1940: Adult Education

Preparations for national defense have had a direct effect on adult education during the past year. As a result of the urgent need for trained men for the defense industries, the number of adults participating in educational activities increased sharply, especially in vocational schools. Many of these schools have coordinated their programs with the needs of local industries and have extended their hours to give employed men additional training and unemployed men a chance to acquire skills necessary to obtain employment.

Another outcome of the defense program noticeable in 1940 was the desire of groups throughout the nation to discuss issues related to national problems. Responding to the needs of discussion clubs, forums, and other groups, the American Association for Adult Education began a series of publications designed to aid leaders and members of clubs in planning and conducting their programs. These publications, entitled Defense Papers and Defense Digests, are factual in content and are written to promote discussion of issues of importance to Americans.

In many communities plans were made for adult education councils to serve as the educational arm of the local defense committees now being formed in all states. To aid these groups, the American Association for Adult Education late in 1940 undertook the publication of Community Councils in Action, which will serve as a clearing house of information regarding councils and their activities.

Twelve regional conferences on adult education were held in twelve different localities during 1940. A series of regional conferences on adult education and defense was inaugurated in Springfield, Massachusetts, in December. The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the American Association for Adult Education, held in New York City, and attended by 1,500 persons, received wide attention in the public press.

Numerous publications on adult education made their appearance the past year. The American Library Association issued a handbook of suggestions for projects in adult education. Publications of the American Association for Adult Education included studies dealing with workers' education, vocational education for adults, commercial correspondence schools, motion pictures, and adult education councils. In the public school field, a study on the planning of community schools was issued to aid school administrators and school architects in designing school buildings for general use by the entire community without impairing their usefulness for children.

During the year the National University Extension Association continued its study of extension students to determine the personal and occupational characteristics of these students, to define the geographical areas served by several institutions, to learn the relation of extension centers and students served by correspondence to libraries and other educational facilities, and to analyze certain institutional procedures.

In summary, the year 1940 saw a satisfactory increase in the growth of adult education. Evidence that it is essential to life in a democracy is given in the manner in which it has already become a part of the nation-wide program for defense. See also EDUCATION.