One to One with Bill Goodman:
Sharon Darling
premiered February 17, 2008
On this edition of One to One, Bill Goodman talks about adult education and the power of reading to improve lives with Sharon Darling, president and founder of the National Center for Family Literacy in Louisville.
A former elementary school teacher, Darling serves as an adviser on education issues to governors, policymakers, business leaders, and foundations throughout the nation, providing advice and planning strategies for strengthening families through education. Her work has helped shape state and federal policies that address issues such as welfare reform, education reform, and the development of a more skilled workforce.
The NCFL, founded in 1989, provides research, training, and technical assistance to people working in literacy. One of the organization’s primary goals is to promote family literacy: parents and children learning together. Darling describes the dramatic change that takes place in an adult as he or she learns to read and the excitement many parents feel when they gain the ability to help their children learn.
She and Goodman also discuss the state of education in Kentucky and the rest of the country. Kentucky, she says, played an important role in the launch of the national family literacy movement. Darling also talks about the link between education and poverty, the importance of early childhood education, and new challenges facing education due to America’s growing immigrant population.
