ADULT SCHOOL MOVEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15185, 3 July 1911, Page 3

ADULT SCHOOL MOVEMENT

PROGRESS IN ENGLAND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) CHRJSTCHURCII, June 30. Amongst the many organisations in the Old Country which make a special appeal to working men and women is the adult school movement. The working of these schools was explained in an interview by Mr Herbert C'order, of England, who is travelling through New Zealand on a holiday tour. Mr Corder ie president of the Tyne and Wearside Adult Schools' Union, He said that the movement began in 1845 in Birmingham, being started by Mr Joseph Sturgc, a member of the Society of Friends. His object was to get men' together to teach them to read and write, the schools being conducted on Sunday mornings. At the same time the physical, mental, and spiritual sides of life were not neglected. Time has brought some changes in the scheme, but the basic idea remains much the same. It is no longer necessary to teach men and women reading and writng, but the adult schools deal with such subjects as political -economy, domestic economy, and objects of educational and general interest. They are really co-operative, religious, and educational associations, in which there is no sectarian or political partisanship. The schools are intensely democratic, and rich and poor, educated and uneducated, are welcomed to them. There are reading circles, vocal clubs, and debating societies. The whole scheme is kept going by voluntary contributions. The schools have through the contact of rich and poor drawn attention to the housing problems throughout the whole of England. Mr Geo. Cadbury, the fo'under of the first model workmen's village, states that probably there would have been no Bournville village if ho had not been an adult school teacher. The schools had published numerous handbooks dealing with the biggest social problem of the day. Last year under the auspices of the schools 100 English working men paid a visit to Germany, where they stayed for a week in the homes of German'working men. Their visit is to be returned this year. ■ The schools had been ■an enormously powerful agency in the direction of temperance, and they were doing much good work in the'reclaiming of criminals. Members of the schools attended the courts, and frequently tho magistrates handed over the criminals tb them to look after and guide into better paths. Blind and crippled children were entertained, and now cripple guilds were being formed, the idea being that the cripples would visit the homes of the blind and read to : them. There are adult schools in New Zealand —two in Auckland and ono each in Wellington, Dunedin, and Tiniaru. Mr Corder has hopes that one will be started in Christchurch.