Illiteracy is intergenerational and is correlated with poverty. Especially significant is the effect of the mother's education level on children's academic achievement. A number of recent initiatives are emphasizing the role of parents as reading boosters. However, this approach fuels the debate between those who view literacy as skill development for productivity versus those who see literacy as a means of empowering individuals. A meeting held in San Diego in 1988 highlighted another debate--between researchers who believe that not enough is yet known about strategies that work in remediating intergenerational literacy and practitioners who have had some success in educating parents to educate their children. (Addresses and telephone numbers for nine sources on intergenerational illiteracy issues are listed. Research in the area of parents as reading boosters is described. Brief descriptions of four programs--Parent and Child Education in Kentucky, a Boston storefront program, the Parent-Reader Workshops at New York City Technical College in Brooklyn, and New Chance, a pilot project at six sites--are included. A bar graph depicts the impact of parental reading habits on the frequency of children reading for pleasure.) (CML)