Special Events Manager John Lodge. “Through our Michelob superpremium beer brand, the company sponsors the Class Acts concert series with the kind of entertainers that are consistent with our corporate image, and in tune with what people want to see.” The Michelob Class Acts tour has visited 17 cities since June, with national promoters Alan Haymon and John Sdoucos of A-H Enterprises. The tour concludes with a series of concerts in New Orleans, Friday, Sept. 19 at the Seanger Theater; Saturday, Sept. 20 in Dallas at the Convention Center; and Sunday, Sept. 21 in Houston at the Music Hall. Gladys Knight and the Pips will headline those shows. The 1986 Michelob Class Acts finale takes place in Boston on a date to be determined.

Dallas man goes public with story to aid push for literacy project

DALLAS, Tx.Roland Harp qualifies as a profile in courage. He is certainly not alone in what he die to earn that designation. There are others all over America just like him who have done what he had the courage to do. But there are some 23 million other adults in this country today just like Roland Harp who have yet to take that one courageous step that will change the rest of their lives. They must admit they are illiterate and seek help to learn to read and write. Tragedy Can Be Overcome That’s what Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) is all about and clearly, Roland Harp is an example that America’s hidden tragedy can be overcome-if you have the courage to do something about it. Roland Harp lives in Coippell, Texas, a Dallas suburb. He’s got a job that pays a decent wage, a lovely wife, and two fine children. He and his family take vacations to Disney Land, eat out at restaurants, and from all surface indications, are living the good life. Maybe that’s true now, but until just recently, Roland Harp lived in a hell, of lies, fears, shame and disappointment. He couldn’t read and wouldn’t admit it. He told his story publicly for the first time this summer to some 200 Public Information directors from Public Television stations across the country at their annual conference in Dallas. He appears in the PBS documentary “A Chance to Learn,” to air Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. (ET). ‘Living Life In a Box’ Harp was “scared to death” but agreed to tell his story because he is now convinced that “living your life in a box” is no way to live at all. “When you can’t read or write, you are blank, it’s like being locked in a box,” he says. Harp’s failure to learn to read and write as a child was the result of a childhood filled with a broken

home, many moves from town to town, and many schools from which he was often absent because of his mother’s illnesses. “By the time I was in the fith or sixth grade, I knew I couldn’t read so 1 began asking teachers to help me,” he explains. The “help” he got ws to be termed mentally retarded and assigned to special education classes. Through junior high school and the beginning of high school his plea was constant: “I am not mentally retarded. I just can’t read.” The system was not prepared to deal with a 16-year-old boy near graduation who had the problem of being illiterate. Roland Harp gave up and quit school in the eleventh grade. While there, however, he learned that being an athlete tended to get him off the hook academically so he worked hard at football. It is interesting that later, in 1978, he was scouted by the Dallas Cowboys, tried out as a running back, and today probably would be a gridiron star except for one thing: After the successful tryout, he was handed a form to fill out. He stuffed it in his pocket and walked out. It goes without saying that Roland never played for the Dallas Cowboys. What followed his leaving high school was a successoin of menial jobs, always ordering ham and eggs or chicken in restaurants because while a menu was useless to him, he knew they always had those things, and getting lost because he couldn’t read road signs. At 20, his lying and hiding gave him an ulcer. Wife Provides Solid Support He probably wouldn’t be married today if Rose, his wife, was any other kind of woman. When they met they lived in different states and Rose would write letter after letter. Roland confided in at least one friend, who read him Rose’s letters, but Rose always got phone calls instead of written copies. Harp says he feared marriage because that would force him to reveal his shortcomings and “she would think less of me.” He

resisted, she persisted, and became his most solid supporter. Harp is now a respected maintenance man at the Dallas area amusement park, Wet and Wild. He no longer has to fake his way through forms and safety checks, but a year ago lost out on a supervisor’s job because he couldn’t take the test. Today, he’s ready for the next promotion that comes along. Operation LIFT, a Dallas literacy project, was one of the first tentative steps Harp took when he decided there was a better life. While his work schedule and somewhat large classes proved less than ideal for him to achieve, he did, however, now have the motivation. That led him to the one-on-one tutor program offered by the Dallas Public Library and that he credits today as being his salvation. His tutor, King Hopkins, is a retired attorney who volunteers to work with Harp for a couple of hours several days a week, arrang ing the sessions around Roland’s job and other family requirements. He is very proud of his student. “I still have a long way to go,” Harp says. “But can you imagine what it means to be able to drive down a street and read the sides of trucks? Or pump your own gas and be able to know that the red light is flashing for cash or credit? Or finally read a story to your son?" Little things to many of us. A new life for the courageous Roland Harp. EDITOR ’.S' NOTE: Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) is a landmark collaboration between Capital Cities/ABC and PBS to raise awareness of the problem of literacy in America today. Community task forces are forming in communities across the country. ABC aired its documentary Sept. 3 entitled “At a Loss For Words: Illiterate in America. ” The PBS PLUS special. “A Chance to Learn,'’ will be broadcast Wednesday, September 17 at 8 p. m. (check local listings).

