Adult Education Programs

In many ways, adult education is just as invaluable to an economy as is the elementary and secondary schooling of a young person. It is for this reason that adult education remains an important, if not understated, issue among policymakers. This paper takes a critical look at the various impacts of adult education and the role it plays in American society.

Keywords Adult Education; Fragmentation; K-12; Recidivism; Vocational Training; Workforce

Overview

Philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm once asked the following question: "Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?" (Thinkexist.com, 2007). Indeed, many in American society believe that education begins at kindergarten, proceeds through high school and, for those who can afford it, forward through four years of college. However, education is a never-ending part of life, for those who fail to keep their minds open to learning new concepts are doomed to remain stationary in life.

As it is in the grade-to-grade track of childhood education, the learning process is one based on steps. At first, the individual learns the basic skills he or she needs before moving on to more complex concepts. Among these initial capabilities are reading, writing, elementary mathematics and even speech. Gradually, the student moves on to studying books, writing essays, understanding more Byzantine mathematical equations and developing the capability to present thoughts and ideas in presentations before peers.

Upon leaving elementary and secondary education levels, the student moves into the collegiate level, not only honing the skills he or she developed in prior years, but focusing them on a career path. After graduating from an undergraduate university or college, the student may even move further along an educational path, entering law school, medical school, or other graduate schools for a Master's degree or Ph.D.

Still, many adults who have traveled along this path, even those who receive juris doctorate degrees, or doctorates of medicine, have much to learn, particularly when they are employed and using their skills in a particular workplace. Teachers, for example, may need training on new teaching techniques or technical resources that were not available to them during their schooling. An individual with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree may need to learn a foreign language in order to use his or her skills under the employment of a multinational corporation.

For some, however, the path of structured education may not be as long as that of the medical doctor, lawyer or MBA-trained businessman or businesswoman. For some, furthering an education after the secondary level entails receiving vocational training, such as machine and automotive repair, real estate certification or the culinary arts.

Many others may have reached the apex of the professional training that they may receive for their originally chosen path, but have decided to chart a new course along their careers. These individuals may have received training in one field, but developed an interest in another field. For them, they may have to return to school to recapture vital information and training to help them transition to their new workplace.

In many ways, adult education is just as invaluable to an economy as is the elementary and secondary schooling of a young person. It is for this reason that adult education remains an important, if not understated, issue among policymakers. This paper will take a critical look at the various impacts of adult education and the role it plays in American society.

How Adults Learn

At the heart of the central focus of this paper is how adults learn. When people think of the issue of education, they tend to think of children. With this myopic point of view, they see not only the coursework designed to foster and develop a student - they see the intellectual, personal and even the physical development of a young man or woman. After all, school is not just about recitation and memorization of facts and figures - it involves teaching a child how to analyze, solve basic problems and develop opinions. In a similar vein, teachers are trained not just to regurgitate curricula - part of their professional development entails how to interact with young people who are developing in many different ways as they receive their education.

Perhaps a major factor contributing to the issue of adult education is the fact that the adults themselves are considerably different in terms of their stage of cognitive development. Adults have already experienced the world around them in many ways, and may as a result react differently to lessons in the classroom than younger people. For example, children are dependent upon the teacher for guidance, while adults are usually self-directing. Additionally, adults draw from their own experience in answering questions, while children look elsewhere for answers. It is this experience that can be both an asset and a hindrance in an adult's educational process - it may help him or her understand certain concepts, but it may also have instilled in the student an incorrect manner of thought that needs to be undone and relearned (Gaibraith & Fouch, 2007).

In light of the fact that adults have a different learning process than do children, a different approach is necessary. In other words, teachers must come from a different set of training experiences, with a very different view of the educational process in general. However, as this paper next discusses, the educational development (and in some cases, re-development) of adults, both in terms of providing additional skills and in terms of combating functional and total illiteracy, greatly serves society.

