BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

In 1935 financial support for community education came from the Mott
Foundation which supported the community school system in Flint, Michigan,
and several national associations, institutions and conferences. Workshops
and special visits to Flint and many published statements describing the
Flint program have given to thousands of laymen and educators throughout
America an understanding and enthusiasm for community education.
15. After the second World War, (with the thought or impression of
having a world wide responsibility) there was again a strong need for
educational renewal and renewal through education. One of the most
significant experiments of the war and post-war period was administered
by the University of Kentucky and known as "the Sloan Experiment".
Various threads of the community school movement ran through the Sloan
Experiment. For example, among the basic assumptions upon which the
experimental procedure was built, were:
- school programs which emphasize community programs are
effective for teaching skills and learning;
- if the children are to receive the ultimate benefits from a
program of education in community problems, instruction
dealing with these problems should begin in the first school
year and should continue throughout the period of schooling;
- all children should be taught, as early as possible, the
resources available for the solution of their problems;
- recruiting and utilising local resources and abilities would
contribute towards the success of the experiment.
16. During the first year of the experiment in Kentucky, a need for
instructional materials was recognised. The textbooks in use at the time
included some topics related to food, but an analysis revealed that the
content was general and.often impractical for rural areas. The major
emphasis of the experiment, therefore, became the preparation and evaluation
of new instructional materials focused upon a community problem
and the resources available for the solution of that problem.
R.M.Wo Travers in Second Handbook of Research of Teaching, Chicago 1973,
described the rationale for the emphasis on special-purpose instructional
materials in the Sloan Experiment. The underlying idea was that the
children would take home information that they might discuss with their
parents, and that the parents in turn would heed the advice and practical
information given. The materials were designed to have impact on the
quality of life in the community and were not limited to materials of
literary interest alone. Similar reasons are given today for quite
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