Continuation Classes for Adults
Continuation courses for adults are intended to carry on the schooling of people who for some reason or other have found it necessary to stop ordinary school work. In many cases continuation classes are conducted at night in what is commonly known as night school. Here there are two types of courses, one designed to give training in the conventional academic subjects, the other to give greater efficiency in the practical occupational life of the student. As an example of general courses not connected with industries we may cite the special courses for immigrants which have of late been matters of an especially urgent campaign by the Bureau of Education, as indicated in the following paragraphs from a paper by Mr. Wheaton, the specialist on immigration in the bureau:
Education, however, is the most potent force toward inculcating American ideals and impulses. The English language and a knowledge of the civic forces of the country are indispensable to the alien in adjusting himself to America. Through our common speech comes understanding. Without it the pages of our newspapers are meaningless and ordinary matters of business with Americans must be transacted through the medium of an interpreter. Only by overcoming inability to speak English, by eliminating illiteracy among aliens, and by instilling the ideals, attitudes, and habits of thought of America, can we hope to make real American citizens of the strangers within our gates....
The education of children of immigrants in the day schools has always been considered a primary and essential function of the school system. But the training of adults in English and civics has not been generally so considered. Evening schools, through which only can adults be reached effectively, have usually been regarded merely as adjuncts to the day-school system, and hence are maintained when funds can be spared or eked out. Adequate facilities for the adult are rarely organized and maintained as an organic part of the educational system with a specific appropriation and unified supervision. In fact, education of immigrants has been left too largely to the well-intentioned but sporadic interest and effort of private organizations and individuals. The provision of public facilities may, therefore, be treated at present and for some time to come as a legitimate extension activity for educational systems.
It is with this latter conception in mind that the United States Bureau of Education has for a considerable period been actively engaged in promoting the extension of facilities for the education of immigrants over the compulsory attendance age. Authority to undertake this extensive program is derived from the organic act creating the bureau in 1867 and from various acts of Congress making appropriations for the purpose of promoting industrial and vocational training, the elimination of illiteracy, and the cause of education generally.[49]
The industrial phase of continuation education was noted in the discussions of the last chapter. It remains only to add that the industrial courses for adults have done much to make available for mature workers the kind of training which the school is now beginning to give to children.
Continuation classes are often provided by organizations outside of the schools, such as the Christian associations for young men and women, and labor unions, and through private endowment.