Suffice it to say that we have been passing through a period in which the spread of popular education is matched only by an increasing disbelief in its end-results. Such discontent furnishes the ideal environment for the growth of new educational movements, and out of it have come experimental schools, progressive education, nursery schools, experimental colleges, et cetera, et cetera. But most of the early responses to educational discontent were pointed toward the revision of learning for children and youth. We must look to other causes in order to explain the new educational ferment among adults. Life for adults in America tends to become standardized.
Mass production leads to mass consumption.
Differences of locality tend to disappear as we come to read the same books, magazines, and newspapers, wear the same brand of clothing, listen to the same radio programs, and watch the same movies. And, the first impact of standardization leads to a vague consciousness of the loss of freedom. When our choices are limited we feel the effects of restraint, bondage. Adult education is, partially at least, a response to this new surplusage of time and energy. As our culture came more and more under the sway of scientific disciplines we all tended to become specialists.