Title
Honoring Marciene Mattleman for her tireless activism on behalf of Philadelphia's educational causes and celebrating her life.
Body
WHEREAS, Marciene was born and raised in the Wynnefield Neighborhood of Philadelphia, where her parents set an early example of charitable conduct. Of them, she said, "They found causes they thought were important. They were not people necessarily who were well-schooled, but they knew what was important in life... I got that sense of giving back." Marciene would make it her mission not only to give back, but to make sure all Philadelphians had fair access to an education; and
WHEREAS, Marciene began her educational career as a sixth-grade teacher in Philadelphia before earning a Ph.D. in Education from Temple University, writing her dissertation after putting her children to bed each night. Raising children is a job in and of itself; that Marciene was able to complete her Ph.D. while doing it is a true testament to her tenacity; and
WHEREAS, Marciene taught at Temple for 18 years as a professor of reading and language. Her educational expertise and passion for the community made her a natural fit for the civic sphere, and in 1984, she left the relative security of academia to serve as Executive Director of the Mayor's Commission on Literacy under Mayor Wilson Goode. At the time, it was estimated that over half a million people in Philadelphia were functionally illiterate. Lesser individuals might have let the magnitude of the situation faze them, but Marciene, as she would at so many points over the course of her life, rose to the challenge; and
WHEREAS, Marciene raised over one million dollars for the Commission's work during its first year, and promptly put it to work in organizing tutoring programs that trained volunteers to teach reading skills. By the Fall of 1985, Marciene had helped establish 200 tutoring sites, housed in churches, corporations, and other organizations throughout the City, an astonishingly su...
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