PATTERNS OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION

residential work of four additional institutions: the Southern Summer School
for Workers in Industry, the School for Workers in Industry of the University
of Wisconsin, the Summer School for Office Workers, and the Pacific Coast
School for Workers. Local committees formed of representatives of the
autonomous affiliates have aided all the schools to recruit students and raise
funds, They also have sponsored community projects which make workers’
education a year-‘round process for their teachers and alumnae.

As workers’ education developed, the Service gradually assumed added
responsibilities, and in, 1939, in order to describe its new functions, the name
Affiliated Schools for Workers was abandoned. As stated by the agency,
“new emphasis has been given to the national character of the work during
the past year, because of the need today for such a unifying force for the
various groups engaged in workers’ education in this country.”° Member-
ship, therefore, has been broadened to admit not only resident schools, but
also local unions, local labor colleges, and Workers’ Education Committees.

By letter and through efforts in the field many organizations have been
aided. Among them are national and local trade unions and their auxiliaries
from the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the American Federation
of Labor; government agencies including departments of education, housing
authorities, and employment departments, as well as workers’ education
projects; and local labor colleges, resident schools, youth groups, and other
adult education and community organizations. During 1939 contacts were
maintained in 47 states and correspondence was carried on with workers’
education leaders in 10 foreign countries. Services are varied. Groups are
helped to initiate educational programs; to find source material suitable for
their use; to train their teachers; and to arrange sectional conferences. Since
1938, the Labor Education Service has carried on the Annual Conference of
Leaders and Teachers in the field, started at Brookwood in 1924. A Teachers’
Registry was inaugurated in 1940 and workshop methods are now being
demonstrated in New York headquarters. Valuable publications on many
subjects continue to meet the need for material especially designed for work-
ers.’ The administration of the American Labor Education Service alone is
a unifying force. Many branches of the labor movement are represented on
the Board of Directors and auxiliary committees. Local committees include

 

> American Labor Education Service, Report of the Director, New York, 1939, p. 2.
American Labor Education Service, op. cit., p. 2.

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