Socrates on the Assembly Line: The Ford Foundation's Mass Marketing of Liberal Adult Education.

Overview & Synopsis

In the 10 years of its existence (1951-61), the Ford Foundation's Fund for Adult Education (FAE) expended over $47 million on behalf of adult and continuing education. The FAE supported organizations with similar objectives and created its own unique institutions to establish liberal adult education on a nationwide basis. The Test Cities Project was the foundation's first major experiment in urban redesign. Programs were organized in small groups to facilitate face-to-face discussion. FAE grant recipients and Test Cities councils developed courses and discussion programs. As area colleges took over councils unable to survive as independent entities without FAE support, the foundation recognized higher education's potential contribution to liberal continuing education. FAE moved beyond Test Cities with a new concept for university-based Test Centers for further experimentation in developing and marketing liberal adult education programs. The FAE experimented with Demonstration Centers, which were direct grants to some colleges to expand their adult education programs. Through this progression, the FAE firmly established the principle that noncredit liberal adult education could and should pay for itself, thereby locating it as a tuition-supported educational product in higher education. The FAE sacrificed the concept of liberal adult education as peer-led, small-size discussion groups. Adult education became the most overtly market-driven segment of all U.S. education. (YLB)