Adult Education in 1920s: Progress Through Conflict

Adult Education in 1920s: Progress Through Conflict

Sean C. Rodgers

Ball State University

EDAC 631 Adult and Community Education

September 14, 2014

Sean commented on Ross Reynolds (Group1) and Vince Stults (Group 4) Projects

Introduction

The decade of the 1920s was a time of great changes in the United States. It was a period that would begin with a new president, Warren G. Harding, declaring a return to 'normalcy' and end with the Wall Street stock market crash (Wright 2004, p.287). The United States had moved from a country that initially took a neutral approach in World War I to a country that was now playing a major role on the world stage. Coming off the heels of the “Great War”, the 1920s were to be a time of healing, a time of reconciliation and a time of national focus, if you will; the age of internationalism was waning (Schugurensky, 2014). The decade would appropriately be called the Roaring Twenties. This term was used to describe the major cultural movements of the time. The twenties would be defined with the flapper women, Art Deco architecture, and jazz music. The twenties would also be a time when technology would begin to permeate through the lives of people. United State citizens would enjoy the increased availability of electricity, automobiles, telephones, radio broadcasts, and movies. The twenties would see the advent of popular culture with movie stars and sports athletes considered national figures for the first time. The decade would be ushered in with women receiving the right to vote and alcohol sales being banned with Prohibition. This decade that would be marked by the beginnings of consumerism would end with the beginning of the Great Depression (America's Best History, 2014).

Highlights

The area of adult education would see many changes in the decade of the 1920s. Both societal and corporate factors would emerge which would stress the importance of reconsidering adult education. Adult education in the 1920s was a movement that would be influenced by an odd combination with corporate industrialists on one side and labor leaders on the other. But both sides wished to take the concept of education out of the realm of the traditional school, and both sides saw the importance of including the adults in their plans. Although, there are other factors that influenced adult education during this time, this report will concentrate on the changes in adult education as a result of organizational institution influences.

Influential Factors

One of the most influential factors for the rise of adult education reformation was the dissatisfaction with current educational system. The public school system was going through a major growth period and many changes. These changes included the rise of the idea of compulsory education and a greater number of students entering into the educational sphere. The Progressive movement of the early 1920s also was influencing the curriculum and how it was being taught. (Schugurensky, 2014). Another factor was The United States was now an international nation. It was an international nation due to the number of immigrants now entering the country, and it was an international nation due to its new importance on the world stage. Both factors resulted in the need for the populace of the United States to look towards adult education, either in teaching English to the new citizens, or teaching skills appropriate to the emerging, booming economy.

One major critic of the school system at the time was Henry Pritchett who was against what he saw as an over-expansion and ever increasing bureaucracy and expense of the school system. Pritchett also happen to be the President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which was a subsidy of the Carnegie Corporation. Pritchett felt that the public education system had become over organized, superficial, and unable to teach children what they needed to know to become effective American citizens. Pritchett held disdain for the trends in the teacher pupil relationship and curriculum, especially the movement towards more vocational training in high schools. Schools, Pritchett felt, had taken on too many functions, calling them all "education.” (Rose, 1989)

Pritchett's proposal was that there should be a total upending and restructuring of the educational system. There was an obvious problem though, what to do with all the adults who had already come through the inadequate school system. How could Pritchett truly change the culture if there existed so many citizens who now had gaps in their knowledge and abilities? The answer was to concentrate on three areas that would bring aid in filling in those gaps: the arts, local community projects, and adult education. Adult education in particular, was seen as a corrective for the current educational system. Pritchett hoped then that the adults would then incorporate changes for their schoolchildren.

It would be Pritchett's successor, Dr. Fredrick Keppel who initiates most of the Pritchett's ideas. In 1926, the Keppel would aid in establishing the American Association of Adult Education (A.A.A.E.). The A.A.A.E. was the first organization to give structure and visibility to adult education as a national movement. The A.A.A.E. held annual national conferences, printed publications, and conducted research all involving and concerning adult education. Many of chief participants were leaders in American education and philosophy but not considered experts, as adult education was still an emerging field. (Hiemstra, 1995).

The A.A.A.E. adopted the ideology of progressive education and the understanding that education was a lifelong experience and took place under many different circumstances. The first step would be to identify those aspects of life's experiences which were indeed educative. Second would be to decide what methods worked best in encouraging such learning. The third would be to encourage more experimentation and the development of model projects. This type of teaching an learning style would identify educational experiences that are not encompassed inside traditional school. Individuals would be more in control over their own learning.

The year 1921, saw the emergence of another influential and important movement in adult education with the emergence of Workers’ Education Bureau (WEB) and Brookwood Labor College. This movement saw the unionized labor force in the United States stressing the importance of training, development, and preparation of current and future laborers. This influence of labor and the differences between the camps, would spur interest and growth for the adult education movement.

The WEB was organized to assist labor colleges and training centers involved with American labor as well as sharing information throughout it infrastructure. The WEB desribe their mission as “to collect and to disseminate information relative to efforts at education on any part of organized labor; to co-ordinate and assist in every possible manner the educational work now carried on by the organized workers; and to stimulate the creation of additional enterprises in labor education throughout the United States. WEB received financial, political, and consultative support from American Federation of Labor (AFL) leaders and quickly the AFL would establish themselves as a major influence within the organization. The AFL was a very conservative organization at the time, and their leaders pressured the WEB in withdrawinghe support from left-wing and progressive labor colleges.

