Adult Education Movement in America 1920-1930

Steve BarlowTy FrohbieterDane Graham

National and World Events1920s

• 1920: Women’s Suffrage; Prohibition Begins in the U.S.; First Commercial Radio Broadcast Aired.

• 1921: U.S. Congress Declares End to WWI; Extreme Inflation in Germany; Irish Free State Proclaimed.

• 1922: Teapot Dome Scandal in Wyoming Unfolds; Insulin Discovered; Mussolini Marches on Rome; Tomb of King Tut Uncovered.

• 1923: President Harding Dies; Charleston Dance Becomes Popular; Hitler Jailed After Failed Coup.

• 1924: First Olympic Winter Games Held; Lenin Dies/Stalin Becomes Soviet Dictator.

• 1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes Wyoming’s Governor and First Woman Governor in U.S.; Hitler Publishes Mein Kampf.

• 1926: A.A. Milne Publishes Winnie-the-Pooh; Robert Goddard Fires His First Liquid-Fuel Rocket; The General Strike Happens in Britain Bringing the Nation to a Standstill.

• 1927: BBC Founded; Babe Ruth Breaks Home-Run Record; First Talking Movie, The Jazz Singer; Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the Atlantic; German Economy Collapses.

• 1928: Herbert Hoover Wins Presidential Election Bubble Gum Invented; First Mickey Mouse Cartoon; First Oxford English Dictionary Published; Penicillin Discovered; Sliced Bread Invented.

• 1929: Car Radio Invented; First Academy Awards; Stock Market Crashes - Triggering the Great Depression.

1920

• The Carnegie Corporation begins to take interest in adult education. The Carnegie Corporation identifies several national problems that can be addressed through education.

1921

• Books become a popular way to learn about the culture. – Books were used to address common concerns

about civilization and human history. H.G wells The outline of history is a best seller.

• Workers Education Bureau (WEB) formed. • Bryn Mawr Summer school established.

1921 Continued

• Brookwood Labor College opened (closed in 1937 due to financing and charges of radicalism).

• Thorndike publishes the Teachers Word Book.

1922

• Corporations start their own training.Corporations started to do in-house training programs like apprenticeships and on-the-job training.

Outside programs like evening schools were established.

The National Personnel Association was formed.

1923

• Adult Education becomes the focus of the New School.– An experiment in adult education and social

research decides to make adult education the main focus.

– The New School later becomes a degree- granting university.

1924

• In 1924, the radio station KYW in Chicago became the first in the United States, and most likely in North America, to broadcast a health education program of daily morning exercises. This radio program was done in collaboration with the physical education staff of the Chicago YMCA.

• Progressive Movement.• American Library Adult Education Movement

1925

• The NAACP’s legal strategy against segregated education began with a grant given by the Garland Fund, which enabled the organization to design and implement a plan to strategically litigate the practice.

• John Dewey Publishes Experience and Nature.

1926

Carnegie Corporation’s adult education campaign culminates into the American Association for Adult Education. (AAAE)

1927Edward L. Thorndike published The Measurement of Intelligence.

1928

• 65 colleges and universities using radio as a tool for linking universities to the public.

• Summer schools for women workers organized the Affiliated Schools for Women Workers with Hilda Smith as the director.

1929

• The National Literacy Campaign was launched this time targeting Native Americans, African Americans, and immigrants.

• Indoor Henry Ford Museum created.• The Fellowship of Reconciliation began its

focus on social and economic matters, calling attention to class struggles and denouncing the treatment of African Americans.

National and World Events 1930s

•1930: Gandhi's Salt March; Pluto Discovered; Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture in the U.S.S.R.• 1931: Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion; Christ Monument Built on Rio de Janeiro Hilltop; Empire State Building Completed; U.S. Officially Receives National Anthem.• 1932: Air Conditioning Invented; Amelia Earhart First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic; Lindbergh's Baby Kidnapped; Scientists Split the Atom. • 1933: FDR Launches New Deal; Adolf Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany; Albert Einstein Emigrates to U.S.; End of Prohibition.

• 1934: Cheeseburger Created; The Dust Bowl; Parker Brothers Sells the Game "Monopoly”.

• 1935: Alcoholics Anonymous Founded; Germany Issues the Anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws; Social Security Enacted in U.S.

• 1936: Carnegie Publishes How to Win Friends and Influence People; Hoover Dam Completed; Nazi Olympics in Berlin; Spanish Civil War Begins

• 1937: Amelia Earhart Vanishes; Golden Gate Bridge Opened; The Hindenberg Disaster; Japan Invades China.

• 1938: Broadcast of The War of the Worlds Causes Panic;Chamberlain Announces "Peace in Our Time" ;The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht).

• 1939: First Commercial Flight Over the Atlantic; German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Signed; Helicopter Invented World War II Begins.

1930

• National Park Service created the Branch of Education in its Washington office.

• The end of the “parent education on the nation’s intellectual map” movement, which resulted in the founding of Parents Magazine and spending of over seven million dollars to promote “standardized, expert-controlled child raising.”

• The start of the Dust Bowl.

1931

• President Herbert Hoover's National Advisory Committee on Education issues its report on American schools, finding them in generally good condition.

• Dick and Jane books were published.

1932

• The Highlander Folk School was founded by Myles Horton.

1933• The New Deal program in education began.• The first adult education program was created

at Columbia University.• Tennessee Valley Authority (TAV)• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

1934

• First Handbook of Adult Education published.• New Deal Teacher-Training Center

1935

•Workers Progress Administration (WPA)• Jane Addams dies.

1936

• First adult education textbook published: Adult Education by Lyman Bryson.

1937

•Brookwood Labor College closes, the victim of the Depression and internal political divisions.•Two hundred thousand people are enrolled in twenty thousand general education classes.

1938

• Skinner publishes The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis.

• Fair Labor Act• John Dewey’s Experience & Education is

published.

1939

• Kellogg Centers for Continuing Education established.

• John Steinbeck publishes the Dust Bowl epic The Grapes of Wrath.

• 80% of the population owns a radio.

Historical Figures in Adult Education

• Emily Griffith – Opportunity School of Denver, Colorado

Albert Mansbridge

• Worked with the Workers Educational Association

• Helped Form the World Association of Adult Education

Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949)

Psychologist

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune1875 – 1955

National Figure in African American Women’s Education and History

Questions • In 1920, the first commercial radio broadcast aired changing the way

information could be disseminated to the population. In 1924, the first educational radio broadcast was aired. In what ways did the invention of radio influence the practice of adult education?

• What was the relationship between the Carnegie Foundation and the American Association for Adult Education?

• What roles did the FDR’s New Deal and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) play during the Great Depression?

• During the 1930s, there were questions about the role of the federal government in adult education. Should the federal government have played a less intrusive role during this dark period?

References:Field, Richard (7/14/2005) John Dewey (1859-1952), retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/dewey/Rachal, John, (na) THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ADULT EDUCATION MOVEMENT: THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL, 1924-1933, retrieved from http://www-distance.syr.edu/rachaRosenberg, Jennifer (na) 1920s Timeline, retrieved from, http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1920timeline.htm

• Stubblefield, H. W., & Keane, P. (1994). Adult education in the American experience: From the colonial period to the present. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.