Adult education for social change by DrRobbins https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z What are your take-aways from watching this interview? en-us 2017-10-24 20:38:25 UTC 2025-11-16 14:29:48 UTC hello@padlet.com Kim Mariner https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/201478203 This video is incredibly relevant today, especially in regards to barriers due to race, class, and gender. Why Myles Horton says almost seems like common sense. People have experiences, but they don't know how important those experiences are . They have to learn how to learn. Teaching people how to learn will open up their perspectives, and they'll begin to realize that things in this world don't just have to be. They actual have the experience and the power to change things for the better. It's the people, through education, changing the reality around them and challenging the system. I think education can also play a part in supporting the fact that some things are problems. For instance, voting being done a weekday. It sounds like whining because people want to vote on a weekend; however, if you take in consideration that most people can't take weekdays off, then a person can begin to realize the problem. Being educated about the problem and having support to know it is a legitimate issue can lead to change. ]]> 2017-10-29 10:52:32 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/201478203 Lizzie Young https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/201935939 I agree with Kim in that, even though this video is from 1981--over 35 years old, everything he said is relevant to today. The eurocentric educational system is still teaching people to be the “nuts and bolts” of their set capitalist system, rather than acknowledging everything about the individual that enriches this country--the deviations, their creativity,  their customs. Our political environment hasn’t changed yet. We’re still not fully democratic, and our government still doesn’t benefit the people so much as the profits of a select few. I particularly like his statement: Don’t mold people. Liberate them. I hear the Transformative in his purpose--to help adults consider their experiences and analyze them, “give comfort to their experiences” so they can build and transform, and be empowered to take charge of their own lives and circumstances. Without fully moving to socialism or communism, he stresses the importance of strengthening the individual and asserting ones rights, but with the purpose of helping others have those same rights. These very public political movements are all still happening now. Education has always been a liberator. Adult education offers strength with its awareness and helps build a resistance to circumstance and an immediacy for social change.]]> 2017-10-30 21:04:39 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/201935939 Kate Zeichner https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202293742 A couple key take-aways for me from this video are Myles Horton’s comment on how “you don’t teach adults things, but rather help them learn,” and his insistence that we have to examine all our democratic processes in order to be democratic. These are things that I unconsciously already believed, but the way he articulated them in this interview made my own belief in them clearer to me. I remember when I started college (at Carleton College – a small liberal arts school in the Midwest) some faculty or administrator or some other leadership figure said to us freshmen at orientation that this was a place we came to “learn how to learn.” This confused me at the time, but as I worked my way through college it started to make more sense, and now as I look back on the foundation I built at Carleton (note – I was a Japanese Literature major and now I’m a clinical nurse midwife, so clearly the subject matter itself wasn’t what I took away for the rest of my life!) I can see how my basic skills on research, reading, writing, and critical thinking all come from that foundation, and all help me learn any number of things now as an independent adult. The second take-away from the Myles Horton video around the importance of examination of all our democratic processes is quite different, but just as powerful. How can we expect adult learners to be able to engage fully if they are tied down by various social injustices or restrictions on freedoms? Especially in this current political climate we cannot sit back and say we are a democracy unless we bring democratic values to all aspects of our lives.]]> 2017-10-31 18:51:38 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202293742 Edith Follansbee https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202375039 I agree with Kate, we need to start the conversations in our communities, talk about social justice, and get up and rally. If we don’t, our community will think we agree with the political climate of disrespecting others and thinking it’s acceptable. Myles Horton said, “It’s not the price you pay but it’s the privilege to be”. 

What I loved about Myles Horton is that he was always thinking about how to make life better for people. That the core of his activism was in the bible, “Love each other”. Through that idea sprang many different ways to love each other. As each decade’s issues came and went there were things he told himself and others, “think fast and stay calm”, “you need to organize”, and” create your own life”.  Each of these statements are packed with emotion and the need for action. Horton created a platform to teach others how to organize and that is what go him into trouble. Myles Horton does not seem that radical as we live our lives now. In his culture, time, and pollical climate, people were not thinking to push the social structure but fight wars in Europe and Japan. Every era, every country, every social group has an opportunity to change their community to be a better place for everyone in it.  

]]> 2017-11-01 03:29:19 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202375039 Louise Sneath https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202692954 I love this guy!! Could listen to him all day! Anyway, a few take-aways for me. Firstly, I think his theory of 'universality of rights' is spot on and think this is perhaps the best reason behind all attempts to make society more equal through social justice approaches. Our desire as people should be to make sure that all people have a shared universality of rights and as adult educators we should be encouraging our students to see where they are experience an inequality of rights and take this to action.

Secondly, I agree with Edith and think that Horton has always been thinking of others; love is the core of the NT as Horton says but what is often forgotten  is that Jesus was himself the most radical person that has ever walked this earth. I am glad that Horton was able to see this and be inspired by the love that Jesus demonstrates.  

As educators we need to encourage our students to focus on the big picture, to realise that big journeys start with a small step and to engage in the courageous resistance as outlined on p233 of our textbook.

