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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
History of Adult Education from Colonial to Post-Industrial America, November 15, 2006
Eduard C. Lindeman's profound insight into teaching methods, learning theories, and diverse motivations for adult learning are beautifully illustrated in his classic work: The Meaning of Adult Education. Lindeman's ideas are original, comprehensive in their approach to the adult learner, and express a breath of understanding of adult education, which was not to be formally developed by theorists until decades later.
Lindeman originally published this book in 1926, and like Myles Horton, he was influenced by the world around him. Horton (Adams, 1975) and Lindeman both had first-hand knowledge about Danish developments in adult education. Lindeman was impressed by the folk school that he experienced on a trip to Denmark in 1920. The Volkshochschulen was a place where farmers came to pursue self-improvement. (p., xli) Danes participated in vast cooperatives, and these economic enterprises gave them leisure time to devote to adult education while providing everyone with a comfortable standard of living. At a time in the United States when industrialization and labor movements in the north and Jim Crow in the south perpetuated poverty and Black Sunday looming on the horizon, the Danish Volkshochschulen must have seemed like a utopia. The Volkshochschulen had a tremendous impact on Lindeman and his ideas about the possibilities of adult education.
"The whole of life is learning," writes Lindeman (p. 5). This exemplifies Lindeman's timeless ideas about life-long learning and that he believed adult education is one point on a continuum of learning. In the chapter entitled Those Who Need to be Learners, Lindeman demonstrates his deep insight into how adults learn. He writes about the importance of the context of education and that "experience is the adult learner's living textbook." (p. 7) He argues for educators to recognize the necessity of teaching adults "actualities, not abstractions," which today is one of the basic tenants of adult education. (p. 6)
There is a gap between what is being taught in the educational system and what learners will actually use in the real world. For example, Lindeman argues that the educational system promotes "self-expression", but society "regards self-expression as an aspect of abnormality." (p. 35) Rather than pursue this futile end, Lindeman sees adult education as a means of transcending this dissonance by encouraging and facilitating adult education that teaching learners how to learn and to the love of learning. The process of learning in more important to Lindeman than some measurable outcome. Lindeman's poignant recollection of the Danish farmer is a case in point. Lindeman saw a painting created by the farmer and offered to purchase it. The farmer was completely insulted and "he not only refused to bargain but severely reprimanded me for presuming to place a pecuniary valuation upon the product of his recreation." (p. 40)
Humanistic values are evident in Lindeman's work decades before their formal development as a theoretical basis during the 1950's. For example, Lindeman writes, "the psycho-therapeutic specialist does not cure his patient; he merely assists the patient in learning the methods of self-recovery." (p. 46) Today, this is central to client-guided therapy and teaching based on humanistic theories. Lindeman wrote this at the height of psycho-analytical popularity.
The construct of intelligence is another issue Lindeman addresses. Rather than be measurable, his notions of intelligence recognize that there are different types of intelligence and that each individual is a unique mix of different types of aptitudes. He argues that we must recognize and celebrate this diversity in order to facilitate others in finding their unique intelligence in order to express themselves, experience self-knowledge, and be creative. This is Lindeman's definition of freedom, and the role of the teacher is to facilitate this-another example of his humanistic views.
The "Danish farmer who...talked less about art because he lived artistically," is our model for adult education. The painter was about the process, not the painting. Lindeman uses this example to show us that adult learning is a creative process and if allowed to fully engage in learning, adult learners, each of us, "can all live artistically." (p., 59) This rings true of Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. One could say that given the tools, adult education is a means to self-discovery and self-actualization.
Like Karl Marx, Lindeman warns us about specialization. He writes about specialization in education, industry, and government. Specialization in education turns discovery and creative thinking into categorical sets of information. In a sense, this is a preemptive criticism of cognitivism, but is best viewed as an argument for allowing the true intellectual process to occur. Lindeman sees the "evils of specialism" as an effective means of social and intellectual control. (p. 75) Lindeman argues for a broad liberal education as an undergraduate and reserving specialization for post-graduate studies. He warns us that specialism in government may lead to "more efficient results will be accomplished when power tends to become absolute and centralized." (p. 81) Specialism is a particular evil in industry and possesses the ability to isolate workers more and more from the means of their production. This specialism eventually leads to increased specialism. The influence of Marx's views on capitalism and Max Weber's notions of bureaucracy are evident in Lindeman's notions about specialism, and this part of Lindeman's thesis is thrilling to read.
