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T HE WO R K S PROGRAM --Works Progre ss .Admiaistrat i on-- For Release on Delive ry, 10 A.M~ Sa t u rday, May 15, 1 937. The foll owing address was de live r ed by Harry L. Hopkins, Works Prog ress Admini s tra tor, a t 1 0 a.m. Saturday , Ifay 15, 1 93 7, a t the Tea che rs' Colle ge, Columb i a, Univer s ity, Hew Yor k City: I am no t a n educator; I am n ot an artist; I am not an engineer; I am not a speci a list in many of t he p ro g rams with ,;hi ch the VfPA has dealt in . the past four years . But with my background in soc ial work, I have a lways been interesterl in educat i on and the problems of ed1icators. It has s eomGd to me of great i mpo rt a n ce to link up educat i on with social progress. I hD,7e se,:m that social r oforo. and the improvement of economic conditi ons a l one could not r r;i,iso t:1e l ov1 stn,ndard of living existing today f or millions of me n Dn,l '7omcn in t h is crmntry. It has seeme d to me that a broad p rogram of educe,t i on and training mus t go hand in h and with t he crusade to make 2 bette r Ameri ca . I am d oubly gl ad to have the opportunity to talk before this c onference . In t he firs t pl ace , without t he ass i stance of educational people and t heir years of experience, the VtPA could not have attempted to do what it has done in the fi e ld of education. The vrhoJe - hear ted. coope rati on a nd effort whi ch many of you have g i ven t o t he devel opment of t he WPA program cannot be overest imat0 d. No one r eal iz es more than I the inadequac ies of our prog r am, but I do t h ink that we have ma de i mp ortant b eginning s. I hope that we httv e helped. to domonstra to the need of a riche r Lmd more comy,rehen... . · sive p rogram of. pu.l;llJc education. .. ';-i:= · In the second p l ace , I am ;nuch con ce rned tlw,t t h is kind of education be carried on a,nd deve loped further . I h a-re b88n a c cused many times of boondoggling , but my predicti on i s t ho.t wit h in a de cade , the ver-J people who condemned this most he a rtily will adnit that rc1uch of this boondoggling has been ave~/ sound investment. It i s for this reason that I appear be- fore you to d. i scu ss some of the probl ems v,hich we in the WPA hav e mo t in the four years of our existence. At risk of repeating what may be familiar Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY -2to many of you, I should like_to glance hack over the record of this period of emergency educat ion. Edc1catio-:1 was the first work }Jroject 1.::.ndortaken when the Government started feclera l relief back in 1933. Why did this h-.1ppen? Primarily, I think, because as a nation we had awakened. to the fact that unemployment means more trw.n physical want a nd physical idleness. We saw that many of the unenrployed were grndu.s.lly losing their fit ness for '.7ork. We were forced to change our traditional conc eption of relief and public works. Public works programs in the past have been chiefly devoted to cor1struction projects - to building up our pl:cysical r e soi.rrcos. The recent depression taught us thot the conservation and development of our hu.ma!l resourc e s is even more imp ortant. A far greater mun-ber of white collar an ~. professiona.l wor}rnrs v10re unemployed than ever tefore. One of the most serious effects of the de- pression was the reduction of many school budgets. meant unemployed teachers. teachers were without jobs. And. decreased bud.gets By 1933 it was e stimated that nearly 200,000 Mctnual labor wa s not the answer. Common sense told us it was not only ine~fic:l.ent but ,.,asteful to put an artist to work chopping trees or a teacher to digging ditches. We had had. some exp n rience vlith a work pro g ram for professional groups in Hew York State. Here, as many of you k now, with the help of the State Department of Education, we organized before 1933 an educational program primarily for the unemployed. We decided to organi~e a similar program on a national scale. did not want to duplicate or supplont the regular school system. We We wanted our program to supplement •,1hat the public school teachers vrnre doing; to discover what services the regalar schools we re not providing. The job of the school has been consid.ered prif!larily on0 of teaching children. It offers e ducational op:nortu_r1ities to only a part of tne many , :ople who need educational services. Yet many aclults have not had the chanc0 for this elementary schooling. In this country where child labor is still a. cor:nnon condition, cou.."ltless numbers of men e.nd TTomen ha."c been forced by economic necessity to leave school at an er,.rl;y age to earn