MYLES HORTON by Katie Calloway

BACKGROUND  Born in Savannah, Tennessee on July 9 th, 1905  Both of his parents were school-teachers until the requirements for teachers were increased.  Consequently, his parents then worked in factories or any other place they could find a job.  They were still very involved in the community and with education.

BACKGROUND CON’T  At the age of 15, Myles left home to attend high school because his hometown did not have a secondary school.  He got a job at a saw mill and then a box factory to support himself while he attended high school.  Horton claims that these jobs helped shape him into the man he became later on

BACKGROUND CON’T  During this time, Horton was an avid reader  He was deeply influenced by the writings of social critics and Marxists  He had a desire to learn from many different sources but resolved that ultimately he was responsible to himself for his beliefs.  He worked alongside a wide variety of people with many different beliefs  Despite this he always remained an individualist who never joined a party

BACKGROUND CON’T  Shortly after this he attended Cumberland University, the University of Chicago, and the Union Theological Seminary  He made a habit of seeking out teachers and picking their brains. Many of these became lifelong friends and supporters.  While he was a student in Chicago he heard about the Danish Folk School Movement  Horton decided to go see these schools for himself in Denmark

DENMARK  While Horton was in Denmark he had one specific purpose : creating a school for life – a place where students and teachers could live together to talk about and solve problems  an informal setting where experience could be the main teacher; a site for activists, organizers, and teachers for social justice.  Horton was worried that all the preparation to build his school would take forever. Despite feelings of inadequacy he decided that the only way to make his vision happen was to just start the project.

 Horton opened the school in 1932 called The Southern Mountains School.  Shortly after, he and Don West (His Co-director) changed the name of the school to Highlander Folk School  At Highlander the purpose of education was to make people more powerful, and more capable in their work and their lives.

 Throughout the 1930s Highlander was the education arm of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the south  However, Horton realized that labor would never be emancipated as long as racial segregation continued  His response to this was creating workshops designed to empower people to destroy racial social structures

 For a very long time Highlander was the only place in the South where white and African-American citizens lived and worked together.  Horton was very proud of this. He once claimed that Highlander held the record for sustained civil disobedience  Highlander played a key role in the civil rights movement and was full of significant social activists.  To name a few: Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, Fanny Lou Hamer

 People from the community used the school along with the social activists  Everyone gathered there to talk about the obstacles that stood in the way of their hopes and dreams  They would gather the resources needed (conceptual, human, and material resources) and go home with a plan of action for “forward-progress”

 The school was under constant attack  White supremacists, anti- Labor groups, and the government were all in opposition to the Highlander folk School  Backlash from the school’s involvement with the civil rights movement led to the State of Tennessee closing down the school in 1961  However, after awhile it reorganized and relocated to Knoxville and is now called the Highlander Research and Education Center.  Myles Horton died on January 19 th, 1990 but his school continues to be a catalyst for change

HORTON’S ACHIEVEMENTS  In 1982, Highlander was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its historic role in providing education on behalf of human rights in the region  He was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 1998  Time magazine called Highlander “one of the South’s most influential institutions of social change,”. The New York Times said the same thing shortly after this.  Horton’s autobiography, “The Long Haul” won the Robert F. Kennedy book award

HOW HORTON RELATES TO THIS CLASS  Myles Horton is an Adult Education Hall of Famer  He played a key role in social change and he worked to empower people THROUGH EDUCATION to make a difference in their communities  He gives us a good model of what an adult educator is  He followed the 6 assumptions of Andragogy very well

HORTON AND THE 6 ASSUMPTIONS  The need to know. Horton expressed the importance of racial segregation and social injustice coming to an end. The learners knew they needed this training to be efficient in this social activism  The learners self-concept. Horton never forced any learner to do anything. They would provide workshops and training but it was the learner’s choice to do something with it.  The role of learner’s experience. Each of the adult learners came in with different experiences and different perspectives on these issues. Horton knew the value of all of them coming together and helping each other find solutions for their problems. Each of their experiences made them more qualified to collectively find solutions to their problems.

6 ASSUMPTIONS CON’T  Readiness to learn. The adult learners were ready to learn from each other and learn from the workshops that Horton provided because they knew that this training would help them with their real-life situations.  Orientation to learn. The adult learners had a orientation to this type of learning because it was 100% practical to their real life situations. The training Horton provided was directed to help them go back home and make a difference.  Motivation. Horton tapped into their intrinsic motivation of desiring a better quality of life for themselves and the people that they love. Which is why his program was so successful.

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