Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-08
American Education
Adult, Home Education

Men and women who have become conscious of desire for learning be- yond the rudiments are reaching out, here and there, to supplement their ed ucation at home. Seventy-eight million people over 10 years of age in the United States have learned to read and write in the English language or in the lang uage of their native tongues
 Teachers in the little country schools and in the larger graded schools are giving to thousands of boys and girls, each year the equipment of knowledge, happiness, and contentment for them selves, if they will but use the tools of learning already within their grasp.
 The home reading courses of the United States Bureau of Education have been instituted to meet the demand of adults for help in furthering their own education at home These courses, 22 in number. cover wide rangL Sf subjects, such as literature, biography, history, fiction, foreign trade, teaching, etc.
 Thousands of adults have availed themselves, of this opportunity, many of whom upon completion of course, have received the certificate issued by the United States bureau of education and signed by the commissioner of education. Sixteen state universities assist the bureau of education in giving to the peo- pie this free service in the direction of their reading. These states are: Ari- zona, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa. Kentucky, Louisiana, North Caro- lima, North Dakota, Oregon. South Caro- lima, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
 At the conference of special collabor- ators and librarians called recently by the United States commissioner of edu- cation at Lexington, Ky, in conjunction with the National University extension
 association, to discuss home education by means of reading courses and the co-op- i eration of state and federal agencies, the i opinion was voiced that the average American satisfies himself with what the current magazines and newspapers af- : ford letting the better literature of the world lie on the shelves of libraries or
 in bookshops, unknown and unread save f by the few who have found that books
 contain the greatest principles of life
 time is the developments in strength oi the cause of adult education.
 I The expressions from educators and 1 from hundreds of men and women wht have left school, but who are deterrain, ed to take advantage of every opportun. ity to further their own education, poin the way to those who are offering variou, kinds of educational opportunity.
 Prof. Walton S. Bittner of Indiana University, says: ssThe value of thesl
 courses is not alone to be measured b.
 the number of persons who eomplet them, nor by the character of the 'work the readers do. but chiefly, to my mind by the power of suggestioR-the impuls toward high-class literature which
 given to scores of youths and adult who ask for the lists and give som interest and attention to them. A sur prisingly large number actually enrol purchase some of the standard books an, read them"
 | Professor Bftner further says that h : has little patience with that academi insistence which demands lesson paper
 and elaborate tests as essential evidenc Iof education value.