their living. Ther.J are not even enough schools to care for all the children of school a£:e. We had fooled ourselves into thinking that in the United States elementary education was universal. But in spit e of all we had done to develop ~uch a system, ~e lagged far behind our ideals. It was not until the beginning of the World War that this myth was exploded. Fifteen years Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY No. 4-1535 -3- later, the Census of 1930 still showed that there were over four million sheer illiterates. And estimates point to a probable 16 per cent of our adult population ~1ho cannot write the simplest letter or understand a newspaper. I have It is difficult to estimate the re n1 cost of ignorance. heard. it said thAt illiteracy alone was costing the United States more than a billion dollars a year in lost earning power. the only educational problem. Nor is illiteracy The skilled worker needs special training as well as a general background of knowledge and technique. In low earn- ing power alone -- which means a low national income and a low standard of liv:i.ng -- we are obviously losing many billions of dollars a year. And when we add to this figure the cost of combating the crime, delinquency, poor heal th and di se2,se resulting from ignorance, neglected character training, and lack of constructive social education, the total cost of ignorance is appalling. We nre now celebrating the 100th anniversary of our public school system. Have we How satisfied are you rrith what we have accomplished? conceived education to be a simpler thing than it really is? We thought that by concentrating on the young we could develop an educated nation. It seems to me tha.t we were wrong. It is impossible to crowd into the fev1 years of elementary and secondary schooling all the training and knowledge needed to understand our complicated and changing social system. Under the WPA we have tried to make a be ~inning in the development of a _broad program of social education which would meet the interests and needs of adults -- a program which would aim to make education fit the needs of our industrial democracy, which would take care of some of the countless numbers of people who are either too young or too old to be taken care of by our public schools. We do not claim, by any means, to have established an adequate program. Adult education on a public scale as large as this had never been tried in the United States before. I do not underestimate the admirable work which has been and still is being carried on by public schools and private educational agencies, extension courses, vocational work, Americanization programs, and night schools for adults. The most recent reports show fifteen States appropriating funds for adult education. But I do think it fair to say that our public educa tional facilities have fallen a Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY No. 4-15~5 -4- long way short of meeting the educational needs of adults in this country~ Our st aff on the educ1tion program report the.t a t no time hcwe we had enough tea chers to supply the demand fo r classes. Furthermo re, the United States has lagged far behind most European cou:1tries where extensive, publicly fin...-:i.nced adult education programs have been in existence for a number of years. The relief administration wanted this program to maintain ge nuine educa,tionnl standards. school systera. We wanted to correlate it closely with the public We, therefore, turned for assistance and advice t o tho schools an~ to educators. plan of coop e ration. StatG school officials helped u s work out a State conferences were hald, attended not only by city and county superintendents but by members of the faculties of universities and normal scho ols. The United Sta tes Office of Education assigned its spec ialist in adult educati on to our office, and appointed an advisory committee to work closely in the administration of the program. We wanted tho schools to have a determining band in what tho program should be. Under the WPA the great majority of the educational projects are sponsored by State Departments of Education. Local s chool superintendents act as sup e r- visors and classes are held for tho most part in school buildings. Our schools have been quick to respond. Many officir.ls have said they were startled to re alize the eagerness with which adult students enrolled in classes. Buildings and equipment have been generously offered; expenses of light and heat have often been supplied.; valuable professional assistance and advice have been given and even p ersonnel has been loaned. Whatever success we may claim for this