High points in adult school work

Abstract

When I attempted to organize adult school work in Alabama and was greeted with such expressions as, Times is a-gettin' too highflyin' fur me; I've lived this long athout a edicition, I guess I kin go on the rest of the way; Lord, I ain't never seed in one of them big univarsalies, and I thank God I ain't; I'm gettin' too old to larn, etc., I knew there must be real work ahead. One old man said, after he had attended the adult school for a few weeks, Wal, I didn't know it could be sich fun to go to school; and neither did I realize until I attempted it that it required so much planning, petting, humoring, and cajoling to make the adult work a success. But that's a part of the game. Back of it all there's that burning desire to learn, to break away from conditions that circumstances have thrust upon them, and it only requires real understanding to adapt one's education to the form necessary to win the regard of these adult pupils. Though they live in their own small sphere of life, seeing and knowing the same conditions day after day, consigned to that same menial round of toil because they have not the keythat is, the alphabet-which unlocks for them the great storehouse of knowledge, including science, art, literature, history, and the inventions, from the past ages down to the present, yet they are just as sympathetic, just as appreciative, and just as human as others who have climbed the ladder of fame to the utmost rounds. And when I say human, I mean it in the same old way--that is, they have their likes and dislikes, their opinions, and, most of all, their whims and peculiarities, just as any one else. In adult work it's a game of give and take. They're not only taking, but they are giving as well; and the two types of education are as far apart as star and star. One is books, beauty, and wealth, but not the kind of wealth inherited from the rich uncle or from some oil investment; the other is knowledge and experience handed down, within narrow limits, from generation to generation. And what are the things they themselves like to have included in this process of give and take? The first I shall mention-and a principle which, much to my chagrin, I learned through bitter experience-is: Teach them first the things they most desire to know. Sometimes