The Inquiring Mind; 6; The Inquiring Mind in Action. Part 1

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm

sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. courses and belonging to groups and joining associations and participating in them. And generally, wherever we see the activity of educational institutions, we see that their participation is widening. But I think you and I, as we look about us, probably realize that even yet, not everybody is participating in an educational activity. And indeed, I think it often seems that a relatively small number of our people are participating in this way. I often think of the matter in something like this. It seems to me that we might consider, for example, that this rectangle, which is drawn here, represents all of the adults, all the men and women in

the country. Now, of these people, probably more than a half are not participating in any kind of an educational activity at all. In other words, continued learning throughout the lives is something which is never persistent, never continuous, which never goes on with any kind of a scheme or a purpose. Somewhat smaller number engage in someone kind of activity. These are people who may watch a series on their educational television stations, who may visit museums, who may read purposefully in libraries, who may belong to groups and participate, perhaps, in union educational activities, or at work on their job in some kind of a training program. But their participation is just a single kind. There's a still smaller number who participate in several different kinds of activities, who do differing sorts of things, who perhaps now do some serious reading at another time take a course, at another time go to a series of lectures, do other sorts of activities. For these people, of course,

there's an awareness that these many different kinds of activities all have a similar common purpose. They're all concerned with helping the adult mind really to know and really to learn. There's a still smaller number who not only understand this fact, we put it into practice. In a small segment of our society, we have people who continue to learn throughout their lives, who build this into their participation, into their continuing activity. Now, recently, I've been making some studies of this small group of people. I have been concerned with trying to see what kinds of people really have inquiring minds in our society, and what it is that they do. And in this program, and in the next one in this series on the inquiring mind, we'll explore the kinds of activities where it sees people who might have made case studies of what it is that these people do when they really try to learn. Associated with me in this research project has been Mr. Earl Hargott, formerly research associate at the University of Chicago,

now president of the Northeast Mississippi Junior College. Mr. Hargott, would you summarize what you and I have learned about the ways by which these continuing learners continue to learn? How these people we have interviewed, we've gone into depth to try to understand and to know the kind of educational activities in which they've participated. And we've been surprised at the wide range of activities these people have participated in. They've engaged in a variety of activities for educated reasons. For example, one of our subjects whom we interviewed felt that she did not want to take employment in one position longer than two year period. She wanted to be in a new environment. She wanted to be in new areas of employment so that she might study different ways about different kind of materials, of different things. When

we studied these cases and we found and we explored these in depth, we discovered that people had developed patterns of their own, participating according to their own individual interest and desires. But no two people had formed the same kind of pattern. No two people did the same kind of things the same time. But in general, we found that there are major areas of educational activities and today, we want to look at these major areas. There are nine such major areas and as we look at these, we find that leading is in the area of reading. Another one is in taken courses. A third is by belonging to groups and participating in group activities. Another one is by belonging to associations

by attending conferences, by attending lectures, by traveling, by visiting museums and art centers. Now the ninth major educational activity will not be discussed today. The participation in use of the mass media, we feel that this is such an important topic that we would like to explore this in depth and it will be presented in the next presentation. Well then Mr. Hargit, let's go through these various kinds of activities and discuss them one by one. The first one that you mentioned, reading seems to me to be clearly the most important and most significant, chiefly because this is the thing which is both a value in itself and reading is an important educational activity. But also because it supports and reinforces all of the other. It's hard to

think of any kind of an educational activity which wouldn't in some sense cause you to read. Now the cases, we have the cases here on the table before us the reports of all of these projects and I think in every one of them, we would clearly see that the people are significantly concerned with reading in some way. One person put it I think in the same way that practically everybody else might put it. He said the day I stop reading is the day I stop eating. Now one of the major source of obtaining reading material is in the public library. Now let's look at some of the library, a large metropolitan library is the kind of things that can be done. A library is a place that has materials, materials of all kinds, has a variety of sources of materials. Place where you can check out or obtain materials on

just about any kind of activity you would like to do so. The library is a place where groups of people meet and talk and study and read. I'm sure that all of you have, each of you have been to a library. You've seen these kind of things in a large metropolitan library. Place where you can purchase material if you would like to do so. And then a library has a collection of materials that's divided up into academic departments, containing material on history. Material that would aid one in seeking knowledge in any area to find information about travel, about foreign countries. A place that we can get materials to travel all over the world. No, nobody, of course, would feel much more strongly than I do about the importance of public libraries. They've been very important in my own life and they certainly have been in the lives

of most of the people whom we've studied. We want to remember, of course, though, that a public library is only one of the ways by which we use books. And perhaps one of the most significant things that the continuing learners have done has been to develop their own private collections. Buying books at bookstores, buying them by mail, belonging to book clubs, doing all of the other kinds of things which permit people to have books of their own. And one of our subjects I thought put the matter quite effectively when he said this. Said, I like to buy books rather than borrow them from the library because I don't think any good books should be read once. There's always something there that you didn't see the first time and that you notice when you pick it up the second time. Still another major activity and one that we presented is that of people belonging to groups. Group of

