ADULT ELEMENTARY

EDUCATION

BY

HULDAH FLORENCE COOK

Formerly Instructor in Methods of Adult Education, Cleveland School of Education
Co-Author "Lessons in Democracy"

AND

EDITH MAY WALKER

Assistant Supervisor of Adult Elementary Education, Department of
Evening Schools, Cleveland Public Schools

Vocational Educ. Division

For permission to use selections in this book we are indebted to the following: The
American Book Company for the selection "Iron and Steel" from First Lessons in English
for Foreigners by Frederick Houghton; The Bookman for "The Bridge Builders," by
Evelyn Simms; The W. B. Conkey Company for "Which Are You" from Poems of Power,
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox; George H. Doran Company for "Trees," by Joyce Kilmer;
"The Thinker," by Berton Braley, from Songs of a Workaday World; Doubleday, Page &
Company for "Coaly Bay, The Outlaw Horse" from Wild Animal Ways, by Ernest
Thompson Seton; Ginn & Company for "Shape and Size of the Earth" from New Geogra-
phy, Book II, by Wallace Atwood, "Our Forest Resources" and "Forests Decreasing"
from Resources and Industries of the United States, by Elizabeth Fisher; Houghton Mifflin
Company for "The Arrow and the Song," "The Builders," and "The Rainy Day"
from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "A Fable" from
Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letter to James M. Cox and Letter to Mrs. Philip C.
Kauffman from Letters of the Honorable Franklin K. Lane; The Macmillan Company for
"The Cotton Gin," "A Trip to Georgia and Inventing the Cotton Gin," and "A Small
Country or a Great One" from A First Book in American History, by Beard and Bagley,
and a selection from The Kentucky Cardinal, by James Lane Allen; G. P. Putnam's Sons
for "God Bless My Mother," "After The Wrong Man," "No Ambition So Great As True
Esteem,"
""The Prize for Homeliness," "A Lawyer with a Conscience," "Stand with the
Right," "Owners of Our Country," "Trust the Poor," "Nobility Not a Bar in Our
Army," "Respect for the Eggs, Not the Hat," "If You Hit, Hit Hard!" "A Narrow
Squeak for the Pig," "Settle It," "To Rise, Improve Yourself," "Right Makes Might,"
"How Long a Man's Legs Should Be," "Take One from Three and None Remain," "Set
Your Feet Right, and Then Stand Firm," and "Pluck a Thistle and Plant a Flower" from
Lincolnics, by Abraham Lincoln; Scott Foresman Company for "The Elephants that
Struck," by Samuel White Baker, from Junior High School Literature, Book I; Charles
Scribner's Sons for "Pete of the Steel Mills," by Hershel S. Hall, "Four Things" and
"Work" from the Works of Henry van Dyke, "Looking for Work," "A Visit to the Shoe-
maker's," and "Theatre Exits," from English for Coming Citizens, by H. H. Goldberger
and "What the Constitution Says," "A Joke On a Great Humorist" and "Education
for Citizenship" from America for Coming Citizens, by H. H. Goldberger, and "The Value
of Dependableness" from Be Square, by Byron Forbush; The Stratford Company for
"Three Questions," by Leo Tolstoi from What Men Live By; The Youth's Companion for
"The Habit of Thrift," by Myron T. Herrick.

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LC5217 26

Vocati Educ

PREFACE

Epoch-making changes in the social and economic order have taken place within the past several years. These changes have brought about a reinterpretation of the needs and scope of the field of education, and in turn new agencies have had to be organized to meet needs newly discovered. The evening school for the adult is one of the most outstanding, and foremost in national importance, of all these new agencies.

Formerly education was held a thing apart from everyday living, essential only for the youth during his preearning period. To-day it is held essential not only as a preparation for life but as a continuous process necessary to the best living. In the past most people were accustomed to thinking that the learning period of every individual ceased on his reaching maturity. They became old men and women long before their time because they stopped learning before nature intended them to. These worthy ancestors of ours might have believed in progress for the human race, but they failed utterly to realize the possibility of continuous progress in the life of the individual. It is the belief in the continuous advance of the individual that typifies the attitude of modern life. Thousands of people who have broken with the Old World and additional thousands of native-born, deprived in childhood of satisfying educational opportunities, have imbibed the onward spirit. They have a fresh inspiration

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for work, for keeping the mind alert, and for learning more and more of the wonders of present-day civilization. One needs only to attend the night-school classes of any large American city to behold the miracle of grown men and women restraining themselves from a legitimate evening's recreation after the day's labors, to prepare themselves for more adequate participation in the life about them.

The public school is the greatest single factor able to give the educational assistance which will afford each adult student opportunity to develop and to make the most of his natural talents. Consequently, it is the nation-wide responsibility of the public schools to keep alive and to feed these fires of new-born energy. The first chartings of this field in education grew out of an hysterical patriotism, and teaching was undertaken without adequate or appropriate pedagogical preparation. We no longer dare to send into the classroom poorly equipped teachers. Leaders in this field have discerned that we must have a definite course of training for the teachers of adults, and we must put into the hands of these teachers a curriculum specifically adapted to the adult mind and to adult needs.

In the United States three distinct adult groups are definitely in need of educational assistance: the foreignborn adult who must acquire a knowledge of the English language before he can effectively fit into American life; the illiterate native-born white; and the American negro.

It is in response to the needs of these three groups of adults that this volume has been prepared. The authors have attempted to present suggestions as to the best methods, types of material, and plans of procedure which

will give assistance in meeting four outstanding problems in the adult field. These problems are:

1. Selection of suitable methods.

2. The choice of suitable content for classroom presentation accompanied by outlines for balanced programmes in all grades.

3. A plan for classification of students into harmonious working units, on the basis of language accomplishment. 4. Suggestions as to a method of approach in teaching reading and writing to the adult illiterate.

With the same thought in mind as Henry Brooks Adams had when he spoke of the education of the young man, we can say of the adult student that he is a "certain form of energy; the object to be gained is economy of his force; the training is partly the clearing away of obstacles, partly the direct application of effort. Once acquired, the tools and models may be thrown away." Just so the adult in the evening school is "a form of energy" which no community should fail to evaluate and to direct.

Only real teachers will truly sense and clarify the involvements. This volume is dedicated to their efforts.

The authors wish here to express their appreciation to Mr. Frank Porter, Directing Supervisor of the Department of Evening Schools of the Cleveland Public Schools, to Mr. Charles W. Hunt, Dean of the Cleveland School of Education, to Mr. Alonzo G. Grace, Head of the Department of Adult Education, Cleveland School of Education, and to Professor Don D. Lescohier, Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin, for reviewing the manuscript and making helpful suggestions. Especial thanks are due Miss Pauline Hood Lewis, secretary to