Popular education and action

Who asks somebody, “What did you learn at work today? “We of course ask our children, “What did you learn in school today?” We ask our spouse, “How did it go at work today?” or “Did you get through work without too much stress and strain? What did your idiot boss do today?” but never “What did you learn at work today? “Veteran labor educator Helena Worthen has written a book with a catchy title that betrays a profound theme. She is a representative of a committed cadre of labor educators who believe they have more to learn from the lives and experiences of labor than they have to teach in a didactic classroom setting. Miles Horton, the founder of the Highlander Center in Tennessee, is perhaps the tradition’s most notable practitioner. His school spawned two generations of leaders and activists; the CIO labor organizers of the 30’s and the civil rights activists of the 50’s and 60’s like Rosa Parks, a Highlander Center trainee.

The educator/organizer

This tradition places a premium on understanding and helping workers themselves process their experiences in work and in struggle. The educator/organizer is a facilitator not a didactic or mobilizer. He or she is the teacher who helps workers reflect on their own experience and gain confidence to confront an employer class that wields arrogant and capricious power over their very work lives. These are skills that come with years and years of deep interaction with thousands of workers struggling to win a shred of dignity while earning an income. These are the skills that are essential to any rebirth of the labor movement. We need armies of apostles who believe in the importance of this kind of action oriented popular education that Worthen so aptly describes.

Four theories

Worthen presents four theories of learning to help give a framework for examining some very compelling case studies. Kolb’s learning cycle, Communities of Practice, Work process theory and Activity Theory are all dynamic models that provide framework to labor educators and organizers. Worthen counter poses her four theories to “Tarzan” theory which posits that all learning is an individual responsibility and based on will power and attitude not the broader social and class context that conditions knowledge acquisition and power. In contrast, Worthen says that the “four theories that I like say that learning happens through social interaction, through discussion, trial and error, the power of community, the creation or destruction of tools, conflict and new history, and that power matters. None of the theories that I have presented have anything to do with trying hard or being intellectually gifted.” Enough said!

Social practice

“What did you learn?” goes on to illustrate these theories with some very rich social practice brought to life with extensive quotes from worker combatants. Workers in downstate Illinois organize a social service agency with a two-year election fight, strike and lockout; “I learned so much about my town and the people in it. I wouldn’t trade the experience I gained in public speaking or the friends I made. It was sure a learning period in my life and I am grateful for it.” Children of public sector union members in AFSCME write college scholarship essays about what their parent’s union has meant for them and the lives of their families: “I went to the rally that my mother wanted me to go to, and it turned out she was up on the platform speaking, I was so proud of her I started to cry”.

Union apprenticeships as “shared learning”

Chapter 9 paints a poignant picture of the learning differences between a job-training program and a union building trades apprenticeship. As I discovered when my son Nelson sought to become a union electrician, “Applying to a formal apprenticeship program is as complicated as applying to college. Some are as selective as the Ivy League.” The rewards of entry are immense because union apprentices get paid well while working and are required to attend school to consolidate the lessons learned on the job. The union is invested in the success of the apprentice because of the investment in training. One of Worthen’s interviewees stated, “They want you to stay healthy so you can work a long time. When I worked non-union they didn’t give a crap about you. Your body would be dead at the end of the day.” Worthen distinguishes union apprenticeship where there is a community of practice and shared learning with the non-union apprenticeship programs like the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) that operate in typical school based learning fashion where individual competition and grades are used to select who gets employment.

Fundamentals

One can argue with Worthen’s application of particular theories to the learning process, but what is so rich about this volume is that it stimulates a discussion of the fundamentals of organizing. I have often argued with university based labor centers that they need to put aside their perpetual strategic organizing workshops that explore corporate research, corporate leverage and communications but have no curriculum that teaches and explores the basics of worker organizing. Corporate research and corporate leverage are the easy stuff. Any of the massive crop of Ivy League activists can do that! They were trained to be masters of the universe and those skills are part of their training. Nothing and nobody prepared them for the hard job of winning the hearts and minds of workers, growing leaders and helping them get the courage to engage in struggle in their workplace. These “forbidden lessons of labor education” need not be forbidden to community and labor organizers. For those who believe organizing is more than Facebook hits or twitter feeds this is a must read. I am gifting it to all my colleague field organizers at the ILWU. Solidarity Forever.

“What did you learn at work today?” The Forbidden Lessons of Labor Education” by Helena Worthen, is available from Hardball Press and independent bookstores everywhere

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