Workforce Development

Prior to the 1960s, adult education was fragmented among often competing interests. For some, adult education was a moral and social responsibility as was public education for children. For others, it was an issue of ensuring literacy for all adults; a need for providing an education for the least literate adults. Still others viewed adult education as part of an ongoing effort to combat poverty - their view was that educated, poor adults are less likely to commit crimes and more likely to contribute to society. These schizoid elements of the overall issue of adult education meant that receiving recognition and/or support from the federal government would be a challenge, particularly in light of other, more general and salient issues. Among these concerns were poverty, crime, the economy and on the Cold War. As a small part of each of these issues, adult education was not given much light.

Still, signs emerged that made focus on educating adults a more pressing matter. In 1963, the military began noticing that recruits were failing basic entrance exams. In fact, after further examination, it became clear that nearly one-third of all draftees did not meet the military's standards for health and education. Recognizing the importance of basic education for and addressing the remedial disabilities among these young men, the military stressed further training and schooling in upward communications. Meanwhile, the Johnson administration, in its "Great Society" program (an initiative designed to end poverty and injustice), recognized that adult literacy was a vital part of the endeavor to make all of American society a contributor to the economy as well as a defender of the nation's security. Among the Great Society's myriad institutions was a caveat known as "Title IIB," the Adult Basic Education program - the precursor to the landmark Adult Education Act of 1966 (Sticht, 2006).

Adult education, once an afterthought that took the back seat in comparison to childhood education, poverty and crime, returned to the fore when efforts to remove unemployed and poverty-stricken citizens from the public dole developed. The well-documented achievement gap among economic classes adds fuel to the fire, as the majority of adults who are poor are also likely to be lacking in education. Hence, they are unable to shed their poverty and enter the workforce unless they receive the training they need. One observer states that adult education and training are touted as "critical processes that will provide these individuals with the chance to become economically self-sufficient as well as to be able to fully participate politically in civil society" (Sandlin, 2004).

The mandate for adult education as a means to reducing poverty and bolstering the workforce has become even stronger in light of recent data. According to the National Institute for Literacy, nearly 50 percent of all welfare recipients lack a high school diploma. In fact, in many circles, literacy levels and the number of welfare recipients are seen as inversely relative - the probability of an individual being on welfare is increased in the face of lower literacy levels (Warnken, 2006).

When adult education programs are implemented, the results are positive and quantifiable. A study conducted by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education revealed that adult education programs increase the likelihood of employability in a developing workforce. Vocational skills are also emphasized as important, as programs that develop these professional qualifications are also likely to produce valuable members of the workforce and contributors to the economy (MacKney, 2006). It is to this particular concept that attention is now turned.

Vocational Training

A large segment of the population, upon completion of their high school graduation requirements, may not wish to enroll in college. Still, they seek jobs that will speak to their talents; employment that is more suited to their tastes than the hallways of higher learning. For them, vocational training is a more appropriate avenue.

Vocational education is hardly a new concept. As long as there have been complex machines and systems, there has been a need for those who can repair, operate and maintain them. Still, a societal emphasis on vocational training after high school can be traced back to the years following World War II. As Americans were trying to reenter the labor force, junior colleges, community colleges and similar schools (which had previously been used as shorter-term continuations of high school graduates' academic pursuits) were increasingly becoming vocational training centers. These programs gave rise to trade schools, which also emphasized occupational training rather than the more traditional academic undergraduate experience.

There are positives and negatives to vocational training as a means of offering adults an education they prefer. On the positive side, the training they receive in mechanics, repair and other services are taught in a less-competitive environment, encouraging their own development at their preferred pace. They emerge with a skill that can be immediately applied in the workforce, and can translate into a consistent income source.

Conversely, the fragmentation of vocational training can create inequalities among institutions and among social classes. It can also create barriers for personal growth beyond what is taught at the course in question - with low completion rates and oft-stigmatized "certificates" and "associate's degrees" (when compared to Bachelor's degrees), as well as a relatively lower grade of employment being pursued in comparison to those areas taught at four-year universities. Vocational schools are seen by some as imposing personal limitations on large portions of the American population (Grubb, 2006).

Adult Education & Crime Prevention

As stated earlier, as attention started to turn to the issue of adult education, it became clear that anti-illiteracy programs could be used to combat crime. The hypothesis at hand was those who commit crime are more likely to lack a formal education. A recent study, however, painted a far more literal picture of this theory.

