growth or working of social institutions or of international relations. A considerable number of the students in some of the university tutorial classes and other classes, as the figures printed below suggest, are directly engaged in some department or another of public activity. A much larger number, without seeking to hold official positions or to do public work, are interested in study primarily because they wish to understand the history and significance of the social environment in which they find themselves placed. The effect of the war has naturally been to give an impetus to political and social studies. Men desire to grasp the remoter causes of the consequences which afflict them, and to learn if they are removeable. They turn to European history or political science, because the subjects with which these studies deal seem longer distant, but part of their own lives. no 99. No complete record of the voluntary work of adult students has ever been made. The only evidence on this point which we can offer relates to students in university tutorial classes, and only to a small proportion of these. At the end of the session 1917-18 each of the Oxford classes was asked to make a return showing the public work engaged in by the students in connection with Trade Union Branches, Co-operative Societies, Trades and Labour Councils, Adult Schools, and including membership of Local Governing Bodies, and voluntary teaching work. From this return, particulars of which are set out below, it will be seen that of the 303 students who attended the Oxford classes in 1917-18, 195, or 64 per cent., were engaged in some form of public work, and that in many cases the individual student was engaged in several forms of public activity at one and the same time: The following particulars, relating to four other tutorial classes, which happen to be available, are probably not unrepresentative. (Class A served two industrial villages with a joint population of 18,000; Class B was recruited mainly from an Adult School Sub-Union in London; Classes C and D were organized by W.E.A. branches in county boroughs : In illustration of the same point it may be mentioned that the tutor of the above classes had among his present and past students 12 city and borough councillors. 100. Most motives of education are liable to perversion. Technical training is necessary and beneficial: but, unwisely directed, it may sometimes result in a sordid materialism, as an interest in general culture may minister to mere dilettantism, or to a temper of sterile criticism. The social interest which is one of the forces behind adult education has its own dangers. It may lead teachers to present their subjects in a one-sided manner, or students to find in study the opinions which they bring to it. On the other hand these are dangers which are not peculiar to adult education, and which can be avoided, and, on the whole, we think, are avoided, by most of the experiments which have come before us. In itself the desire to use education to strengthen and inform the civic spirit is a worthy one. That men and women should be conscious that they require knowledge to form an enlightened opinion upon public issues is at once evidence of mental receptiveness and the best guarantee of sanity in public life. It will be agreed, we think, that it would be beneficial if that temper were more widely diffused among all classes, and that efforts which promote it deserve encouragement. 101. It is natural that a movement which is partly social in motive should also be marked by a social spirit in its methods and organization. The third feature which has struck us in our survey of adult education is the degree to which its progress depends upon the existence or creation of a habit of co-operation in study and of a temper of corporate loyalty to the class or other institution which is the vehicle of education. There are, of course, exceptions. There are solitary students who carry on work in isolation, or with such encouragement as can be derived from correspondence with a distant teacher. There are numerous courses of lectures which are valuable in stimulating interest, but which are of too short duration, or attended by too miscellaneous an audience, to permit the growth of a corporate spirit. On the whole, however, it would, we think, be true to say that the vitality of the educational movements which we have described depends to a considerable extent upon their fostering a social temper among their members and students. 102. The creation of this temper is, indeed, not the least educative part of the work which such movements perform. It would probably be agreed that the English educational tradition has always emphasized -sometimes, perhaps, over-emphasized the value of the imponderable influences which spring from association in study, and has regarded the discipline of a common intellectual enterprise as a not less valuable part of education than the acquisition of knowledge. That concep tion of education as a co-operative endeavour rather than as the solitary 21818 с venture of the isolated student finds expression both in the organization of most types of adult education, and in the educational methods which are generally adopted by them. It has obviouly inspired the foundation of the Working Men's College in London and of the few residential colleges, like Ruskin College, the Labour College, Woodbrooke Settlement and Fircroft, all of which aim, in different ways, not merely at imparting instruction, but at giving students the benefit of life in an institution with a tradition and atmosphere of its own. The progress of the Summer School movement, again, is due, in great measure, to the opportunity which it offers students of the informal education which comes from sharing in common life. They learn, most, perhaps, when they are least conscious of learning, and not the least valuable element in their comparatively short period of residence is the contact of student with student, and of student with teacher, when the hours of formal study are over. 103. The importance of the part which is played in adult education by the social ideal of which we have just spoken has, as one of its consequences, that it is only in an atmosphere of considerable freedom that adult education flourishes. As our survey shows, there is a wide variation in the degree to which voluntary educational effort makes use of official machinery. At one end there is the group or reading circle which has no connection with any public body: at the other there are classes which are inspected and paid grants by the Board of Education, which are partly supported out of money paid by the Universities, and which are sometimes assisted by Local Education Authorities. This multiplicity of arrangements is characteristic: it represents different stages in the realisation of a common ideal. The fourth fact with which our survey has impressed us is the dependence of adult education upon a very wide scope for initiative and organisation being left both to the students themselves, and to the voluntary bodies which have hitherto done most to promote it. An 104. To say this is not, of course, to ignore the encouragement which has been given to certain types of adult education, both by the Board of Education and by Local Education Authorities. Their assistance has been invaluable, and, as we indicate in later chapters of this Report, we hope that it will be even more widely extended in the future. But it has been effective because it has co-operated with voluntary organisations without superseding them. In the case of adults, as we have pointed out, the impetus to study frequently comes from their previous association with some movement or organisation which has awakened their curiosity and their sympathies. adult school has appealed to their ethical feelings; the co-operative movement has stimulated their consciousness of citizenship; trade unionism has given them a sense of solidarity and opened a vista of social relations extending beyond the