Lindeman was a sociologist at heart, and his chapter on groups and membership reaffirms his humanistic views that acknowledge the holistic nature of individuals and the fact that we are social creatures. For example, Lindeman writes: "Growth should be a process of integrating emotions with thought, an evolving capacity for feeling more deeply and thinking more clearly." ( p. 110) This deep insight demonstrates that Lindeman understood the affective aspects of learning and that adult learners learn best when new information can be related to other aspects of their lives. Lindeman has a keen understanding of the motivations of adult learners. Education, in Lindeman's view, is a source of directing collective action much like Horton's work at the Highlander Folk School. (Adams, 1975)
"To be educated is not to be informed but to find illumination in informed living" is Lindeman's definition of educated, learned. Mark Twain would say that Lindeman didn't let his learnin' interfere with his education. Lindeman's book is a masterpiece of insight into human nature, society, the academic vs. the pragmatic, and a testament to a great thinker way ahead of his time. This book should be on the "must read" list of anyone associated with adult education and it will be of importance in the study of sociology, psychology, social work, and anthropology. This book is packed with information, and there are certainly numerous interest I have gleaned over. With that in mind, this book could be read by anyone who likes non-fiction. It is a pleasure to read, every word carries meaning, and each new chapter reveals a little more about the it means to be an adult learner, the role of the teacher, and the influences, internal and external, on motivation and fulfillment of adult education.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ideas for Adult Education, November 28, 2006
Lindeman's The Meaning of Adult Education is a collection of essays regarding his views on adult education. His background was in social work, and his essays ring with words that suggest how educating adults can bring about change ...to the learners themselves, as well as society. Each one describes how a particular aspect or focus (be it power, knowledge, or freedom, etc) contributes to an adult's goal of growing. For example, in the first chapter he notes that experience should be the textbook for an adult learner, and he condemns the authoritative teaching found in public schools. In the essay on Power he applies it towards organized labor movements. The Self Expression chapter tells adult educators to pay attention to what activities bring joy to their students. This process of growing and changing comes about through adult education. His postscript ties all the essays together with the statement that "Growth is the goal of life. Power, knowledge, freedom, enjoyment, creativity--these and all other immediate ends for which we strive are contributory to the one ultimate goal which is to grow, to become." (p.128).
I think Lindeman's book has proven its worth. Eighty years later, the adult education themes that Lindeman outlined are still in existence. Namely, that experience/situations not subjects/textbooks should guide the adult learner; education should be tailored to each specific student; education is an art; a teacher should assist a student in learning methods of self-discovery; education is a process, not an end; yes/no questions aren't worth asking; local affairs are more important than distant ones; and act on what you're learning to make positive changes in the society around you.
Readers of adult education literature will find Lindeman's themes repeated in other books. Jacob Riis in How the Other Half Lives, wrote years before Lindeman that education was a key to reform. He and Lindeman shared a poor immigrant background, and both sought to change the conditions of America's poor. Myles Horton took Lindeman's words to heart and created an entire school whose purpose was to create social change (read Unearthing Seeds of Fire: The Idea of Highlander). Horton and Lindeman both studied the Danish Folk Schools to learn more about their methods. Benjamin Franklin, long before Lindeman's time, demonstrated what Lindeman formalized, that people need to continuously improve themselves, to grow. Franklin used a small group format to create a discussion association called the Junta.
I thoroughly enjoy a book written as Lindeman's is in short essays. I appreciate the important finer points written in short concise chapters. Adults pressed for time can pick up his book, read one essay (chapter) get the whole picture and then put the book down until another day without losing any of the book's momentum. This book is a must read for adult educators. It is a classic that should be found in the current section bookshelf of all instructors of adults. The essays continue to remain timely and it is a book that can be revisited often.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Adult Educator's view, November 5, 2006
The Meaning of Adult Education by Eduard C. Lindeman is a timeless piece of adult education literature. Written in 1926, this book is still a work that sheds light on the meaning and importance of adult education. Lindeman makes clear distinctions between what he refers to as traditional education and how he feels adult education should occur. He investigates how adults learn, what motivates them to learn and how this learning can increase the quality of their lives and ultimately the society in which they live.