Scholar program, summer school are topics of public meetings

The Indiana Dept, of Education will conduct five evening public hearings throughout Indiana on the proposed Advanced Scholar Diploma concept and proposed mandatory summer school program now under consideration by the Board, State Schools Superintendent H. Dean Evans announced

today. Under the Advanced Scholar concept, school corporations would be required to award special diplomas to students who pursue an academically advanced course of study. The proposed rule being considered by the board would allow school corporations to award the advanced scholar diploma to the 1988 graduating class, and would require schools to award the diplomas to qualifying students beginning with the 1990 graduating class. To earn an advanced scholar diploma, students would be required to complete 47 credits, consisting of the following: 10 credits in language arts, which must include literature, speech and composition; 8 credits in mathematics, which must include advanced courses from algebra, including a second year; geometry, including trigonometry; and upper level math, such as probability and statistics, calculus, or advanced unified math; 6 credits in science, which must include 2 credits each of biology, chemistry and physics, or 4 credits in one area and 2 in the other; 6 credits in one foreign language or 4 credits in one and four credits in another; 6 credits in social studies which must include U.S. history or geography, and economics; 2 credits of fine arts; 1 credit of physical education; 1 credit of health; and 5 or 7 elective credits. No grade lower than a “C” can be earned in any courses taken to be eligible for the diploma, and a “Governor’s Seal” would be affixed to the diplomas of those students attaining a “B” or better average. The proposed rule would also require schools to make an appropriate notation on students’ transcripts and would require school officials to inform students and their parents of the availability of the diploma within their school district. Finally, the proposed rule would allow students to transfer to nearby high schools to take courses needed to fulfill the requirements of the advanced scholar diploma if the students’s high school is unable to offer students the required courses.

A student must take all eligible and available courses at his or her local school before a transfer would be considered. Students would be required to provide their own transportation under this transfer provision. Also to be discussed at the hearings will be the proposed mandatory summer school program discussed by Evans and others in recent months. Under the Evans proposal, all students in grades 1 through 11 would be required to attend a 20 day summer session in either June, July or August. The course of study would be individualized to reflect the needs and interests of the students. The Department of Education task force on Learning and Achievement modified Evans’ proposal, calling for mandatory sessions in grades K-8 and making the summer session optional for high school students. The dates and locations of the five public hearings are as follows:

Tuesday, September 9. 1986 Charles Prosser School 4202 Charleston Road New Albany, Indiana47150 Monday, September 15, 1986 Westside Junior High School 4001 Indianapolis Boulevard East Chicago, Indiana 46,312 Wednesday, September 17, 1986 Indianapolis Public Schools Board Room 120 East Walnut Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 Wednesday, September 24, 1986 Fort Wayne Community Schools Lester Grile Administration Center 1230 South Clinton Street Fort W'ayne, Indiana 46802 Monday, September 29, 1986 Evansville-Vanderburgh Schools Board Room 1 SE 9th Street Evansville, Indiana47708 All public hearings will take place from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time.

CAAP accepting registrations for fall morning, evening GED programs

The Community Action Against Poverty (CAAP), in conjunction with the Indianapolis Public Schools Adult Basic Education Division, will offer morning and evening GED programs for the fall semester. Registration is open from Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. Registration sites are: CAAP Central Office, 2445 N. Meridian Street. Northwest Sector office, 1100 West 30th Street; Southeast Sector office, 1728 S. East St., and Northeast Sector office, 3747 N. Emerson St. Classes begin Tuesday, Sept. 2, at the CAAP office, 2445 N. Meridian St. Monday through Thursday, classes will be held from 8:30 a.m. through 11:30 a.m., and from 1 p.m. through 4 p.m. Evening classes will be held from 6 p.m. through 9 p.m., Monday and Wednesday. You may begin at a later date, with approval. This opportunity for high school drop-outs to complete their high school education and prepare realistically for the future is an opportunity to be addressed now. A basic high school diploma or a GED equivalency diploma is a must in today’s society if one plans to get a job, keep a job, advance on a job, or further one’s education. In line with CAAP’s GED program for 1985-1986, nine students received GED certification, with

eleven students ready for testing. For further information, or over-the-phone pre-registration, call Lydia Morrow at 927-5728, or CAAP Receptionist at 927-7(MX) and 927-5722.

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Pointers For Parents

Focusing On Allergies More people miss school from seasonal allergies than from any other single cause, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Based on that statistic, you may be able to im prove your child's grades by knowing what to do when allergies strike.

Students who suffer from hey fever can stay alert in the classroom. A new drug can stop irritating symptoms without bringing on drowsiness.

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