I agree with Kate, Lizzie and Kim that we need to hear this today and that to be a democracy, we need to act like a democracy whether it is through protests or whether it is through changing the voting procedure as Kim mentions. ]]> 2017-11-01 19:43:48 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202692954 Eliot Mar https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202752339 I appreciated how Myles was able to convey many of the feelings I already held in watching his interview. I agree with Kate in this way. His approach to adult learning in that it is not teaching to people as a passive person taking in information, but rather an active person seeking information agrees with much of the reading we've already discussed. With respect to the developmental theories we've discussed, Myles seems to favor a less linear ideal. His interview touched on favoring the tenants of many different cultures, faith systems, and ideologies and noted that the important part was in following those tenants. I thought this to be an important point to make about how adults learn in that it is important to keep an open mind to other ideas and methods of learning.]]> 2017-11-02 01:10:35 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202752339 Andrea Calles Smith https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202767314 One of the main take aways I had from watching this video was Horton saying that we empower people. I felt that resonated with me because that is something that should be done in teaching and learning. I think this went along with his comments on peer teaching and relating our experiences to others. This almost shows how we can actually teaches ourselves and learn from one another, but again it's important that we empower others to have a voice to begin with and feel as if what they say is contributing. This is relevant in today's world because, like Horton mentioned, traditional education focuses on how the students would thrive in this cookie cutter environment. It fails to take account so many other aspects into the classroom. I have a lot of take aways from this video. It's crazy how this video is so old, yet all of what he preaches is relevant in today's world.]]> 2017-11-02 03:12:20 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202767314 Dana Goularte https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202784210 I loved Myles talk on education. Something that stuck out to me was that he was most interested in facilitating peoples learning and helping others learn. He stated traditional education systems are "molding people instead of liberating people". Adult eduction is about actively participating in your education and using your past. I loved how he differentiated between adult learning stating, "people have a pst, unlike children, and experiences based on their experience of learning." He is interested in " Help(ing) them understand how to analyze and transform 
those experiences". I think that Myles understands how to holistically look at education as ever changing and evolving. I agree with Louise that as educators we should focus on the "big picture" which includes what Myles brought up. If we are able to help them make sense of their experiences then we are able to assist in their development
 ]]> 2017-11-02 06:13:32 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/202784210 Andrew Schultz https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/203048914 This was an awesome interview, I had never heard of Myles Horton before. I love his philosophy that you don't "teach" adults, you "help them learn", and through this facilitation of learning these adults can take control of their lives.  I thought of this class when he discussed the idea of the group bringing their unique experiences to a discussion and relating them to the topic at hand.  As he says, these experiences may not seem important initially, but he facilitates the analysis and reflection of these experiences that then makes them so valuable.  I felt like I have had similar experiences in our discussions, by finding value in past experiences that I may not have realized before.  I liked Horton's metaphor of childhood education as turning individuals into nuts and bolts that keep a system running.  On the contrary, adult education is all about inspiring people to think and analyze critically as individuals, even challenging the system that is place.  Horton is obviously very educated.  He talks about how his own experiences have shaped his learning, starting with his Christian upbringing and then expanding into his education in Marxism and the beliefs of other perceived radicals.  As Andrea commented, the idea of analyzing and challenging the ways of society and supposed democracy are still so relevant today.  ]]> 2017-11-02 17:58:43 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/203048914 Ana Apter https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/203591967 I thought that one quote summed up the wisdom of Myles Horton: "You don't teach people things as adults, you help them learn." Horton's method is ideal for adults--taking their experience and helping them to make meaning of them and use them to further their knowledge. I think that the way Myles Horton's philosophy encourages social change is by validating adults' experiences and allowing them to live their reality and analyze it and figure out where it can take them. Most people have had experiences in their life that make them want to change something about how systems work, but "traditional education" tries to teach people how to fit into the current society, instead of encouraging them to think creatively about how the current system might not be the best possible system.]]> 2017-11-05 06:11:54 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/203591967 Baionne Coleman https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/203595234 When we think of the fact that we are not supposed to be teaching adults, we are actually facilitating learning it puts everything into perspective.
Adults have had various experiences to draw upon to make their learning more influential to their life, authentic, and relevant. By drawing upon past experiences learning for adults can become more concrete. Adults just like children need to be validated, they need to know they are heard. While not always right, by validating experiences allows us to move to the next step of then learning, our guards are down and trust is now happening between facilitator and learner. Essentially what learning is as opposed to teaching is critically analyzing information to come up with your own ideas about the content, if done well you will be able to learn in a way that allows for a growth mindset.]]> 2017-11-05 07:14:04 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/203595234 Tara Graham https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/203724876 I really like Horton's philosophy on education and his focus on people, not on institutions, and giving people the power to take control of their own lives. His statements that the education system only encourages the status quo resonates with me and everything I have learned about the education system in the US. I think the Highlander Folk School model is an excellent way to foster learning through its focus on people and their individual experiences, and continues to emphasize, "What can your classmates' experience teach you, not the textbook society wants you to read and learn from?"

By bringing the focus back to human experience instead of focusing on the usual school curriculum, that is where change will happen. By encouraging adults to emphasize human experience and teaching them that they have power, they can begin to see the ways in which they can challenge the status quo.]]> 2017-11-06 03:18:53 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/203724876 Andrew Asplund https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/204010717 In discussing his process, he discusses relating people's experiences to one another. He talks about peer teaching and peer educating. In that context, it's about people teaching each other about their experiences and people learning about one another. He also talks about how this is contrary to classical education, which focuses on conformity and standardization. In that way, I think some of the "adult education" theories do really resonate with a subversive sort of activism (although I'm using the word subversive in positive context). It's anti-establishment because it focuses learning on the experiences of people and not the doctrine or dictate of the establishment.

At least, that's sort of the context I get from Myles Horton and his experience with the Highland school. ]]> 2017-11-06 17:33:10 UTC https://padlet.com/robbinst6/ygaonb6id41z/wish/204010717