Home Photo Gallery Classroom Documents
Worker's Education Under the Federal Government
THE Federal Emergency Program of Workers' Education is now entering upon the third winter of active classwork. For the past two years it has been organized as a part of the national relief program for unemployed white-collar workers under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Special supervisors of workers' education have been appointed in twenty different states and workers' classes have also been carried on in nine other states under the general adult program. Approximately five hundred unemployed men and women have taught in the program, 25 per cent of whom had attended one of the eighteen six-week Teacher Training Centers conducted throughout the country during the summer of 1934 for intensive training in the methods and curriculum used in workers' classes. It is estimated that more than 45,000 workers, mostly men, were reached by this program last winter. Classes were organized not only in the big industrial cities but in isolated rural and mountain sections in the south and west where community facilities for adult study and leisure-time activities have been very scarce. During the summer of 1935 twenty-four Teacher Training Centers were organized, offering training to 1,200 teachers, more than twice the number trained last year. A majority of those trained had either taught in the workers' education program last winter or were definitely eligible to teach and in many cases had been accepted to teach in this winter's program. The program has been transferred from the FERA to the Works Progress Administration. Education projects will be authorized as state projects, sponsored by some public department or institution. The state departments of education will continue to cooperate very closely and in many cases are sponsoring the state program. There will be no ear-marked funds for educational projects and individual states may choose to spend their allotted work relief money on any of the projects approved in Washington by the Works Progress Administration. Approval does not necessarily mean that the project will be undertaken as many more projects have been approved than there are funds to support. Consequently this policy places the responsibility for establishing an educational project directly on the individual states. In the past the workers' education movement has been more or less confined to the big urban and industrial centers. The summer schools and independent labor colleges have only been able to reach a selected few and have for the most part concentrated on the industrial worker and trade union member. Their aim has been primarily to select the most intelligent and able of the workers and train them for leadership in the labor movement rather than to provide classes for any worker who wishes to acquaint himself, perhaps for the first time, with the history of the labor movement or the principles of trade union- ism. But with the establishment of a national program of workers' education, sponsored by thc federal government, it was possible to reach workers of many backgrounds and occupations in all sections of the country. The result was an extremely mixed group of students, some of them trade union members but many of them unorganized and quite unfamiliar with labor history and labor problems. Resides industrial and factory workers, there were farmers, office workers, housewives, and domestic workers. But there was one common denominator true of all the groups and that was the handicap of a limited educational background. The majority had been forced to leave school after the eighth grade to earn their living. Although in many cases anxious to continue their education, they could not afford the price of night school or extension course, nor had they sufficient background or training to follow the usual formal lecture. The average class for adults does not deal with subjects which are within the range of interest or experience of the worker. That is why workers' education, although fundamentally a part of the adult education movement, must for the time being receive separate consideration. The problem of how and what to teach mature individuals who have had years of practical experience but who are untrained and handicapped by lack of elementary schooling has only recently been seriously studied. At the present moment there are two fundamental obstacles which must be overcome before a genuine program can be established--lack of trained and experienced teachers and lack of appropriate study materials. To help to remove these obstacles by means of organized teacher-training projects and the preparation and distribution of bibliographies and suitable study materials has been one of the chief objectives of the federal program. Although it is difficult to find individuals who combine academic training and knowledge with a sympathetic and first-hand acquaintance with the labor movement and workers' problems, and the necessary skill in leading an adult class, it should be only a matter of time and experience, if training facilities are made available, before a reasonably competent teaching personnel can be built up. STUDY MATERIALS NEEDEDThe second problem, that of appropriate study materials, is far more difficult to solve but equally important. It is here that other organizations and community groups, particularly the local public libraries, can be of tremendous assistance. The federal office has tried to meet this problem by preparing annotated bibliographies of the best free or inexpensive study materials dealing with questions discussed in workers' classes. It has distributed pertinent government bulletins and publications and has asked publishing houses and educational and community organizations to facilitate the distribution of material to teachers and classes. It makes every effort to give a personal advisory service to the special needs and requests of individual teachers. Although little very suitable material exists in this field, many teachers are handicapped by their ignorance of what does exist and by their inability to procure it. The local public library can help and has helped in the past two years in a variety of ways, to facilitate the access of teachers to study materials. Wherever possible material and books should be made available in the classroom where it will be easy for students to refer to them during discussion or spend some leisure moments reading before or after class. Most workers have not developed the habit of reading and to overcome this initial inertia it is important to provide interesting and attractively displayed material at class meetings. LIBRARY'S PART ESSENTIALIn many communities there is no library close at hand and the average worker is often too bewildered and discouraged by the tremendous range of choice and the apparently complicated mechanics of withdrawing a book to make the effort to go to his library. It is therefore important to help him in every possible way to develop an interest and skill in reading. Small circulating libraries or long-term loans are especially helpful to workers' classes, particularly in rural districts. The average workers' class cannot afford to build up an adequate library for its own use alone and must depend on the cooperation of community organizations and public libraries. Again it would be very helpful if libraries could put at the disposal of classes several copies of a book or pamphlet, as it is difficult to assign reading to a class of twenty from a single book. In some cases local libraries have provided meeting rooms for workers' classes. This arrangement has many advantages inasmuch as material can usually be procured at short notice and in the quantity desired. Furthermore the library is always open and the worker can then come in at any hour of the day or night to study or read. It is in this connection that the personal advisory service now provided by so many public libraries is particularly helpful and in the long run is the most important service the library can give to adult education. READABLE BOOKS IN MATURE STYLEA fairly specialized type of material is needed in workers' classes. Popular readable books in very simple language but dealing in a mature manner with the economic and social facts studied in workers' classes are important. Most of this material is published not in book form but in inexpensive pamphlet or booklet style. It would be very helpful if libraries could cooperate with local supervisors or teachers in procuring this type of material so badly needed in workers' classes. The federal office has issued a number of bulletins to aid both teachers and libraries in making a selection. The following bibliographies may be obtained free of charge from the office of the specialist in workers' education, Works Progress Administration, 1340 G Street, Washington, D.C. The farm problem.
|