program has be en due in great part to the a ctive support and cooperation of educators and school officials throughout the entire country. I would like to give you a brief picture of what the education program is doing. In the first place, its chief purpose is of course to give jo~s to the unemployed. But let me urge ~ou not to judge the work on its employment record alone. Actually, the number of people employed on edu- cational projects is small compared to the hundreds of thousands put to work on construction jobs. The real significance of the program is in what it has meant to the millions of students who have come to learn. Discouraged, despairing men and women have found their way from park benches to school benches; their despair has been translated into hope, their sense of futility into a feeling of usefulness. Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY No. 4-1535 -5- More tlurn fou:r million students have att ended clas se s during t he l as t four years. Approxima tely 100,000 t eachers have been given use ful The l a test rep ort s show that more than 42, 000 a re now employed., empl oyment . wi th a n enroll ment in clas::;es of over two million students . diffe rent subjects a re ta.ubht in WPA classes . More than 600 Any u seful subject for which there is a clemand a nd a t eache r available may be taught . The mos t spe ctacular phase of the WPA progr am has "been its a tt a ck on illit e r acy. Teache rs have gone out into rural counties , r emote mountain va ll eys , and c i t y sl1LT.s, holding classes , day a nd ni ght, in public schools, mountain shR.cks, f a rr,.1 houses , a nd churches . 16 .to 82 years of ago have enro ll ed. Illi tei'e.te me n and. women from Fa the rs a nd sons and even gr a nd.Seven parents and. grandchildren ar e l earning to go thi:Jr in the same cl as s. hundred. thousand illitera t e s, mo s t of them Ame rica n- born, have learned to r ead a nd write in WPA clgss e s. Illiteracy i s not restrict ed to our foreign born popul a tion or to any one section of the countr.1 . It is a na tional pr obl em. We have aimed not only to teach people to read and write. litera cy i s not enough . Bare Pe ople mu st know bow to unde r s tand a nd u se what Lit e r a cy cla sse s have , therefo re , included badly needed health they r ead. info r mat i on , principles of child care and food values , instructi on in sewing and arithmet ic, and unde rstanding of simple current events a nd government. One class of thirteen in a Sout hern ru.re,l county is composed of the members of one family only -- father , mothe r, a nd el even children - - not one_ of whom were a.ble to r ead or r;ri te be f ore the WPA organiz ed a class for them. Under the WPA, illit e r acy i n t h e Unit ed States has been r educed 16 pe r cent. Closely alli ed with the work in lit e racy a re class e s in citiz enship, and prepa ration for r.at11rali zat ion. The public schools have, of course, bee n conce rned. for some time with this phase of adult educati on . The ad- missicn of approxima t el y 28 million immigrants into this country sinc e 1880 has dramatized this need. But in spit e of the effectiv e pro grams of 0 1.rr public night schools a nd many privat e institutions, the re a r e still ove r four million men and women in this country who have not become American cit i zens . As a reli ef age ncy, the WPA ha s be on particularly 1:1.lert to the need for vocational training of the unemployed. The Fede ral Gove rnment has for . some years helped thro:ug...11. grRnts-in- e,id to fina.nce voca tiona l tra ining. D7g1t1zed oyNORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY No. 4-1535 -6- With increased unempl oyment, howeve r, came an increa sed cternand for training and guidance. The WPA has orga ni zed cl P.sse s in many types of vocation, from commercial subjects, industrial, mech::rnica l, and service trades, to agricultural education. We tried to avoid training pe ople for work in al- ready over-crowded fields. A special attempt has be en made to offer this training to r elief workers and other unemploye d . Ir. addition to raising the genera l educational l evel of the students, and giving them new confidence in thems e lves, tra ining in these cla s ses in many case s had led to employment. The old Town Ha ll meeting has d.isappeared, but the n e ed for widespread popul a r d i sc1; ssion of current public a ffairs l1a s not. You a s edu- cators have recognize d that the most vital edu cati onal need tod.ay for both young and old is educa tion for int elligent c itizenship . T:-:ie most int e nsely discussed subject a t ev e ry educational confe renc e is the problem of