people who get together, meet and formally to talk about problems and issues. Such an example of group is great books, world politics, or the American Foundation for Continuing Education. Still another is that of belonging to associations. Association that provides a rich learning opportunity for the individual member who belongs, a place where it do get together to talk about problems of importance. Many of you belong to the PTA, such an example of an association. Still another important and major way is that of taking courses that belong into an organized group that receives direct instructions. We have people across the nation taking courses in class, also through correspondence from colleges, universities, YMCA, settlement houses,

from labor unions, from management in various industries. And then still another one is that of attending conferences. Perhaps it might be useful before we talked about conferences though if we could perhaps look at some of the kinds of things which people do when they participate in these groups, these courses, and these associations. And I had a cultural extension. We find that people participate in a variety of activities, heartic cultural, nursery practices, learning skills, and activities of all kind. And we see people working together in various areas to learn about business, having the object to acquire information, to develop skills. And we see that people are learning

the various skills that would enable them to qualify for perhaps better opportunities in business or government position, acquiring knowledge that they can use, now knowledge that will be with them in future years, developing the skill of neatness and accuracy, giving attention to details, to analyze business transactions. We see also of course that parent education is important. And in many of our activities we find parents coming to the playground to observe, to take notes, to see how other children act, so that they can get some better idea themselves. Study and child development, the analysis of family relationship, home care and management, designing the home as this young couple are doing, trying to find out something about interior

decoration, developing all of the skills which make a house a home. And then we have also the building of things with the hands. Here we see a group of women who are creating, they're what's called, I suppose, they're grounding glories, and who are also making clothes for the rest of the members of their family, perhaps earning something in this way, which will supplement the family's capacity to make the dollar go farther, and also satisfy the creative instinct that almost every woman and man has. But education is not merely an indoor activity, it goes outdoors to the garden. How does the yard look? People are learning about floor culture and trying to make their own places look happier with the expert help from the adult education classes, which are offered in so many of our American communities, trying to see how beauty can be arrived at in the yard in the surroundings

of the home. In the field of arts and crafts, we find adults learn techniques necessary to give them an expression of artistic impulse. Trying to develop and express their own appreciation of beauty. Skills of taking and recording scenes and contemporary life for the future, such as what's again working out the artistic impulse. Yes, always we have this. Person developing skills, and here's an expression of the way that they can do this through making art, and objects with their hands. Throughout history of our nation, one of the important educational activities has been that of citizenship. Of teaching the foreign born, the use of our

English language, so that they may be able to participate in all the functions and practices of a democratic society, to learn how to read, to write, to express themselves, to others, to written form and through a voice, and then leading up to that day of pledging allegiance to a new country. I particularly liked the way he had to be nudged before he said, I pledge. But the academic area of adult education also has many subjects. Here we see language being taught for the people who are concerned about it perhaps because they are going to travel and want to know perhaps and play as a broad cultural activity. It's been said that you can never know your own language really until you know another one. But language is not, of course, the only thing. We have literature, the social studies, mathematics, the biological and physical

sciences. All of these kinds of learning, these fields of learning constitute the basis of a liberal education, a sound liberal education. They help the adult to understand very much better the vital issues that affect his everyday life. I think most people who participate are anxious to have some kind of an awareness of the opinions and the resources that are available for attaining the highest possible social and cultural standards. And world affairs in the United States history furnished the background that's necessary to have a really good society. The reading, writing, and arithmetic. If you didn't get them when you were young are important in the life of the individual. Wonder if you want to try to see whether you can work in your head, the problem that this young man has learned to work out on the board.

One phase of adult program is that of civic affairs. In a group situation we find that adults are encouraged to develop civic consciousness to think about vital issues, issues that battle to the community, to deal as an individual and to the nation, to seek out information so that he can form his own opinion about matters, so that he be able to express himself in front of a group, to be able to say, this is what I believe about this thing. This is adult education. As it takes place within the individual, we see people rising to the occasion to speak out we see others who haven't. They're remaining in their seats. We wonder why they don't speak out. But it's always this need for additional information. And this generally speaking,

of course, is adult education wherever we sit and in many different forms and many different manifestations. This is the business of learning to do your job more efficiently. Learning to be a more respected citizen and a better parent, and learning how to be a better person. And the thousands of men and women who have entered the portals of the various kinds of adult educational institutions in our society have extended their usefulness to their family, to themselves as we certainly see here, to the community and to the nation. In some kind of very real way, these people have discovered themselves. They've opened the door to new accomplishments and to greater happiness. And I think it's fair to say that all adults, all mature people can share the benefits of new knowledge and new skills. And adult educational

