FAMILY LITERACY
Education is not filling a bucket, it is lighting a fire (W B Yeats)
Families are the main context of learning for most people and learning within the family is usually more lasting and influential than any other. Family life provides a foundation and context for all learning (NIACE< 1995).
Research in the USA indicates that providing opportunities for parents and children to learn together directly, tackles the inter-generational effect of under-achievement in literacy.
Our working definition of literacy is a complex web of reading, writing, speaking, listening, problem solving, creative thinking, and numeracy skills. (Ministry of Education, 2001).
Family learning means:
Working with adults with low self-esteem, or more serious problems, for the benefit of the family.
Working with young children to encourage their adults to join in.