e duca ting for civic r e sp onsibility. The l n.rgc.3 forums, pa nel discussions, a nd small study groups on curr ent ec onomi c a n:i soci 2,l t op i cs whi ch have oe en organized by the WPA ha ve helped to me e t t h i s p opul ar need . We h'l,V C tr i ed to ma..lce those gr oups community ent e rpris es in t he true se n se of the word. Spea k e rs a nd p nnel members have been d.rawn from such loco-1 sources a s colleges, business me n I s clubs, newspapers, settl ement house s, p/'..rc cit-t eacher associations, labor unions, and other civic a nd bus iness or 6 nn i zations . Worke rs 1 Education provide s classes of the public a ff a irs type par- ticule.rly for t he worker in trade , industry or agriculture. The shorter ~,orking week has r esulted in incre,q,sed leisure for the v10 rker. The Wagner La bor Act and. other l a bor legi slntion ha.ve brought new responsibilitie s to org8~ized l ~bor, rn~ki ng the ne e d for this kind of education imperative. Discussion ce nters directly on the pra ctical social and economic problems bound up with the worke rs' daily life: l a bor l egislation, history of the labor movement, p rincip l es of trade unionism, p2.rliar.1entary law, government, war and peace, a nd current •~ve n t s . The workers I education proc r :-:;n i '.> 3:Ln:ed. at tra ining the worker to think clea rly, to unde rstand his own p r obl ems in the ir larger economic and political setti ng , a nd finally t o develop a sense of responsibility towards the ir solution. Responsible a nd intelligent ,1orkers are our only assurance of a c ontinuing democracy. Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY No. 4-1535 -7- More than 120, 0 00 wo rkers have been 8nrolled in these classes since the beginning of the pro •-;ra.m. The lntest reports show over 60 ,000 workers enrolled in clas ses taug ht by more than 700 teachers. Fundamental to home and comnrunity welfare are good health conditions. Instruction in child care, home-nursing and principles of hygiene are an important phase of our o,dul t education program. Courses in home- making, nutrition, budget ing, sewing and cooki:r:i.g a re given. An Axtonsive program of first-aid instruction is carried cu . Hundreds of thousands of men ~nd women are making the ex~iting discover-J that an important pg,rt of life may begin at forty, fifty, or sixty. The me re task of ma.king a living c1.nd r earing a f;:,.mily has given many pe ople littl e cha:'lce to develop l ei sure-time interests. The cap2.city enrollments in clas se s in the arts, creative writing, ha.ndc r aft s, and music, show that many adults are cultural 1y starved . Training for more intelligont parentho od. is another front along which the WPA :has worked. More than 60,000 parents have joined classes to study principles of child guidance, health care , a nd problems of family relationships. children. Linked with this program is the work done with pre-school Approximately 1,800 nursz ry schools have been established where over 50,000 young children a r e being helped to a fair start in life. These children come from over-cro~ded home s, where unemployment 8nd econonic want have meant unde rnou rishme nt, and dangerous health conditions. Nourish- ing food, sun and air, rest, a nd healthful pl ay opportuniti !'S e.r e laying the foundations for the he3lth and happiness of these future citizens. Another effect of t he depression was to prevent thousands of young people from realizing their plans for a colle ge education. s tates, the WPA has helped to meet this problem by student. 11 II In a number of carrying college to the Regular first year college courses, with credit, are being given to 12,000 stud.e nts. Even would-be college stude nts in isolated rural a.nd mountainous districts need not forego a n education. Colle ge comes by Rural Fre e Delivery in the form of correspondence courses. Nearly ten pe r cent of the young men and women attending colle ges a nd univers ities in the United States this year a.re earning pe.rt of their expenses through employment on the Student Aid Program of the National Youth Arnninistration. This program was first start ed under the Education Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY No. 4-1535 -2- Di vision of the FERA and ;·:as ta1.-rnn over by :.he UYA in 1935. High school, college, and graduate students, who would otherwiSP, be unable to afford a.n education, a ..