activities in the community will welcome those who come to them to participate in these kinds of groups, in courses, and in the associational activities, which we've seen illustrated today in this film, which has been very generously loaned to us by the Los Angeles Public School System. One of the major important ways that people, in which people participate, is through attending lecture. We see that lecture is them. I think, you know, before we talk about lectures too much, we see them here. Though, perhaps, since they're there, we might mention them. The lectures are our activities, which have been very significant in our society from all of its past history. And I think we found, in our cases, that these lectures were very significant today as well. Would this be your own feeling? Yes, I think so, and people, while

we have people attending lectures, we also have people attending conferences. Where conference, and when we say this, we think of the residential type conference center, a place where people come together, they meet, they discuss things, they associate with each other in daily contact. This is what one fellow had to say about attending a conference. One of the things which I find most helpful is to get away from my home and my job and go to a conference at the university where we've got a center for continuing education. They have a big building at the university there now, you know, everything all into the same roof. Bedrooms, meeting rooms, an auditorium, a library, a cafeteria, everything. You go there and you meet people from all over the state in the same line of work you are, and with the same interest, and you get a terrific benefit out of the a concentrated period of study and discussion.

No telephones, no problems, a whole new environment, you have really learned. Another way, which people learn is through travel. Today we have more people traveling than ever before. Ease of transportation, better ways, better highways, perhaps, but I think that perhaps this is really host -true is because people hear more about what's going on throughout the world. And then consequently they want to go to see, to know at first ten, these things that they read about in the mass media, they hear about, so that we do find people traveling more today. I'm reminded of, in our case, studies of the fellow who wanted to travel, and this is what he had to say about traveling. Well, this was, of course, just one of the people who took travel seriously. This man said,

he incidentally was a skilled worker, president of his local labor union. Somehow I got interested in Thomas Jefferson, so I read a lot about him and some selections from his letters and his writings. Then I got the wife and youngsters interested too, and we decided to take our summer vacation, just traveling around to a lot of places associated with Jefferson. Mydicello, the University of Virginia, Washington, though works. It really gave us a good feeling to do it, and we learned a lot. It was one of our best family travel projects. The last way, the major way in which people learned that we will discuss today is that of attending museums and art centers. Fifty years ago we found that museums and art centers were repositories of articles of historical significance. But as you can see in this picture today, we have an attractive

surrounding. Where these objects are displayed, people are told about them. They're given information about it. They carried on tours to see, and they learned at first hand by looking at them. So that we have seen then eight major ways in which people learn and participate. They're actually nine of these. The ninth one, we will not use until next week. It'll be presented more in detail than we can do today. But just to review these, then we find that people do participate in educational activities through reading, through taking courses, both in the classroom and by correspondence, by joining groups, such as the great books, the world politics, American Foundation for Continuing Education, by attending associations that have activities for their membership, by attending the residential tight conference center, by visiting and listening to lectures on an important topic

of their own interest, and by traveling to all parts of the globe, and then by visiting museums and art centers. These eight activities, which have been summarized for you by Mr. Earl Hargott, who has been associated with me in this particular piece of research, which we're reporting in this series of programs, are of course the ways by which people participate directly, by which they do things which they can themselves take direct part in. Now of course, a very important part of our society, today are the mass media, television. The medium where you and I are now using to communicate. The radio, magazines, newspapers, the motion picture, many in many other ways, we find that all around us, there are these influences which beat upon the individual. Now we discover that the people who have inquiring minds use the mass

media in some very interesting ways in order to further their own education, and so in the program which we will have, which follows this one, we'll deal with the way by which people who have inquiring minds really use the mass media for educational purposes. But I would like to come back here at the end of this program once again to look at this rectangle which I presented and which in my mind rather summarizes the whole nature of American society. As I said to begin with, probably most people, even in our own enlightened day, still don't participate in any kind of educational activity. But there's an increasing number who do at least one thing, who somehow in a sustained way or a systematic way, do something to keep on learning in some significant sense. There's some others who do two or three things, who participate in two or three activities and who know in a kind of rational way, I suppose, that all of these

activities are concerned with the improvement of the mature mind and in various ways. There are a few people in our society who not only know this, but put it into being. Now, I suppose most of us would really like to live in a society in which all people continued to learn and took advantage of the great benefits which come from the mature mind throughout the entire course of their life. All we have to do you see is to get the people who've not participated in any kind of an activity to participate in the first one. We've got to get these people who participate just in one kind of activity to do more things. We've got finally to get these people to build a systematic pattern. All we really have to do you see, to get a learning society is just to move three lines down. The Inquiring Mind, featuring Cyril

Hu, professor of education at the University of Chicago and an app of visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, was produced for the National Educational Television and Radio Center by WMVSTV in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. This is NET, National Educational Television.