ADULT EDUCATION

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 46, 23 August 1926, Page 9

ADULT EDUCATION

A MINE OF INFORMATION.

The attempt to develop all the latest talent of all the people is very recent. Even in the most advanced countries a span of two generations would carry us back to the time when education was considered the privilege of the few. During the past half-century there has been developing among progressive peoples the spirit that is prepared to pay the price that the education of the young demands. In this country, with its primary system of education (free, secular, and compulsory), with its secondary education open to any child of even average ability, and with the doors of the university thrown, perhaps, more widely open than is desirable in the interests of the community and some students, we are beginning to realise what the education of the next generation implies. But this advance has brought with it a grievous evil; it has made very many imagine that education is necessarily connected with the schools and university, that it is merely the accompaniment of a stage of life, and that all that is desirable is that we should push through thu stage as rapidly as possible. The great educationists have never accepted this view; they have always realised that education is but an aspect of life at all its stages. All that the school can do for any one is to send him out into the world eager for knowledge, with a high respect for truth, and with well-developed powers for undertaking the task of learning from experience.

With the adoption of manhood suffrage it was widely felt that it was necessary to "educate our masters." This: lias been attempted through the primary and secondary school. It has largely failed because this is the beginning, not the end. of the task. Modern social communities cannot be governed on the knowledge acquired at school; men must learn this lesson in the realities of life. Hence, it is that all over the world to-day there is a strong movement in favour of adult education. The child has been the centre of the educational problem for the past half-century, but the indications are that the adult will occupy this position in the period on which we are now entering. Not that less attention will be paid to the children, but that we shall realise that only in an educated and disciplined community can real education be given to children.

For some years past the World Association for Adult Education has been issuing important bulletins on adult education in different lands, and now, under the auspices of the British Institute of Adult Education, is published " The Handbook and Directory of Adult Education," compiled by a committee of which Dr. Yeaxlee was chairman. As the preface informs us, "This book is meant for those who want to know more about the main facts relating to adult education in England. Twenty years ago the term would have had neither meaning nor interest for ninety-nine' people out of a hundred. Today the general reader is frequently faced in newspapers and books with news of the movement in one or other of its forms, or reference to its significance for social, political, industrial, and international developments." . When one considers the space available (less than 200 pages) and that the venture is a new one, it is indeed remarkable how much information is included in this book. The handbook falls into three parts. Part I. is brief, and includes short , articles by Dr. Yeaxlee 011 "What is Adult Education?" and "The Recent Growth of Adult Education," and a statement of the main forms of adult education. Part 11. forms the body of the work, and contains a summary of information in regard to the many diverse organisations that are interested in adult education in England. Anyone who wishes to know what any university is doing in regard to this aspect of education will find the information here. Do you want to know who are the officers of the British Institute of Adult Education? Are you anxious to discover the functions of the Central Joint Advisory Committee of Tutorial Classes? Are you interested in the libraries, bursaries, and scholarships that are open to adult students? Do you want to know the organisations that deal with prison education and the general result of their work? The details of these and many other subjects are to be found in the pages of this handbook. Over fifty voluntary societies engaged in some aspect of adult education are listed. This section is a mine of information.

Part 111. is a geographical survey of activities in the field of non-vocational education. There is an appendix giving the statutory rules and orders dealing with adult education. The volume has a useful index.

The volume is a credit to the committee which produced it; it should be on the shelves o£ all libraries, and in tho hands of all those who are interested in adult education of a non-vocational type.