"A Most Insistent Demand": The Pas Experiment in Community Education, 1938-1940

Authors

  • Michael Welton Dalhousie University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v1i2.2376

Abstract

Initiated in January 1938 by the CAAE under Harry and Mary Avison's leadership, The Pas experiment was created to demonstrate the power of adult education to solve community problems. This did not occur, and the collapse of The Pas experiment in community education in 1940 ended a controversial chapter in Manitoban adult education history. The narration and analysis of the experiment enables us to understand more clearly the intellectual formation of the CAAE at an axial moment in its history. We are also confronted with some uncomfortable truths. The Pas experiment shatters the easy optimism of mainstream adult education and invites us to think more radically about the structural constraints on the achievement of a communal life based on undistorted communication, dialogue, communal judgment and rational persuasion.

Résumé

Le projet expérimental Pas a commencé avec l'ACEEA, en janvier 1938, sous la direction de Mary et Harry Avison, afin de démontrer comment l'éducation pour adultes pouvait aider à trouver des solutions aux crises de la communauté. Sans succès l'expérience s'est écroulée pendant l'année 1940 et a mis fin à un chapitre discutable de l'histoire de l'éducation pour adultes au Manitoba. L'histoire de cette expérience et son analyse nous permettent de mieux comprendre la formation intellectuelle de l'ACEEA. Nous devons aussi faire face à des vérités inquiétantes. L'expérience Pas a détruit l'optimisme facile des méthodes conventionnelles de l'éducation pour adultes et nous invite a remettre radicalement en question les contraintes structurales empêchant la réalisation de la vie communautaire fondée sur le dialogue, les décisions prises en communauté, et la persuasion raisonnable.

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Published

1987-11-01

How to Cite

Welton, M. (1987). "A Most Insistent Demand": The Pas Experiment in Community Education, 1938-1940. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 1(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v1i2.2376

Issue

Vol 1, No 2(1987)

Section

Articles

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