·e g~.ven suitable employment. The small monthly benefits thus received make it just possible for these boys and girls to attend school. The school a.uthori ties concerned assume r8sponsibility for se- lecting the students and d.etermi.ning and supervising the type of ,10rk project. Tutoring, research, clerical and library assistance, landscaping and grounds maintenance, and commun~ty and ad.ult education pro,c;rams, are some of the activities students raay undertake. Applications for student aid this year have been double the number that could be accepted under present appropriatior:.s. Over 400,000 students are now receiving student aid. Tie are helping a number of states dovelop progr,ims in tho prisons. We find in some states about the same num~)er of young people in prisons as in college. So far as we know, there has never been a thorough study of the educational needs of men and women who, either through crimo , delinquency or mere ignore.nee, find themselves r;hut off from normaJ. living. Surely this situation shows an obJ.i 6o.tion and a need we cannot overlook. Since educational opportunities for the Negro are notably inadequate, special emphasis has been laid on making WPA services available to this race. Nearly five thousand Negro teachers bF.1,ve been employed annually in the WPA classes, and more than half a million students enrolled since the program first started. The greatest number of WPA tee,chers are in classes embracing a vlide variety of general acadP-mic, cultural and practic!).l subjects. Over 7,000 people are employed in this way with a student enrollment of nearly 400,000. If you should v,ant to get a cross-section of opinion from the stu~ dents e,nd teachers themselves, you would have to travel far affold. You would want to drop in at a little rural school house where a group of Negro cotton pickers are gathering to learn their AB C1 s. You would drive along a muddy country lane to a farm kitchen where women are settling down around . a flickering oil lamp to an earnest discussion of child care and family relationships. You would climb four flights of tenement stairs to find an unemployed league holding a forum on soci::i.l security. You would find a fow small rooms in an urban slum district made over into a cheerful nursery school. Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4-1535 Classes are held day and night. Many workers' education g roups meet a t midnight when the night shift comes 011t of textile or steel mill. All na tionalities and races a,·e · t alc ing par t - ·Spanish speaking people in the western beet fields, French-Canac i a.>1. s from the lumbe r camps of Mai r:e , I nd i an s on government rese rva tions. In educational ba ckg round the majority of the students come from the g r oup of 32 million adults in t h i s country who have h a d less than an e ighth b.0-rad.2 cduc.a t,_·on. From the P- Conomi· c po i·nt • J • . • .,. 0 1. vi· e w, th ey are a lso the p eople with t he lowest i:!1.crimo - moB t of them wage earner s averag ing less than a thousand dollA.rs a year on which to suppo rt a f am ily; many of t h em une mp loyed with no inc r,mc but ina d e qua te relief chocks. What arc the imp lica tions of this new kind of educat ion? Wha t has been the effect of this program on tho c.dult student in our classes, on the unemployed te a cher, the local school superintond ont, on t he cities and town s and. village s whe re these classe s A.re hold? Evon '7hen the progrrun first sta rt e d, it wa s c le a r t ha t people wentod these cla ss es . Mon o.nd wo men appeared promptly at the door s of f! ch ool buildings to register. Many with little o lemontn.ry educa ti on appl i e d timidly, thinking the c lasse s c ould no t be for tliem. ad.mi t t e d, t he ir de ligh t w•~s evid '3 n t. When they found t hey could be Th ey f "Und thernse 1 v o s in inf nrma l class- rooms -- whore n cademic cre d.i ts nnd examinn.ti0ns rmre t mimpo rto.nt nr nonexistent - vri th t eacher s who nerc r oa6.y t 0 c nnsi de r t hei r ind ividual needs. Nnw , in the fo u rth year, every r eport, every field visit, confirm s this first i mpre s s i on , thr, t millions of grown poop l o in t h is cnuntry n r e hun gry for educr,ti on and welcome a chanc e t o l earn. An ot he r theory h a s been we ll t es t e d: pe ople of any age can learn. Psycholog ists in college labora tories h c1,ve often made t h is statement. It has been amply prove n by daily experience of t e acher s and students in tho eme rgency p rogram. Our staff rep orts tha t it i s unusual to find a n e me r g e ncy tea c her who is discouraged with the ab ili,ty of his student s . He is more often d iscou rage d with himself in tho midst of tough p robl e ~s of teaching. But the Vt'J ry sp irit of these classrooms is heartening . Go into one of them at the beginning of t :ie term, Md again a few weeks la.t or. char1ge d. Exp re ss ions have Tho group h a s go t acquaint,J