According to the US Department of Justice, the typical prison inmate is "undereducated, unemployed and living in poverty before incarceration." In fact, 19 percent of all adult prison inmates are illiterate, and a staggering 60 percent of inmates are functionally illiterate. To put this figure into perspective, the national rate of illiteracy in the US is 4 percent, with 23 percent functionally illiterate.

With such an impressive number of adult inmates with little to no formal education, the introduction of structured education while these individuals serve their sentences has had results, as recidivism rates have decreased significantly among those who received this schooling. Criminal recidivism, or the tendency to relapse into criminal behavior after incarceration, is an important indicator of the success or failure of efforts to rehabilitate the would-be criminal. With US re-arrest rates hovering near 63 percent, and re-incarceration rates at almost 41 percent, an imperative for addressing criminal recidivism becomes apparent. While many programs, such as "boot camps" or "shock" incarceration facilities (results of which have been mixed), have been introduced toward this end, the approach with the most proven effectiveness in reducing recidivism has been prison adult literacy and education programs (Center on Crime, Community and Culture, 2003).

An analysis of 3,600 inmates in three states confirms this assertion. This study revealed that adult education while behind bars reduces the likelihood of recidivism by nearly 30 percent. An informal cost-benefit study suggests that for every dollar spent on adult literacy programs for prison inmates, two dollars that normally would have been spent on prosecutions would be saved (Karpowitz & Kenner, n.d.).

Public Funding for Adult Education

As is the case for other forms of public education, a successful public adult education program depends on the aid of federal, state and local government. Of course, as the 21st century started out with a latent sense of fiscal austerity that began with the 2001-2004 recession and deepened with the 2007-2009 Great Recession, adult education must compete with other programs for critical funding dollars. When placed in competition with programs designed to deliver quality educations for young people, the plight of adult education programs is placed at even more of a disadvantage. Some observers take the disparity between varying forms of public education and adult education's "competitive" relationship with other public funding recipients as a rallying cry. For example, a 1991 study urged that stakeholders take to heart the successful public outcry over HIV/AIDS research funding as a case study for pursuit of adult education funding (Griffith, 1991).

In this time of tight budgets, territoriality makes such atypical comparisons necessary. In fact, the issue of educating adults and children alike makes for a sticky debate concerning where to differentiate between childhood education and adult education. Without a clear demarcation in funding policy, competition will no doubt continue, not only in terms of finance, but in terms of the varying forms of education programs as well ("To what extent…," 1922).

This debate may find some degree of resolution in light of the fact that many community colleges have programs that may hone the skills of younger students as well as prove useful in the field of adult education. A recent study revealed that many of these institutions of higher learning have courses that cover a variety of fields of use to young people and adults alike, but are segregating between the two groups. The author of the study asserts that if the two segments are joined, considerable expense and bureaucracy may be alleviated:

Like any element of education, the ability to gauge how programs are effectively reaching the students is paramount to the programs' continuation. Furthermore, comprehensive analysis of the interconnectedness of the myriad of components of this complex issue may help generate large-scale support among government leaders for funding such programs, even in times of fiscal austerity.

Conclusions

It can be said with little to no argument that education is the key for a variety of society's functions. The US government (and indeed every governmental level within the purview of Capital Hill) has long recognized the truth behind this statement, and for that very reason, virtually every form of educational government agency and institution has been tasked with finding resources that can meet the needs of students from grades K-12.

Unfortunately, however, such foci are not on adults, but rather on the students in the K-12 system. The center of attention is any situation in which children's needs are protected. Public attitudes about adult education, then, is one of disbelief at the fact that the same tactics employed to teach young people are not always effective when applied to adult students.

Still, there is no denying the critical importance of ensuring that adults receive an education. This paper has demonstrated the fact that a healthy economy relies on a fully-trained and educated workforce. The United States military learned this lesson the hard way, as many of their recruits proved illiterate and could not contribute to the efforts of their brothers in arms. The truths about the state of adult illiteracy led to a larger effort to ensure that more adults be given access to the training they need, whether at a basic, intermediate or advanced level, to be contributing members of the society.

