We speak of the heavy hand of the past. We speak of the long arm of the past. And for centuries man has wondered how he could escape from the weight and the grasp of the past. Joseph K. Hart gave us his answer in 1927*. His answer was adult education. The reason is simple. The adults are in control. Adults determine the pattern and content of education in children. “We must learn how to educate adults – before we can get much further with the education of children. “ This is an assumption contrary to our conventional notions. We have put our faith in childhood education. We have allocated our funds on the basis of this faith.
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“...Here is the problem of educating for a democratic society: The adult generation must be convinced that it will be safe for the world to permit children to grow up in ranges of experience suitable to their varied levels of development....Our problem is, how shall we liberalize the adult mind so that it will escape from its ancient fear of childhood? Such adult education is not to be confused with the need of a more effective skill for doing some obvious task. It calls for a new point of view in the adult..."
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"Our real task is not that of endlessly re-educating adults who were badly educated in childhood. It is that of making sure that we shall eventually get generations of adults who will have escaped the deficiencies, the inhibitions, the blockings, the frustrations of our present adult generation, who will not have to be endlessly re-educated, but whose intellectual history from childhood on will have been that of normal progression, full development and actual achievement of an intelligent adjustment to the fluid modern world and its opportunities, its tasks, and its responsibilities.”

Evidently Joseph Hart's hopes for adult education have not yet been realized. We still face the challenge to produce an adult generation that, having been liberated from provincial mindedness, will not be content to perpetuate in its successors its own ignorance and prejudice.

* Joseph K. Hart, Adult Education, New York: Thomas Crowell 1927. All quotations are from Hart's book unless otherwise indicated.