Voluntaryism and the State in Adult Education: the W.E.A. and the 1925 T.U.C. Education Scheme
Titel:
Voluntaryism and the State in Adult Education: the W.E.A. and the 1925 T.U.C. Education Scheme
Auteur:
Fieldhouse, R.
Verschenen in:
History of education
Paginering:
Jaargang 10 (1981) nr. 1 pagina's 45-63
Jaar:
1981-03
Inhoud:
The State should not, in our opinion, refuse financial support to institutions, colleges and classes, merely on the ground that they have a particular 'atmosphere' or appeal specially to students of this type or that. All that it ought to ask is that they be concerned with serious study. It is said in criticism of this view that the adult educational work of sectarian bodies ought not to be subsidised out of public funds. We do not agree; in our judgment, whether the State ought to help such education depends upon the quality of the work and not upon the institution which conducts it. The basis of discrimination between education and propaganda is not the particular opinions held by the teacher or the students, but the intellectual competence and quality of the former and the seriousness and continuity of study of the latter. Any other standard puts the State in a position of censorship which it ought not to be expected to take. It would inevitably give rise to a differentiation between the knowledge which in the opinion of the State it is desirable to disseminate and knowledge the diffusion of which should not be encouraged. The State could, indeed, hardly avoid the charge of 'manufacturing public opinion'. In our view, the only sound principle is that the State should be willing to help all serious educational work, including the educational work of institutions and organisations which are recruited predominantly from students with, say, a particular religious or political philosophy.
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