Brookwood College would follow another path. Originally, the college, called Brookwood School, was the idea of clergyman, William Mann Fincke, who founded it as a tuition free college for young, working class, teenage men. Fincke hoped to promote his idea on nonviolence and social justice, while also educating the local community. Fincke soon realized that the costs of running such an institution was immense, and in 1921 he turn the school over to trade union activists, and Brookwood Labor College was borne. Brookwood was founded with four principles. "First, that a new social order is needed and is coming—in fact, that it is already on the way. Second, that education will not only hasten its coming, but will reduce to a minimum and perhaps do away entirely with a resort to violent methods. Third, workers are the ones who will usher in this new order. Fourth, that there is immediate need for a workers' college with a broad curriculum, located amid healthy country surroundings, where the students can completely apply themselves to the task at hand.” (Bloom, 1989). Although, it did not grant any degrees, Brookwood offered a two-year program in the social sciences and labor organization. The school would also introduce the concept of correspondence courses. The organization promoted pacifism and courses emphasized the importance of world peace and developing harmonious relations between labor and management. Brookwood's curriculum also followed the teachings of the Worker's Education movement, which advocated labor unionization.

Brookwood Labor College managed to grow in prominence under the direction of A. J. Muste, chairman of the faculty. Muste thought his that the direction that Brookwood was taking was distinctive and not the same as the A.A.A.E. Muste even stated that the A.A.A.E.'s point of view is not the same as ours. Even though there was a good amount of cross-over and common ground between adult education and worker education, Muste, and other worker educators, viewed anything that was endorsed with the Carnegie name to not be trusted. There was also a fear that the emergence of the adult education movement would replace work education, and thus displace all work educators. From its founding, the hope of the Brookwood would be to garner funding from labor unions advocating that their graduates would be the ones who would be someday joining those unions. Although the school had a close association with these labor groups, Brookwood officials would work diligently to maintain its independence, especially when it came to politics. This political independence actually angered the AFL, who felt the organization should be more aligned with their agenda. The AFL would also make occasional public attacks on Brookwood. Brookwood did have instructors that were members of the American Socialists and American Communists parties, but there were other instructors could not be considered radical. Brookwood would struggle through the Great Depression, but Muste would eventually resign, and the school was not open long after that with closure occurring in 1937. (Bloom, 1989).

Another institution arising at this time was The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers (BMSSWW). The ideas of this program was to broaden minds within the work force by providing an extensive eight week program held over the summer. The 1921 Statement described the program's objective as offering "young women of character and ability a fuller education in order that they may widen their influence in the industrial world. . . and increase the usefulness of their own lives." (Heller, 1989). In 1926, the program would admit black student into the program. The program's initial educate women for the sake of education met originally with disdain from labor unions who saw that as pointless. The BMSSWW changed its tone to appease the unions, but not its program. The influence of the program would be widely felt as it would educate around 1,700 blue collar students, 90 faculty, and approximately 100 teaching assistants and tutors who would benefit with Roosevelt's New Deal program and the emergence of women in the work force.  

Implications

The implications of the adult education movement in the 1920's were the reality that adult education was a necessary and important part for the future of the United States. The 1920s saw an emerging economy in the United States which would mean the need for a more educated work force. Both industry leaders and labor leaders saw the importance of educating adults to fill in the workforce gaps. The AAAE, the AFL and WEB and the BMSSWW may look like nothing more than alphabet soup, but it was in this soup that real change in adult education took place. Although, they had differing philosophies on the matter, and were even distrustful of one another, their influence on adult education was important and can still be felt today with corporate training programs, vocational training programs, and within the adult education arena.

References

America's Best History. (2014). US History Timeline 1920-1929. Retrieved September 11, 2014 from http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1920.html

Bloom, Jonathan D. (1989). Workers Education and Adult Education. Retrieved Septmeber 12, 2014 from http://www-distance.syr.edu/bloom.html

Heller, Rita R. The Women of Summer:the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women, 1921-1938.  Retrieved Sepetember 14, 2014 from http://www-distance.syr.edu/heller.html 


Hiemstra, Roger. (1995). An Annotated Chronology Of Landmarks In The History And Development  Of Adult Education With Particular Reference To The U.S.A. Retrieved September 11, 2014  from http://www-distance.syr.edu/historychron.htm
 
Rose, Amy. (1989). Challenging the System: the Adult Education Movement and the Educational  Bureaucracy of the 1920s. Retrieved September 12, 2014 from http://www- distance.syr.edu/rose.html 
Schugurensky, Daniel. (2014). History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century   
 Retrieved September 11, 2014 from  http://schugurensky.faculty.asu.edu/moments/1920lintner.html

Wright, John W. (Ed.). (2004). The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge. New York: St. Martin's Press.

AREAS	SUMMARY
Social Background	1920s, the United States emerging from World War I as a major power, industrial philanthropy, Progressive Movement, Organized Labor Movements, women rights
Highlights	Adult education is progressed by a strange combination of industrialists and organized labor.
Influential Factors	Dissatisfaction with the current education system. The importance of lifelong learning. Training a labor force with skills to maintain their jobs. The A.A.A.E, the AFL and WEB and the BMSSWW.
Implications	Adult education seen as necessary for the nation to progress economically and socially.