d and enj oys being together. Tho s tu- dents a re no longe r a fraid to put the ~nselves to t he test in n ew fields, for they find in the ms e lvoi; new abilities. And thoy a re delight ed to r ealize tha t what they a re learning in the cla ss rooms c an be p ut to use at home, in t heir own clubs and organiz at io n s, in the genera l life of their commun i tios. Digitized by NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4-1535 -10- What do these adult students want in education? Put in a few words ., the men and women who attend these classes want to understand .w hat is happening to them in t hi s year 1937. They want to kno\V how they can . find security in their homes and their J·obs. The y h ope t o crea t ea f u 11· er, more satisfactory, life for themselves and especially for their children. This desire for better ways of J.iving is sometimes expressed in t erms of pers onal achievement. But often, adult students come to class to l earn somethi ng whic!i will be of use to others; to children and young people, farm neighbors, fellow members of a club, a labor organization, or somo other community group. Tho need for help in concrete situations training fnr a j ob, bring- ing up childr en, supporting families, improving home or industrial conditions calls for concrete ma terie.l for tea ching, in terms of human experience. "I thought economics was s0mething .1.p in the a ir, 1 students. it. 11 11 11 remarked nne of these I see no w I 1 ve been living economics every day and didn't know So in many of these classrooms, the living problems of every day -- what is happening in their own homes, on their farms, in their f ;:;.c tories .,.provide the raw material of the curriculum. And what more fitting curric- uhun material could be found for our whole na tion? This curriculum, based up on actual e:-.1>ericnce in human live s, reve a ls in stark reality th8 cl.r1.rk pl&ces i n our na tional picture. These realities are .not pleasa,nt to th.ink about, a nd yet our best hope of finding means of improvemen t is through this very process of ca reful analysis. On every hand, the bitter f acts are evid ent from 't'iPA r ep orts. fr om one on the nurs ery schools: To quote "Hundreds of children two and thre e and four years of ago have been found who had never known what it meant to have three square meals a c.ay -- children so undernouris!iod tha t only after days and sometime s weeks of careful feeding could they with safety be given the amount of food customary for a child of that age. 11 And this sad story of our children is repeated in adult terms by other reports from the cla ss e s, stories of parental i gnorance, dis ease and accidents, starvation wage s, wre tched housing, unemployment and despair. No wonder there is said to be a vitality in the emergency education program, and a will to learn among its students . problems of their da ily l ives. They are studying the practical The more thoughtful are determined to bring about much nee ded chaJ1gc s, through the dynamic proce ss e s of education. Let us look a t this :program from the standpoint of the teachers employed in thes e clas ses. What ho. s been happening to them in the se four Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4-1535 -11- years? Ove r 100,000 tea chers have supported themse lve s a nd their familie s for varying periods from the work relief wages. Witho~t these wages we feel su;re tha t thousands would have succumbed to physical breakdown or mental despair. In contrast to this a lternat ive, the present picture is encouraging. Not only have these t eacher s been relieved from tho most a cute economic pressure, but they have found a new z;;s t in professional work . I n spite of all difficulties they have carried on their classes with spirit and determination. They have tramped many miles to r each isola ted f a rm houses , ridden horseback through snow drifts, cleaned out classrooms, a nd built t he fires, sometimes paid travel money out of their own pockets, and often sha r ed their r e lief wage s with their needy student s. In any r e cord of this progr am , therefore, t ho courage and whole hearted interest of the teachers must be counted as substanti a l assets. In other ways the teachers have been put to the t est . Thrust into the midst of novel situations, their initiative and ingenuity have be en challenged to a grea t e r dogr ee perhaps than ever before in the te a ching profession. Tho t eache r is no longer up on a pla tform, but one of a friendly group , the members of which are looking eagerly t o him for pr a ctical help. Tho tea che r has developed a sense of democracy in education; oppor- tunity