range of their individual lives. If they are to feel at home in their studies, and to become active members of an educational body, not mere listeners at a lecture, they must be free to create in it the atmosphere, the moral tone, the spirit which appeals to them, and tc mould it in accordance with their own needs and ideals. Every serious student of education knows how greatly the vitality of an educational institution, such as a school or a university, depends upon its being expressive of some characteristic note, which differentiates it from institutions that in other respects are similar to it, and how, if that note is suppressed, what was formerly a living organism becomes a piece of dead machinery. The preservation of that characteristic note is not incompatible, indeed, with external assistance and criticism, which, on other grounds, are eminently desirable. But it is incompatible with any interference, however well-intentioned, which saps initiative and removes responsibilities. When what is being considered is the educational efforts of grown-up men and women, whose attitude to life is, provisionally at least, defined, it is particularly necessary to avoid the danger of over-systematization. CHAPTER III. STANDARDS AND METHODS IN ADULT EDUCATION. I. INTRODUCTORY. But the 105. No one who weighs the evidence summarised in our preceding chapter will doubt, we think, that there exists a genuine and widespread demand for higher education among adult men and women. But the existence of a demand for education is one thing; the ability and the will to carry on work of genuine educational value are another. Lectures and classes may appeal to a passing curiosity without stimulating a desire for serious and persistent work. Lack of leisure and of previous education may prevent the most enthusiastic from being able to do more than touch the fringe of the subject which he may desire to study. Students may assimilate lectures and text-books, but they may fail to obtain any real insight into the background which lies behind them or into the methods by which knowledge is obtained. They may acquire information without being trained to estimate its value, or to discriminate between what is possible but improbable, what is probable but unproved, and what is certain. Persistent and laborious study may be carried on. pre-occupation of students with the particular questions and subjects. or aspects of the truth which specially appeal to them may militate against the temper of detachment, of patient enquiry, of willingness to pursue an argument to unexpected or unwelcome conclusions, in the absence of which the atmosphere of their work is likely to be propagandist rather than educational. It would, indeed, be pedantic to decry studies which suffer from these shortcomings. Study is the corrective of its own faults; the imperfections of one stage are the foundation for the progress of the next; and, as we shall point out later, there is a constant tendency both for advanced work to lead to the formation of classes of an elementary character, and for such classes to provide, in turn, an increased number of students who are willing to undertake more advanced work. But such progress itself depends upon the maintenance of standards of achievement which offers a goal towards which educational effort can be directed. It is important, therefore, to form an idea of the intellectual standard which adult education may be expected to attain, of some of the educational lessons to be drawn from the experience hitherto obtained, and of the principal weaknesses to which the efforts of those interested in the progress of adult education should be directed. 106. To the question, "What are the intellectual standards attained in adult education? no single answer can be given. The forms which it has assumed are various. University Tutorial Classes, Residential Colleges, University Extension Lectures, one-year classes and reading circles are related to each other as the result of a widespread desire for education among adults, and they assist each other as different methods towards its attainment. But the difference between them is so great as to preclude any generalization which would apply equally to all. In 21818 C 2 order to reach conclusions of any value as to the educational quality of the work carried on in them, it is necessary to examine each of them in some detail. II. UNIVERSITY TUTORIAL CLASSES. 107. The organisation and methods of the University Tutorial Classes are described in Appendix I.1 1 With comparatively few exceptions (many, if not most, of which are explicable by special difficulties, such as illness and overtime), the students in tutorial classes have fulfilled their engagements as to attendance and paper work. But this does not in itself throw light on the standard attained. It proves persistence and continuity of study, but does not reveal the intellectual level which is reached by the students in the course of their work. The enquirer will naturally ask, “Granted that the classes are regularly attended, and that a considerable amount of reading and paper work is carried out by the students, what standard is, in fact, attained? Is the work done in the university tutorial classes similar in conception and method to that done by intra-mural university students? If it is not, in what does the difference consist? " But 108. The estimation of standards is notoriously difficult, and we do not pretend to to be able to answer these questions with precision. A comparison between the work of extra-mural students and intra-mural students is valuable as a reminder that there are intellectual habits and qualities which both can and ought to cultivate a temper and mental attitude that are, in the better sense of the word, academic. it must be used with caution, not because the work of extra-mural students is necessarily inferior, but because the different circumstances in which it is carried on exposes it to different difficulties, and results in both some of its defects and some of its virtues being different from those of the intra-mural student. The range of studies is not the same, since social studies in a broad sense, including history, political science and economics, occupy a much larger place in tutorial classes than in other university work. The tutorial class student has normally had no fulltime secondary education; the undergraduate has had no experience of industry and politics. The former wants knowledge; the latter may want knowledge, but this is not his immediate object. The quality of the work done in tutorial classes varies with the quality of the tutor and the time that he can give to each class, with the care with which the class was organised, the number of books easily available, and the presence or absence of disturbing factors, such as overtime and unemployment. The intra-mural student has his distractions, but they are usually of another kind. The students attending the classes differ more widely from each other in age, in their previous education, and in the opportunities which they have had of learning to express themselves with facility upon paper than is the case with undergraduates. In most classes there are one or two students who, while they derive great benefit from attendance, and make by their influence and personality a valuable contribution, have not had the practice needed to enable them to present their views in any finished literary form. In most classes, again, there are one or two students whose ability would make them conspicuous in any society. Between these extremes lie the great majority of students, who develop greatly, as the class proceeds, in power of reflection, in intellectual detachment and in ability to express themselves with clearness and precision, and who end by attaining a relatively high standard of knowledge and critical power with regard to the particular subject which they are studying. Nothing, indeed, is more striking than the progress which adult students make when once See pp. 190-204. |