Adult Education

Abstract

IN 1940 it might well seem that “education was the first casualty”. Yet, as in the First World War, it was already arising with new vitality, phoenix-like, from the consuming flames. The shape of things to come in Mr.Butler's Education Act was beginning to appear. More immediately, the educational resources of the whole of Britain had been mobilized, through the Central Advisory Council for Education in H.M. Forces and its twenty-three regional committees, to provide mental stimulus and sustenance for the men and women who were being transformed into citizen soldiers, sailors and airmen. In the autumn the members of the Army Educational Corps were brought back from the 'other duties' to which they had been posted, and an immense educational enterprise had been launched with the enemy literally knocking at our gates. Amazing in itself, no effort and adventure on this scale would have been possible in peace-time. But howmuch was actually done, and what are likely to be the enduring fruits of this enormous experiment in further education ?

Adult Education

The Record of the British Army. By Major T. H. Hawkins and L. J. F. Brimble. Pp. viii + 420. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1947.) 15s. net.