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May 22-28, 2003 loose canon JoAnn Weinberger: Literacy CheerleaderAsked how she’d describe her life’s work, JoAnn Weinberger struggles to come up with a catchy phrase. "Education advocate" is bureaucratically correct, but misses the mark. "Cheerleader for literacy?" With a giggle that deepens into a belly laugh, Weinberger approves of this moniker to describe her unflagging enthusiasm for her mission. A mission that some would call impossible. Weinberger is speaking on the phone from Philadelphia's Center for Literacy in West Philly, the nation's largest nonprofit that teaches adults to read. The Center's mission is daunting indeed. About half of all adult Philadelphians, half a million, estimates Weinberger, need to better their reading or computational skills to be effective in their lives or livelihoods. Of all the impediments to a functioning democracy, illiteracy is among the most devastating -- now and for the future. Citizens who don't read generally don't vote, says Weinberger, and that denies them a voice. And parents who cannot read tend to pass on their illiteracy to their children. For Weinberger, literacy is intergenerational. Reading is a skill but it's first and possibly foremost a family tradition, passed from parent to child. When that line is broken, it is difficult for youngsters to learn, which further enlarges the cycle of ignorance, putting both our democracy and our economy at peril, says Weinberger. Weinberger is a cheerleader in a game where the field is tilted, and the goal posts keep receding. Television and other technologies may mask the need to read, but that need keeps growing. The Center, now 35 years old, has more than 4,000 learners (as they are called) who are tutored in 120 locations throughout the city. In the same way that children might learn to read from a parent, much of the Center's teaching is one-on-one tutoring. My wife was once a tutor for the Center. It is eye-opening, fulfilling and deeply humbling work. And often slow-going. Going slow is hard for Weinberger. She describes her professional life as frenetic. "My entire day is shifting gears. My day, my week, my month, my year my life is spent shifting gears," she says, adding, "I love it." Still, admits Weinberger, the best advice she recently got came from someone at work. It "came from a staff member -- who told me to be patient." A tough task for a cheerleader for literacy -- a game that Weinberger admits is unlikely ever to be won. Hear what Weinberger says about literacy in a post-literate world: http://s chimmel.com/weinberger_joann.mp3. 
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