PATTERNS OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION

Government-aided instruction has been strongly opposed by many groups
of employers. In states where such instruction has been initiated, attitudes
and support depend upon the status of the local labor movement and the
general acceptance of collective bargaining. Some groups have questioned
the right of the government to promote workers’ education, insisting that
public agencies are created only in response to a public need, and therefore
should not stimulate interest. Hilda W. Smith, the director of the federal i
program, has replied by pointing out that the worker is inarticulate about his
needs rather than unaware of them. She describes the situation as follows:

The applicant for a class in a public school or other community center may
not ask specifically for this information. He may ask for work in English, for
recreation, for literature, art, or music. With many applicants, however, in

many places, the suggestion that classes may be formed for discussion of
economic and social questions meets with an instant response . . .™ 3

The close connection between government funds and workers’ activity
fundamentally is disapproved by many. However, both organized labor and 1
government state that public assistance is justified, since industry and agricul- }
ture have been given governmental grants. In addition, educators have
endorsed workers’ education as a democratic means of meeting the needs of
many people. According to George F. Zook, former United States Commis- 1

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sioner of Education and present head of the American Council on Education,
the value of the special program is as follows:

The regular educational system should welcome movements of this kind.
They serve as a means of helping the schools and colleges to keep abreast of
those things which the people want. The educational organization should
indeed be quick to respond to popular desires in education. . . . At the same
time all types of group organizations should work with the regular school
organization toward the attainment of our common goals.”

 

Another educator has said:

My interest in workers’ education arises from the fact that I see and
feel the great importance of making the public schools fit the needs of all our
people. In order to make the school suited to the needs of various groups,
it is necessary to make a study of the needs of these gtoups. Then when we

* “Education via Relief,” Journal of Adult Education, Vol. 6 (January, 1934), p. 119.
™ George F. Zook in Jean Carter and Hilda W. Smith, Education and the Worker
Student, New York, Affiliated Schools for Workers, 1934, Foreword. .

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