Education For Adults

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32322, 13 June 1970, Page 4

Education For Adults

Adult Education in England and Wales. By John Lowe. Michael Joseph. Appendices. Bibliography. 'lndex. New Zealand Adult Education. By David O. W. Hall. Michael Joseph. 200 pp. Appendices, bibliography, index.

Although his survey is not directly relevant to the New Zealand system, Dr Lowe’s book in many ways makes easier reading than Mr Hall’s account of the New Zealand situation. The reason for this lies in the difference of approach between the two writers. Whereas Mr Hall’s book is factual and historical, Dr Lowe sets out to make a critical survey, and the historical origins of adult education do not interest him as much as its present state, which he analyses and discusses with a view to suggesting remedies and improvements.

Dr Lowe’s book will provide valuably provocative matter for discussion among those concerned with adult education in all its aspects. A basic reform which he would like to see is in the title “adult education” itself, and here many people would surely agree with him. The phrase has an unfortunate connotation of condescension, as of the superior educated kindly giving of their time to help the deprived poor. The “education of adults" is a happier, and more relevantly inclusive, phrase. Dr Lowe sees adult education as concerning the whole range of higher education, both vocational and non-voca-tional, inside and outside the universities. Leaving aside the degree education provided by the universities, he cuts through the mass of local and national bodies offering courses and discusses their work in turn according to its kind. His book shows what a very wide range of institutions there are for adult study, and the need for their great co-ordination. Apart from evening institutes, residential colleges, the W.E.A., women’s institutes, industrial training boards, museums, clubs, correspondence education and the role of broadcasting, he does not neglect the public services and other national organisations. His final chapters on the need for research, the training of adult educators, and “the way ahead” are worthwhile reading for anyone interested in education.

Mr Hall’s study, of the growth and development of adult education in New Zealand is one of the first volumes of a new series, “Leeds Studies in Adult Education.” Most of the book is an historical account of the forms of adult education in the country. In this respect the book will be useful to those studying education who have a special interest in the ways institutions become established.

Some apparently significant developments, such as Mr and Mrs H. C. D. Somerset’s establishment of a first community centre at Feilding in 1938, have not proliferated in the valuable ways that might have been expected. People of the calibre of Sir James Shelley, associated with adult education in the 30s, do not appear as well-known public figures today. Adult education has developed far from the time when all it meant was the W.E.AWith the establishment of a National Council for adult education, and the development of University Extension departments, an increasing number and variety of courses are being offered, and

there is no rigid distinction between liberal education and vocational training among the bodies which offer courses.

Mr Hall uses most of his space for establishing the history of the movement, but perhaps his most interesting chapters are his Witty introduction to the New Zealand scene, “The New Zealand Community," and his final brief “Search for a Policy.” Readers of his book must agree that more money needs to be spent on adult education in this country.