Giant Classroom

One Friday night in 1727, a group of prominent citizens met in Philadelphia for a high-minded purpose. They wanted to form a club for "mutual improvement," and, as Ben Franklin tells it. decided to meet once a week to discuss "queries on any point of morals, politics, or natural philosophy." In a sense, Ben Franklin's group anticipated what has now become a national craze--the wholesale rush of Americans into adult education.

This week some 1,500 educators, editors, politicians and poets gathered in Chicago from all over the U.S. to talk about that craze. But no matter how many panels they held, they all knew that they could never even begin to cover their subject. The fact is, reported the Adult Education Association: more than 49.5 million adult Americans are now taking some sort of educational course.

Place of Resort. Though the big boom is recent. Americans have always been self-improvers. In the 1830s they flocked to Lyceums; later, they went to the Chautauqua: still later, they attacked the five-foot shelf. Meanwhile, the professional educators took on the adult population themselves. In 1890 President-elect William Rainey Harper of the University of Chicago proclaimed it the duty of every university to "provide instruction for those who, for social or economic reasons, cannot attend its classrooms." In 1904, the New York City Department of Education declared the school to be not only "a nursery for children." but also a "place of intelligent resort for men." By 1926 the American Association for Adult Education was born; 15 million adults were engaged in the pursuit of learning.

All in all, adult education has come a long way from the days when its primary concerns were to teach immigrants to speak English and illiterates to read. The Association of University Evening Colleges now boasts 102 members. Columbia University's School of General Studies has a first-rate liberal-arts faculty of its own; and the University of Chicago's University College, where housewives and businessmen can start studying Aristotle's Poetics at 7 in the morning, is growing at a faster rate (7% in one year) than the undergraduate college. But if adult education has changed the function of the university, it has also changed the face of the community.

Cicero & Ceramics. The nation's new schoolmasters range from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Extension Service, which reaches 8,000,000 students, to the Y.M.C.A. with 70,000, to I.B.M. with 16,000, and to the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union with 12,700. More than 15 million adult Americans are attending Sunday schools or classes under the auspices of various church groups, nearly 2,000,000 are taking courses from various U.S. libraries, and an estimated 5,000,000 are going to school via TV. At the same time, the foundations are stirring up the field as never before. In 1952-53 the Ford-sponsored Fund for Adult Education spent more than $9,000,000 on every sort of project from the American Library Association's American Heritage Program to promote the study of basic American documents (6,917 students) to the Great Books Foundation's seminars (21,000). In 1954, indeed, the U.S. has become one giant classroom. Among other adult education programs:

P: In Texas, a special regional program administered by Texas Technological College in Lubbock has spread throughout twelve towns. In Pampa last year, a physician handled the seminar on the Great Books; a bottling-plant owner now heads the discussion group on world affairs. In Panhandle, an auto dealer took over the American Heritage discussion group. Total enrollment in the program last year: 1,590.

P: At Michigan State College, the three-year-old Kellogg Center has housed as many as 62 separate professional and industrial conferences in one month. M.S.C. also gives seven TV courses: (e.g., Greek Glory, Typing, Art Appreciation), and 92 off-campus courses for credit. Among them: Organic Chemistry in Midland, Mental Hygiene in Clarkston, Public Opinion in Flint, Basic Economics in Battle Creek.

P: In San Bernardino, Calif., the Community Education project set out to make radio, press and discussion groups work together. This fall, for instance, the project is sponsoring a weekly radio program on family life, but before each broadcast, the San Bernardino Sun Telegram publishes a background article with questions to be discussed by the 76 groups dotted throughout the valley. Present enrollment in the various groups: 1,100.

P: In Denver, the 38-year-old Emily Griffith Opportunity School has 400,000 alumni. 36,000 students, a waiting list of 7,200. It gives 319 courses in such practical subjects as watch repairing, auto mechanics and cosmetology, maintains a barbershop for student barbers and a cafeteria for student chefs. Its aim: "To give folks who need more training just as much or as little as they want, and at the moment they want it."

In giving the folks more training--whether in Cicero or ceramics--adult education has turned itself into a full-fledged profession. More important: it has a future that seems limitless. "I predict," says Malcolm Knowles, administrative coordinator of the A.E.A.. "that the education of adults will become accepted as a public responsibility, just as the education of children is now ... In my opinion, the total budget for adult education of all types will eventually exceed the total expenditures for childhood education." In other words, America will be the place where school is never out.

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