Edited by C. Hartley Grattan

Adult education in America was built on a premise that

“man is a creature who can be improved if he makes the effort and

receives the proper and requisite encouragement and assistance.”

(p. 8)

Primary emphasis on classic values:

ReligionMoralsSpiritualitySecular Knowledge

Secondary attention to:

Improved EconomicsStandards for American Success

“Money Income” and“Property Holdings”

Cotton MatherPuritan

Authored Essays to Do Good

Proposed formation of neighborhood discussion groups

Offered group members points of consideration

Point #6 – “ Can any further methods be devised that ignorance and wickedness may be chased from our people in general . . . “ (p. 17)

Benjamin FranklinFounding Father

Self-cultivation through private reading and study

Established the weekly JUNTO meetings

Topics and debates surrounded Morals, Politics and Natural Philosophy

Members presented their own essays and engaged in “clubbing” their books to a common library for their collective benefit

Established a charter of libraries, “the mother of all the North American subscription libraries “ (p. 19)

Timothy ClaxtonEnglish Mechanic

Conceived and formed The Boston Mechanics’ Institution

A society “to which a mechanic could resort, and hear lectures on subjects calculated to aid him in his vocation.” (p.21)

Initially successful, but lost membership to similar societies that sprung up to adopt similar measures

Eventually revamped and bolstered by financial resources to strengthen “this intellectual and moral machinery” established “in the capital of New England” (p.24)

Josiah HolbrookYale Graduate, Lecturer to Adults in Geology

Established Town Lyceums to diffuse useful knowledge

Voluntary associations of individuals to develop specific local interests through meetings and other exercises

Dual purpose of improving average citizens and teachers

Goals were intertwined with improving district schools; momentum shifted towards development of public schools

Advantage #2 – provide young people with “books, apparatus, minerals, plants and other objects calculated to acquaint them with the works and the laws of their Creator” (p. 30)

John Lowell, Jr.Boston Merchant

Established benefaction for the Lowell Institute

Promoted lectures for moral and intellectual improvement

Deeply committed to the Christian faith and insisted that Christianity be a primary lecture topic

Other lecture topics included Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Geology, Literature and Language

Direction #2 – “. . . infidel opinions appear to me injurious to society and easily to insinuate themselves into a man’s dissertations on any subject . . . “ (p.39)

Edward Everett & George TicknorDistinguished Bostonians

Conceived of and collaborated in the management of the Boston Public Library

Believed public libraries were the natural follow on to public schooling

Everett, in making his case to the Mayor of Boston:

“ . . . those whose means do not allow them to purchase books are too often debarred from them at the moment when they would be most useful.“ (p.44)

Peter CooperInventor and Philanthropist

Founded The Cooper Union

Institution for higher education devoted to Advancement of Science and Art

Free to the working classes, admitted women and all races;today all students are admitted on full scholarship

“ . . . neither my own religious opinions, nor the religious opinions of any sect or party whatever, shall ever be made a test or requirement, in any manner or form, of or for admission to . . . the benefits of this institution.“ (p.56)

John H. VincentMethodist Bishop

Founder of the Chautauqua movement

Started as a residential summer instructional for Sunday-school teachers, the Chautauqua Assembly

Believed that the true basis for education was religious, but that secular knowledge would be useful to anyone who chose to participate in a variety of subjects –Science, Literature, Art, History, Languages

A popular, national program for reading, delivered by mail, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle

John H. VincentMethodist Bishop

Proposition #4 –

“While the training of the schools may discipline the juvenile mind and thus give it an advantage as its powers mature, the discipline of everyday life, in solving problems of existence, support, and business, gives a certain advantage to the so-called uneducated mind during the middle period of life.“ (p. 73)

William Rainey HarperFounder, University of Chicago

Disadvantages of education by correspondence – lacks personal magnetism, lacks a class spirit, lacks the valuable unconscious furnishing of information, temptation for dishonesty, interruptions in student work

Advantages of education by correspondence – the habit of exact statement, working at a slower, more thoughtful pace, available to those who cannot attended oral classes

“The correspondence system would not, if it could, supplant oral instruction, or be regarded as its substitute. There is a field for each which the other cannot fill. Let each do its proper work.” (p. 82)

Thomas DavidsonScotsman, Private Teacher and Lecturer New York City

Authored The Education of Wage Earners

Believed intelligent citizenship is demanded of everyone living in a democracy; promoted the idea of a “People’s” or “Breadwinners” University following common school

Consist of two parts: A College for Culture, and A Polytechnic Institute for Professional Training

“The higher education in this country is not given under such circumstances that all can take advantage of it. . . . What the breadwinners need is evening colleges and evening polytechneums.“ (p. 99)

ASEUTTen Years Report of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching

For 26 years, this independent organization partially subsidized and managed the courses and service of University Extension for desirous adults who were unable to attend a university

England - Oxford and Cambridge facilities American – Harvard and University of Pennsylvania

An average 18,000 adults attended courses per year (p. 108); The growth of libraries, library use, demand for travelling libraries and higher standards for public lectures (p. 110)

Lester F. WardFirst President, American Sociological Society

Knowledge belongs to a social estate All men are natural heirs to the estate of knowledge and

past achievements Knowledge will always be increasing Society’s duty to see that knowledge is assimilated by

more than a small fraction of its members

“A large part of the war and bloodshed in the world is over matters that are already settled and may have been long settled, but only in the minds of a select number who have no means of placing the rest in possession of the truth, which they possess.” (p.113)

Smith-Lever Act of 1914Smith-Hughes Act of 1917

Nationalized vocational training specific to agriculture, industry and the trades through grants to the states

For those who respond better to learning by doing For education aimed at utility to take a dignified place

by the side of education for culture Connect education with life by making it purposeful Train vocational teachers and supplement their salaries

“Vocational education . . . is needed as a wise business investment for this nation, because our National prosperity and happiness are at stake, and our position in the markets of the world cannot otherwise be maintained.” (p. 117)

Alexander MeiklejohnEducator; President, Amherst College; Dean, Brown University

A proponent of democratic ideals and a liberal education, he called for the ‘return to the book’ at that year’s annual American Library Association (ALA) conference

“I want to see every agency . . . in America at work for the education of our older people. We want the workmen educated. We want parents educated. We want everybody educated. Everything that can be done in America for the education of our people must be done. And those who are in charge of the books seem to me to be at the strategic point.” (p.128)

Note: ALA’s Board on Library and Adult Education est. 1926

American Association for Adult Education (1925)“. . . to promote the development and improvement of adult education in the United States . . . . (p. 137)

President’s Commission on Higher Education (1947)Colleges and universities are best equipped to continue the education of the adult population due to their resources

Programs “. . . must be fitted in content, methods, and aims to the adult student as he is, not as the college or the professor thinks he should be.” (p. 132)

Adult Education Association of the U.S.A. (1951)“. . . to further the concept of education as a process continuing throughout life . . . “ (p. 138)

Oral Book Report by Doreen D’Amico

University of South Florida

ADE 6966 Final Master’s Seminar

Fall 2013

References