1942: Adult Education

Entry of the United States into the war at the close of 1941 gave immediate point and cogency to the defense activities in education for adults undertaken in the two previous years. The year 1942 saw hundreds of thousands of Americans newly engaged in serious study connected with some phase of the war effort. Classes in air raid precautions, fire prevention, first aid, nurses' aid, nutrition, child care in emergencies, and like activities came into being rapidly. The already accelerated program of training for workers in war industry, both in the public vocational schools and within industry itself, progressed to new highs in enrollment. The National Citizenship Education Program was launched by the Federal government for large numbers of aliens desiring to become citizens.

In the Army and Navy, educational efforts have been confined in the main to instruction in the business of warfare. No attempt has been made as yet to establish a comprehensive educational service for soldiers and sailors. Progress has been made, however, in the development of an Army Correspondence Institute, and in one limited provision, in the spring of 1942, for an Army Orientation Course of lectures offered to officers and enlisted men. Efforts are also being made to overcome the high percentage of illiteracy encountered in the Selective Service drafts.

While discussion of war issues and on informational aspects of the world conflict continues in forums and in smaller groupings, still since Pearl Harbor the temper of the people has been to work and fight rather than to talk. This has resulted in lack of understanding of issues and, in some areas, in apathetic attitudes. Toward the end of 1942, promising efforts to overcome this situation and to produce a genuine civilian morale were launched by two Federal agencies directly concerned, the Office of War Information and the Office of Civilian Defense. The present trend is for close coordination between the community adult education councils and agencies, on the one hand, and the local defense councils, on the other.

National adult education organization in the university, public school, and the voluntary agency fields took first steps in 1942 toward closer cooperation in presenting a united front for adult education. The newly established Institute of Adult Education of Teachers College, Columbia University, made its initial contribution to the literature of the field in its Suggested Studies in Adult Education, an outline of a comprehensive research and study program for itself and other agencies, organizations, and institutions. The Institute also published the Report of its Commission on Post-War Training and Adjustment, an inquiry into the principles underlying the proposed program of re-education for returned soldiers and sailors and workers to be displaced from war industry upon a declaration of peace.