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PATTERNS OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION

is ‘only a shell,’ and even though it may be rich in cultural content lacks reality
for the industrial worker.” °

On the whole, unorganized working women have come to the Y.W.C.A.
The agency plans an educational program which may make meaningful their
varied community experiences. The emphasis evolves naturally from a gen-
eral program, stated by the Industrial Department to be as follows:

The Industrial Department offers to girls employed in factories, homes,
restaurants, and mercantile establishments, opportunities to make friends, to
have fun, to pursue special interests and skills, to develop leadership, and to
become more effective citizens. It offers them interest groups, discussions, and
forums on social and economic problems, and leadership experience. It also
offers social affairs, recreation and sports.°

At the same time an attempt is made to develop reciprocal understanding
and feeling between people who have had different social experiences. Accord-
ingly, employers and workers are drawn into a program which encourages
cooperation within their communities.

Informal education has been said to be the crux of the Y.W.C.A. industrial
program. As working women come together from many different groups,
they tend to discover and discuss common problems and to do something about
them. One club member cites examples of the process. In one community,
an orchestra had to be hired for a dance. Controversy arose as to whether the
musicians should be union or non-union workers. Involuntarily, discussion
evolved into a temporary but vitally interested class in labor problems. In
Rochester, New York, a trade party presented opportunities for a varied edu-
cational process. A labor mural which was painted involved study of work-
ers’ history, puppets were made to depict well-known characters, and a dance
group interpreted industrial speed-up. In Boston, Rochester, and Cleveland,
club members illustrate their interests in social studies workshops.

 

Many clubs have promoted more formal instructional programs. Women
are trained to be responsible leaders and active citizens, workers’ schools have
been established, or special classes have been arranged. It may be significant
that a, definite framework has been given activities where the Y.W.C.A.
cooperates with trade unions, among them clothing and textile groups.

® Ibid, p. 13.
°Y.W.C.A., Laboratory Division Report, Looking Back, New York, 1934.

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