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I am one of the millions of Americans looking for a job in this economy. A daunting task, notwithstanding credentials under our belt. In the Internet economy, a new marketplace has been created for job seekers, only less than a decade old. Much of the conversation occurs online through social networking, Email, and career websites. It’s become more practical to have access to PDF conversion software than fancy resume paper. In real life, I have also mobilized my own network to alert me of job possibilities that come their way. Having worked in workforce education and development for years, I consider myself quite adept at the tricks of the trade. However, in this economy, where the competition for ONE job is prodigious, how we play the game, be it real or virtual, has become the function not only of know-how, but intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Support systems have become even more critical. “Don’t Quit” and “Just Do It” are mantras. It is truly the economy of survival of the fittest.

Survival is also the name of the game for many low-skilled, low-wage earners. The downturn economy has proven the disposability of the lowest rung. As I have plugged into news websites about poverty and the unemployed, I read about communities of fear while middle-class America slips down the economic ladder. They have every reason to be afraid. Generations removed from the Great Depression and World War 2, many of them have been so pampered by the American economy that they have very little idea about what long-term unemployment looks like at the end of the road: receiving public assistance (handouts, as they say), be on Medicaid, or be subjected to eviction; the daily realities of being poor in America. But lucky are they who have enough skills to stand up and walk out of scut work once the economy pumps enough financial blood. For many, when this crisis is over, it’s just another nightmare deserving of the yesteryear hall-of-shame. But for the long-term poor, it’s business as usual.

Imagine Maria

She doesn’t know what participatory democracy is. She will receive mail about the Census that will most likely end up at the bottom of a junk mail pile. She lives in public housing in the inner city of a throbbing American city, the magnificence of which she sees but doesn’t really understand. She is one of the 23 million Limited English Proficient Americans. She works in a Nursing Home, in the kitchen, two days a week, as required by public assistance. For three days, she is learning English in a Work-Study program, which unbeknowst to her, is about to fall victim to budget cuts in her city. In her program, she is learning to use the computers and the Internet. The word “Internet” is beginning to register in her mind, although she associates it more with Telemundo punto com, which she hears from TV every night.

Her three children are in public schools, which she has only visited when summoned by the principal’s office. They are all failing schools, another mammoth discussion over education in America, way too high above Maria’s radar. She does know they’re failing; all the parents are up and arms about the issue. She doesn’t know what it is she or they can do. If they closed, they move to another school. Simple.

She has worked, time and again. She has become a nanny, a housecleaner, an environmental service worker at a hospital, a maintenance worker at a subway station–mostly minimum wage jobs that can’t pay for her kids. None of her jobs lasted long enough for sustainability. It’s become a way of life: unemployment, welfare. She wants to work, and who doesn’t in America? She has dreams for her children. As a single mother, she has learned her mistakes, and wants the best for her three kids. Maybe they will all live in a big house someday. The dreams are there, like old engines that coughs smoke and works, if only for a few enchanted hours. She passes on her dreams and reminds her children to finish school so they don’t turn out like she did. But failing schools in America have another plan for them.

In fact, as she sits in her class learning about Civics and self-empowerment, federal and state decisions are being made for her and her children about their future. Unlike many of us who hear about them on CNN or the Newsfeeds online and thus react, Maria’s concerns are the basics of living and survival. There are multiple barriers between her and the system built around her. Tomorrow, she needs to get up early so she can wash dishes in the Nursing Home. The next day, she will find out, her program closed. The rest of us may hear about it in the news. Because we have our own worries in life, we don’t pay much attention. We keep other people’s lives at bay. This is America. The land of opportunities. What are the chances that Maria’s circumstances will come knocking at our doors?

Wake up Call for Compassion

What I hope the downturn economy teaches all of us is compassion.  I do hope that these “communities of fear” turn into “communities of awareness” about our highly neglected neighbors ten blocks down.    I believe in the resilience of the American people amid adversity. One day, soon enough, this economic crisis will be over.   There will be many learning curves for each one of us affected by the crisis.  Let one of them be that we don’t forget to lend a hand to the likes of Maria and others who are left behind. 

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Related Reading: Why the 2010 Census Is So Important For Poor People, Domestic Poverty Controversies: Who is Poor and How We Treat Them,

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In two high profile articles in The New York Times Magazine and Newsweek, the country is reminded once again that not only does K-12 education have collosal challenges, some teachers now have to go.  

He knew how to advise schools to adopt a better curriculum or raise standards or develop better communication channels between teachers and principals. But he realized that he had no clue how to advise schools about their main event: how to teach. (From the New York Times)

K-12 education, with all its highly publicized issues, has become a labyrinth for change agents and policy makers.   So many people have their hands on so many parts, that it has become truly confusing–at least from an observer’s eyes–what the real problems are.   One thing we all know for sure, America’s children are bearing the brunt of all these public confrontations.   Soon enough, when they grow up, we might just know the impact of a population that reads and writes below the level of most of the literate world.   A frightening prospect for a country that prides itself for being “the first world.”  America’s future?  Think again.

