PATTERNS OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION

 

when they told of groups established to formulate trade union constitutions, to
write a trade agreement, or to plan a program of workers’ education for an
organization. Present meetings continue to emphasize the belief stated in
1924 that “Practice in the scientific method can often be much better obtained
in connection with some actual problem confronting a trade union group than
with an academic problem taken up as part of ‘school’ work.” “

Several devices have been clarified and defined with the passage of time.
Any activity in which there is wide participation and which binds workers
more closely to their organizations is now called “mass education.” In the
category are included social rallies, dances, and theatrical performances. By
bringing large numbers together, they foster a feeling of unity and a cooper-
ative spirit. “Classroom education” has come to designate a small, serious
group, meeting in a classroom atmosphere adapted to the needs of workers,
discussing freely and informally a series of topics over a designated span of
time. Various techniques insure the vital participation of all the students.
Lectures are supplemented by dramatic presentations, and workshop methods
and pamphlets and visual material simplify study for the workers. Cultural
and technological developments have been described in recent years as render-
ing the film and radio effective in workers’ education. A third approach now
is called “Training for Service.” A large or small group of workers come
together to learn how to lead other workers; business agents, shop chairmen,
and organizers, for example, are taught in conferences, committees and class-
rooms.”

Some of the early methodological problems still confront conference mem-
bers. They tell how traveling teachers and libraries and correspondence

_courses must be utilized to aid communities with few resources. They reveal
that some workers may become familiar with advanced techniques only
through attendance at institutes and resident schools away from home. Be-
cause such projects reach only small numbers, many workers never have
experienced contact with the progressive methods of today.

It always has been agreed that workers’ education must be brought to its
students by individuals who know and understand their life and work. Pio-
neers in the field felt that such sympathetic knowledge could be expected of

* Tbid., p. 45.

e For a discussion of the development of these phases of workers’ education in specific
organizations, see infra, Chapter III.

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