EVALUATING THE PAST IN TERMS OF THE FUTURE

 

moral and financial responsibility has been placed upon the local communities
and upon those organizations which have sent students to the School. As a
result of decreasing liberal and foundation support, the School has attempted
to obtain more aid from organized labor. The administrative board of the
institution, however, has continued to maintain that the program is not to be
controlled by contributing groups. The practice of independence has been as
real as its theory. No specific organization has determined policies.

The Hudson Shore School is following the Bryn Mawr School as closely as
possible. This seems to indicate that student, faculty and community groups
are satisfied with what the School has accomplished. The few changes that
are taking place are logical developments. Increased representation of labor,
still on an independent basis, and the solicitation of more support from organ-
ized labor are intended to bring the School closer to the needs and interests of
the labor movement. The continuation of the Bryn Mawr School in the form
of the Hudson Shore School is predicated upon the belief that there is a need
for this kind of institution. Organzied labor has acknowledged, although
hesitantly, that until the labor movement is willing and able to support work-
ers’ education as an integral and vital activity, instruction for workers must
be entrusted to others equipped and ready to carry it along. Although the
unions have recently shown a greater willingness than heretofore to support
educational ventures, they still cannot claim that the most effective work and
leadership is in their hands. The intellectuals from the colleges and universi-
ties, the middle class liberals, and the government officials who have entered
the field have contributed much. And, even if it were thought desirable, the
means are not at hand for integrating these activities within the trade unions
themselves since the unions necessarily are preoccupied today with the prob-
lems of organization. Nor is the government ready or equipped to perform
the task. Although valuable work has been done with federal funds, govern-
ment support is unreliable at the present time. The failure of appropriations,
the relief standards, and the whims of a public opinion only partially informed
about workers’ education are responsible. Where techniques and methods are
still in process of development, the flexibility of the privately supported ven-
ture, independent of government and the trade unions, is desirable.

The test of an educational program for workers should be what it can do
for the workers. The scope of community participation of the alumnae is on
the whole encouraging and seems to justify the existence of the School. It

145