I told my mother earlier, that as an educator, I have thought about entering the K-12 profession.  But for a few reasons, I may be too much of an “alien” in their world.   First, I don’t have kids and am not planning to have any.   I personally think that teachers with children get much of their training at home.   Parental patience is a gift that can’t be taught.   Second, I was privately educated–in another country!   The public school system is foreign to me (as I am to them).   In the Philippines, we have both  Elementary and High School in ten years!  Ten!  Four year colleges were still a time for growing up.  I often wonder why American kids have to stay in school that long.   Given the state of many public schools, they must be so discontented they can’t wait to get out.   Since they grow up so fast in this country, their pubertal minds are probably somewhere else.  So much for teaching them Shakespeare when they want to practice his life lessons at sixteen.

Last, and worthy of another paragraph, I have spent most of my working life in Adult Education.   Yes, with Adults.

Adult Learners are Their Parents

The four years I taught in the welfare system of New York made me look at the K-12 issues directly by staring at the eyes of the parents responsible for these kids.   Many of my students were too caught in the systemic traps of poverty to pay attention to the educational values that America has cherished for decades.   Many of them were single mothers who were on the constantly revolving doors of unemployment and welfare programs.   Their literacy issues might be familiar to a K-12 teacher who deal with them every day, except they’re not children.  And if we connect one dot to another, we might ask ourselves, what happens when the children go home to these parents?   What does education mean to those who don’t understand it, or worse, don’t value it in life?

The biggest irony of all is this:  for the past years, my students have been younger.   Adult literacy programs have become the repository for those who drop out of high school.    And because of the lack of supportive environment, many of them are having children, too.

So goes the cycle.  

Considering the many employment opportunities in K-12, I have decided to stay in Adult Literacy Education.   It may be tough to find a job in my underfunded field right now, but I am a believer in families, in strong families.   The problems we see around us did not emerge from the streets.  Children just don’t suddenly learn to pick up guns and start shooting each other.   They don’t just start using the N word because they think it’s cool.  They just don’t get disconnected from the lessons in American history.  In so many ways,  it all began at home. 

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Inspiration for { WS★}

One of last year’s highlights was meeting Bill Drayton, Founder and CEO of Ashoka, an organization that promotes the citizen sector as change agents with innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social problems.    Drayton was a trailblazer in social entrepreneurship (a term he coined himself).    Because of him, it has become much easier to find change agents all across the globe, people whose dreams to solve social issues are bigger than themselves.   I personally crave to know more about these people, about how they began and what they have accomplished.   Their stories are my inspiration. 

I find much in common with Bill Drayton’s citizen sector.  I don’t ever remember a time when I was not a community activist.   I founded organizations after college, although relatively inexperienced and naive.  At the time, the impetus was passion for social justice and nothing else.   While I am still the same person with same passion, I feel more equipped with many years of practice and education in my toolbelt.    Fast forward to now: the world has also become more perilous, with the added weight of environmental threat.  America is not the same country of dreams that I saw when I immigrated as a teen.  The first buildings that my father took me to visit in Manhattan, the twin towers, are no longer there, a sign of the changing global political tide. Social problems have become more complicated and complex.   As I plot my next voyage in life, I am faced with many choices between the realms of relative simplicity and safety and of risk and battles from which social change springs.   A couple of years ago, I made a choice.   This year, I keep a promise and move forward.

The Social Enterprise

By going online with { We Speak America }, I make a commitment to myself and to a social cause.   Since I am creating an internet-based organization, it makes sense to be online from the outset.  I know what it looks like on paper, having written two research studies and a business plan around the idea at Harvard.   I also chose a social enterprise as an organization model, because I believe there are many successful business principles that can be used to become a self-sustaining organization.    As we have seen in the Nobelist Muhammad Yunus’ work on microfinance, there are also a lot of opportunities in emerging markets. In his own words:

The impact of the business on people or environment, rather the amount of profit made in a given period measures the success of social business. Sustainability of the company indicates that it is running as a business. The objective of the company is to achieve social goal/s.

The Next Steps

There is a long task list ahead.   This includes identifying ONE target community, mapping low-wage jobs, facilitating community needs and skills assessment, designing curriculum around those needs, and turning the curriculum into online learning platforms.   I won’t be surprised if one of these days, I find myself in Nevada.  The state of Nevada has the 3rd fastest growing LEP population in the country.   It also has the highest unemployment rate.   I have decided at this point it will be more effective to start from the ground level (as opposed to partnering with established adult literacy organizations to pilot a program) and develop a prototype that clearly follows the business plan, including at its core, community organizing.  This way, I will have a clear understanding of what it will take to put a pilot together.  There are also many challenges ahead.  I have imagine what the obstacles might be, but I am also sure there will be many surprises. 

Thank you for visiting { WS★}.   The website will continue to improve and expand in the next few weeks. Thanks again to  many of you who have encouraged me along the way. 

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Related Reading:  U.S. World Report on Bill Drayton,  Ashoka’s Stories of Change, Harvard Business School’s papers on Social Enterprise and Non-profits, From Kellogg’s conference A Transformational Approach, Columbia U’s RISE, Muhammad Yunus,

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