17 review for Laboring to Learn: Women's Literacy and Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era

1. 

   5 out of 5

   Paula – Oct 14, 2008

   Another call-to-action book, this time focusing on the impact of poverty on women's education, with particular emphasis on women who dropped out of high school but want to pass the GRE. Rivera spent ten years interviewing and working with women involved with Project Hope, a Catholic organization outside of Boston which assists mainly (but not exclusively) homeless women with shelter, education, and other basic needs that otherwise they cannot fulfill themselves. Another piece of Rivera's argumen Another call-to-action book, this time focusing on the impact of poverty on women's education, with particular emphasis on women who dropped out of high school but want to pass the GRE. Rivera spent ten years interviewing and working with women involved with Project Hope, a Catholic organization outside of Boston which assists mainly (but not exclusively) homeless women with shelter, education, and other basic needs that otherwise they cannot fulfill themselves. Another piece of Rivera's argument is to show how reforms in welfare over the last decade have forced women to drop out of educational programs and try to find employment instead; this, in turn, leads women on a downward spiral that forces them back into the poverty from which they want to escape because they are unable to develop basic skills necessary to keep those jobs that they're supposed to find. Literacy is being ignored, and women who come from families that also are illiterate cannot achieve the goals they try to set for themselves, leading to depression, abuse, and other desperate situations from which they cannot escape. The author herself comes from an immigrant family that was on welfare, but she managed to receive a college education and make a respectable living for herself because her basic needs from childhood (i.e., before welfare changes from the last ten years) were met. She sympathizes with the women she interviewed and challenges readers to reconsider what they've been taught about the welfare system so as to petition local governments and encourage them to go back to reinforcing the importance of literacy and education as a basic human right.

2. 

   5 out of 5

   Janet –

3. 

   4 out of 5

   Kate –

4. 

   4 out of 5

   Tyler Ciokiewicz –

5. 

   4 out of 5

   Kathy –

6. 

   4 out of 5

   Carrie –

7. 

   5 out of 5

   Lynne –

8. 

   5 out of 5

   Anne –

9. 

   5 out of 5

   victoria lowerson –

10. 

    4 out of 5

    Alexis –

11. 

    5 out of 5

    Asia –

12. 

    5 out of 5

    Nikunjshukla –

13. 

    5 out of 5

    Shannon –

14. 

    4 out of 5

    Aimee –

15. 

    5 out of 5

    Molly Mccracken –

16. 

    5 out of 5

    Lauren Blackman –

17. 

    5 out of 5

    Claire –