f or a ll; the righ t of each to express opinions; teachi ng fitt ed to the needs of the student rather than the st1.1dcn t fitted to the curriculum. In going ba ck into the public schools or into pr ivate employment, a s many of them are doing, the te ~chers believe t ha t they wil l do a better job of te ach1ng than e ver before. amaz ingly successful. As ::i. r ehabilitation program the WPA has -b een About 50 , 000 te a chers of the 100 , 000 c~~l oyed have found employment in tho r egula r schools or in other t ypes of work. The democratization of educqtion, going on under the emergancy program, is having its effects also on our co mrm.mi ty orgMizg ti nns. i'lc h2.vo attempted to take ed~ca tion to t he people wherever they a re, r egardles s of their ability to pay fees. This p lan has enlisted many community organiza- tions everywhe re to do their part, in providing mee ting pla ces and in reaching their membership with news of these opportunities. Churches and settle- ments have been opened for classes; community centers and social agencies have offer ed their services; the ir leaders have found themselves in demaJl.d on local adv isory co~m i t tee s, to help select tea chers and determine the p olicies of the now classe s. To be a sked to say wha t they want in education and to ta'k:o a hamlgid:e~e ting their own needs, with -alJlf.1-~ of government NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4-15 35 -12departments, h.-~s been a noveJ. and refreshing expe rience to thousands of citizens who had hardly bothered before to attend a school meeting. The emergency education program is helping to lay the groundwork for a permanent adult education movement. Stimu late d by the iVPA classes, a few stG. tes htwe passed legislation to finance pe rmanent progra ms. similar legislation is being proposed. In others, In the United States our system of free public education was brought about l a r ge ly through the efforts of Workers were convinced tha t only through such a syst em organized labor. could their children be given a chance for education. This system, which has resulted in rich benefits for children, should be rapidly extended to meet the expressed desires of our adult popula tion for an educational movement of their own. Adults have a double stake in the public schools -- through their taxes which support the system, and through their children who attend • . Their elected representa tives sit on school boards and in school offices, in the legislatures of the various sta tes a nd in our national Congress. If our democra cy me ans anythi ng, the needs of adults in education must find expression through these elect ed r epresenta tives. The future of such emergency classe s will then be assured. Democracy can only be a working forc e if peopJ.e lea:rn how to think. And we . must know how to use the tools of educa tion, of social and political action, in order that our thinking may clo some good. Who can say what the story of social progress in the United St c:;.tes ,:ill be when the thinking of our adult population is translated i nto te1· ms of intelligent democratic action? There are .qb out 300,000 school plants in this country which are in use on ly a few hours a day. No wonder we often have difficulty in justi- fying s chool appropriations to the taxpayer. Surely we must admit that we have been derelict in the use of even our existing resources. The full use and constant development of our schools to meet the needs of all the people I am very much afraid people are is educa tion 1 s big responsibility today. already beginning to forget what the President said at his second inaugural: I submit to you the following quot a tion, 11 I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children. --I see one-third of a Nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. It is not in despair that I paint you tha t p icture. I paint it for you in hope -- because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it -proposes to paint it out. 11 Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4-1535 -13- I am confident that tho educational leadership of this country must respond to the strongly expressed wishes of our adult students. They have given substantial evidence tha t they want these WPA classes to continue and to bo extended on a more permanent basis. What the people want they have moans to secure through democratic political a ction. In meeting this plain need of tho people, our schools will become genuine instruments of effective, popular education for young and. old. 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
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