PATTERNS OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION

to

CASE STUDY OF L

Before the School—When she applied to the School, she was a shoe worker and was on
the Executive Board of the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union, of which she had been a
member for two months. In the Y.W.C.A., she was on the Board of Directors and was
president of the Industrial Club, She belonged to the Baptist Church, in which she
taught Sunday School.

At the School—She attended the summer session in 1921 at the age of 25.

After the School—In 1938 it was reported that she was still on the Industrial Committee
and was making a contribution to the younger industrial club members. She tried to
attend the current events class and was instrumental in forming the new workers’ educa-
tion group. She wants to be active and is as far as her health and home responsibilities
permit. Her work in a children’s flannel-wear factory does not help her with her health
problems. The industrial secretary feels that she has lost touch with the present trends
in the labor movement and that her ignorance of recent trends in our industrial life
accounts for her attitude regarding the Congress of Industrial Organizations. “She is
articulate and thinking, and is trying to understand what is happening but she is way
behind the times and really mistaken in her beliefs. She was quite incensed with reading
a current novel about the South and is trying to write a novel, when fime permits, to
show another kind of people in the South.” The Secretary tried to plan for her return
to the School as she felt that the novel could mean nothing without a new point of view.
However, the family health prevented her return.

The difficulties of “M” in the South, are almost as great although she
attended the School 15 years later. “M” is an American, born of American
parents.

CASE STUDY OF “M”

Before the School—She completed the first year of high school. As a shoe worker, she
belonged to the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union and served on several of its committees.
She was a member of a student-industrial group at the Y.W.C.A., a representative of
workers on the industrial committee of the Y.W.C.A., and in its industrial club, She
promoted workers’ education within the Y.W.C.A.

At the School—She attended the summer sessions of 1936 and 1937 at the ages of 31
and 32 respectively. The faculty reported that she was earnest in her desire to learn and
willingness to participate in activities but that she was hardly leadership material.

After the School—After her first year at the School, she planned for economic discussions
at the Y,W.C.A. and tried to further workers’ education in her trade union. She formed
a workers’ education library and set up a bulletin board in the Y.W.C.A. Industrial Club.
She was interested in starting a joint meeting of the trade union and of the Y.W.C.A. on
social security. During this time she had a great deal of pressure from home since her
mother was against the teaching of evolution and other facts at the School and was
therefore against her community work. Her trade union work was hampered by the lack
of interest within the union—(“Our union seems so dead after so much I heard about

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