I heard Rush Limbaugh talking about this Associated Press article the other day and just came across it. It turns out that an increasing number of refugees are not literate in their own language so teaching these adults English requires that ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers begin with kindergarten teaching materials and techniques.
Before Bob Jansen [Missouri ESL teacher] can teach English to the adult immigrants in his lowest-level class, he has to show about a quarter of them how to hold a pencil.
This same problem was reported to us in a meeting with Congressman Roscoe Bartlett here in Hagerstown, MD, when an ESL teacher reported having to purchase kindergarten level supplies not available in her junior college classroom.