Lindeman's vision for adult education was not bound by a classroom, textbooks and formal instruction. Instead Lindeman suggests that education comes from people's experience, situations and ideals. "The real distinction between educated and uneducated persons is not to be found in such superficial criteria as academic degrees, formal study or accumulation of facts; indeed, formal learning may, and often does, lead people into narrow scholarship and out of life." (Lindeman, 110)
Lindeman was known in the social philosophy arena, yet his work in adult education has earned him the respect as a founding father. His book has many references to reformation in education and progressive influences, reflective of the thinking at the time of his writing. One theme that is clear throughout the book is that learning expands well beyond the confines of mandatory education of children. He clearly states this in the beginning of the book by declaring that "education is life - ...the whole of life is learning, therefore education can have no endings." (Lindeman, 5) This thinking certainly has become the foundation of adult education as practiced today.
Lindeman further states that "the approach to adult education will be via the route of situations, not subjects...in adult education the curriculum is built around the student's needs and interests." (Lindeman, 6) In this approach texts and teachers are secondary to situations that create learning in the adult's daily life. This flows into Lindeman's fourth assumption of adult education, which is the value of the learner's experience. As Lindeman says, "If education is life, then life is also education." (Lindeman, 6) These themes have continued as major tenets of adult education in the decades since Lindeman's writing.
In the chapter entitled, "Those Who Would Create" Lindeman states "Intelligence for power, power for self-expression, and self expression in a context of relative freedom: this is the sequence which leads to creative living." (Lindeman, 53) He goes on to say that a learner will not seek a lone objective and find this freedom, but instead allows the forces to interact together, generating creativity. Such was the case for Benjamin Franklin, he sought education or learning for learning's sake. Through this learning, he was able to express himself on a multitude of topics with both countrymen and gentlemen. This great diversity and knowledge came together at many different times to generate extraordinary creativity.
After reading Lindeman's thoughts on trade unions one can't help but think that it would have been interesting to hear a discussion between him and Myles Horton, the founder of Highlander Folk School. After reading the book, Unearthing the Seeds of Fire - The Idea of Highlander, a reader is inspired to learn of the way in which the desperately poor in the state of Tennessee banded together to learn and solve their problems. Many times this involved confrontational methods, such as marching, demonstrating, or even striking. Lindeman, however, believes that "if adults approach education with the end view that their new knowledge is to be the instrument of a probable future revolution, they will almost certainly defeat the very purposes of learning." These Highlanders created revolution in their environment, the purpose of their learning was to make changes to better their lives. They were very effective in accomplishing a number of goals related to jobs, fair wages, discriminatory and environmental issues. They sacrificed much in their struggles, yet Lindeman would suggest that this form of revolution should be used "only when the true learning process has broken down, failed." (Lindeman, 49) This reader would suggest that there are times when revolution is necessary for change because traditional methods are failing some in society.
In the book, How the Other Half Lives, by Jacob Riis, one senses the desperation in the lives of those who lived in the tenements in New York City. Riis did an admirable job shedding light on their plight, but one couldn't help but wonder why so few of them tried to escape or better their condition. In Lindeman's book, he speaks briefly of Utopia:
"We have once more reached one of those historical periods which seems like a dead-end because the shell of the old institutions and habits, although crumbling, still possess sufficient resiliency to prevent the new from bursting forth. In like periods of the past, thinkers with vision turned occasion to account by imagining and portraying perfect societies, Utopias. The function of Utopia is to set activity toward new goals, to visualize the consequences of changed conduct, to redirect ideals. We need not lose ourselves in fanciful, legendary and unrealizable dreams but if we do not utilize our present difficulties as opportunities for equally adventurous challenges to the future, we shall deserve to be recorded a generation of people who possessed many things but lacked courage and vision for higher ventures." (Lindeman, 83)
Although the immigrants living in New York City tenements did not possess much, they had come to America in search of their Utopia, yet it seems that they became trapped in a crumbling shell of old institutions. That combined with old habits seemed to prevent them from "bursting forth" and creating new circumstances for themselves.
There are many nuggets of wisdom in the book that deserve more thought and reflection than the casual read affords. This book is one to keep on the shelves for further reference and guidance as educators continue their search for creating dynamic environments for adult learners. The book is rich with inspiration and challenges. It is a great book for those in the field wanting renewed stimulation. It is not a book for new educators that will give prescribed patterns or a framework for successful adult education.
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