Adult Education (1950)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] school is out for the day but not for the night only one part of the day's schooling is [Music] over for it isn't the evening when the day's work is done that the adults come to school [Music] then the lights go on and the students come to the evening classes classes they themselves have requested they come to gain the knowledge they have found they need since I became director of this adult education center I frequently leave my office to watch the students pass and wonder what mysterious ious urge drives them on to learn more and more tonight I'm going to make a general tour of the classes perhaps I'll find out [Music] and this evening the director of all the adult education centers in the area is visiting us he also likes to look over the students work and mark the success or failure in the various [Music] classes it isn't the quality of the work that counts it's the fact that somebody wants to do it that somebody has the opportunity and takes it every class in the center and there are 83 of them is held because 20 or more people asked for it there's no end to the asking or the variety of subjects often husbands and wives study together education can be a family affair [Music] they study just about everything arts and the sciences that fill their own individual needs the crafts that will help them at home and in [Music] business the orchestra is another kind of family the kind that comes together because of mutual interest professionals and amateurs the good and the far from good find that all their differences can be settled if they just rehearse hard [Music] enough good Cooks study to become better cooks and they do we sample the cookies and take more than we should but good Cooks all over the world enjoy appreciation yes they really improve here at the school social dancing is one of the classes too and the students not only learn the steps but they come to know each other as well [Music] for myself there's a class in public speaking going on tonight and I very much want to hear what's [Music] said tonight there's a chance really to find out what the students think of the center and their work here tonight as their public speaking assignment the students are going to tell what adult education has done for [Music] them I wonder who'll be the first to volunteer [Music] this should be an interesting story he starts by telling about the job he had when he first came to the center once upon a time I liked making things I was good at my job I was well paid for my work but I'd been at that same Lathe for too long and i' reached the place where I was ruining my work [Music] if the truth were known I guess my work was ruining [Music] me that was the day that our shop steward first talked to me about adult education and the center I wanted to know why I hadn't been getting ahead why I'd been stuck on that Lathe for so long the shop steward told me frankly that I lacked the education for a supervisory position that I didn't know enough about the thinking end of my business he told me about this school and the classes I could take here in a class in mathematics I learned to think about the work that I'd been doing my hands and my mind learned a new way of working together there had to be planning before the work came to my lathe I learned to [Music] plan I became more than I had been through adult education that was a good story I wonder who'll be [Music] next sometimes we have to call on the daydreamers and find out what stuff their dreams are made [Music] of he was far away from this public speaking class I wonder where he was I guess I wasn't really here at all I guess I was home on my farm I was thinking about the day that I first realized that learning is something that can go on as long as a man lives maybe I thought I knew everything I needed to just because the hands were laying well yes there were lots of eggs that morning and I had plans plans to build a new Bruder and have more eggs that is I was expecting the plans by mail you see I've been taking a correspondence course from the agricultural College of the State University for some time and they were sending the plans when the mail came I thought maybe this was going to be the [Music] day and it was the plan did [Music] come the plans were clear enough except that I didn't know enough carpentry to execute [Music] them but I knew enough to bring my problem right here to the center the plans the blueprints became reality adult education has taught me that two heads are better than one particularly when one of them knows so much more than I do that boter was full of baby chick when I left home tonight I am a doodler [Music] I used to Doodle all the time principally at the office while I took orders and listened to complaints and made promises over the [Music] [Applause] telephone not all my friends and fellow workers appreciated my doodling but then it's my hard to tell people that you'd like to be an artist but that doodling is just about as far as you can get one day a certain person guessed guessed about my wanting to be an artist and told me about the center and the art classes [Music] here funny thing about that she turned out to be a student here herself in my first class my teacher told me that I needed to look at people to really see them I guessed that I'd seen them as Doodles for too long they looked fine on Saturday mornings in the park right near my home and I had more fun than I'd had in a long time [Music] it was here in the art classes in the center that the whole thing opened up for me it was here that I knew I could learn to say anything that I had to say I don't know what you think of it but it's the best way I have of telling you what adult education has done for me [Music] [Applause] [Music] I wondered if we'd be lucky enough to hear her story when she first came into this public speaking class I think she was the most frightened human being I'd ever seen all my life I guess I've been more frightened of fear than of anything else [Music] [Applause] [Music] the day that Johnny was hurt in the school playground I knew he'd be all right but there were other aspects about it frightened [Music] me it was knowing that I'd have to do something about it outside that scared [Music] me the children always wanted me to get out more to meet people their friends parents and I never could tell them that this shyness this lack of Courage made such activities almost impossible for me that day the children insisted that I'd go to the PTA in their school and asked that something be done to make the playground safer oh I went to the meeting and my heart was going so fast I thought everybody in the room could hear it I knew then that I couldn't do [Music] it I tried I tried as hard as I could but I just couldn't get to my feet other women spoke and spoke well on such things as improving the school lunch [Music] program and then the meeting was over worst of all was the thought of facing the children I started this public speaking class at the beginning of the term this afternoon the PTA passed my resolution the one the children wanted me to make and that's what adult education has done for [Applause] me things happen here at the center that make all of us know that we're on the right track with this program it's a nice feeling and the school grows and goes on every school night brings requests for more classes every teacher meets ideas and Forward Thinking new students join each term old students keep right on studying [Music] there's a quote from Walt Witman that we like in this place he wrote we have not come this far in this land to Halt today [Music] ah [Music]