One of the most difficult factors in addressing this issue is the type of education involved. The environment in which one receives the education is as important as the coursework being studied. Vocational studies, for example, have been given greater attention in the last half of the 20th century as a sort of alternative to "traditional" classroom-style educations. The training of individuals in industrial arts and basic professional services, however, is not without controversy, however, as the separation between vocational schools and more "elite" colleges and universities may limit the professional growth of the student in question. Continued studies of the effects of vocational training on long-term careers, the data of which is limited at this time, may be warranted.

The extreme downside of a lack of educating adults is that those without educations, statistically speaking, are more likely to commit crimes. Study after study, however, shows that efforts to bring literacy to the unacceptably large number of illiterate incarcerated men and women reduce rates of recidivism. Education, therefore, does not just benefit the economy - it also enhances public safety by reducing the desire for committing future crimes.

As demonstrated here and in countless studies over the last several decades, adult education is clearly vital to the American way of life, just as is the K-12 education of young people. The final piece of the puzzle in the implementation of adult education programs is, naturally, funding. With government treasuries battered by recession, most state and federal legislatures are still wary of making sizable investments across the multitude of budget earmark recipients. Rather, these leaders are prioritizing the issues. None of these leaders are suggesting that adult education programs, for example, are not useful. They are, however, now being handed a much more comprehensive view of the entire issue of adult education, due in large part of the fragmentation of these varying elements. With a true amalgamation of the pieces of adult education in hand, few would argue that this subject is a low priority for American society.

Terms & Concepts

Adult Education: Academic and vocational training for students above 18 years of age.

Fragmentation: The separation of various subcomponents of a larger issue into individual parts.

K-12: Typical grade progression for childhood education (Kindergarten through grade 12).

Recidivism: The tendency to relapse into criminal behavior after incarceration.

Vocational Training: Education geared toward a particular professional track rather than intellectual or academic pursuits.

Workforce: Aggregate population of employed individuals.

Bibliography

Center on Crime, Community and Culture. (2003). Education as crime prevention. Criminal Justice Research Brief. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/research_brief__2.pdf.

Crookston, A., & Hooks, G. (2012). Community colleges, budget cuts, and jobs: The impact of community colleges on employment growth in rural U.S. counties, 1976-2004. Sociology of Education, 85, 350-372. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=82378815&site=ehost-live

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Karpowitz, D. & Kenner, M. (n.d.). Educations as crime prevention. Bard Prison Initiative. Retrieved December 11, 2007, from http://www.bard.edu/bpi/pdfs/crime_report.pdf.

MacKney, P. (2006, January 13). Neglected workforce has no appetite to learn. Times Educational Supplement, (4668), 6.

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Sandlin, J.A. (2004). It's all up to you. Adult Education Quarterly, 54 , 89-104. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=12256282&site=ehost-live

Sticht, T.G. (2006). U.S. adult education and literacy system marks milestone. Reading Today, 24 , 22. Retrieved December 11, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=22624925&site=ehost-live

Thinkexist.com. (2007). Retrieved December 10, 2007, from http://thinkexist.com/quotations/adulthood/

To what extent are we warranted in purchasing education for adults from funds levied for the training of children of school age? (1922). Journal of Education, 95, 342-344.

Warnken, W. (2006). Marginalization of adult literacy education in workforce preparedness collaboration. College Reading Association, , 66-78. Retrieved December 11, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=26328899&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

American adult education. (2007). Literacy Today, , 28-29. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=25687785&site=ehost-live

Ashburn, E. (2006). New regulations could push more welfare recipients out of college. Chronicle of Higher Education, 52 , A23. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=21949338&site=ehost-live

Finkel, E. (2007). Report: Colleges must meet diverse learning, funding needs of older adult students. Community College Week, 20 , 4. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=27538175&site=ehost-live

Spellman, N. (2007). Enrollment and retention barriers adult students encounter. Community College Enterprise, 13 , 63-79. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=25242943&site=ehost-live