Without  attempting  to  make  the  list  complete,  there
may  be  named  these  non-school  agencies  of  adult  educa-
tion: the  various  forms  of  school  extension;  vacation
and  evening  schools ;  organized  home  readings ;  the  more
than  one  hundred  Chautauquas  with  their  schools  and

60


Tentative  Characteristics  of  Education     61

assemblies  and  circles  and  clubs;  the  lyceum  under
various  names;  correspondence  schools,  enrolling  half
a  million  students;  university,  college,  and  school  ex-
tension lecture  courses;  the  institutional  church,  with
its  academic  and  professional  classes,  gymnasia,  and
societies;  the  hundreds  of  public  lectures  and  lecture
courses  in  cities  and  villages,  and  even  rural  sections;
the  free  public  lectures  maintained  by  certain  city
boards  of  education ;  the  different  public  reference  and
circulating  libraries,  with  their  numerous  branch  col-
lections, reading-rooms,  study-clubs,  and  reference-
lists;  the  thousands  of  private  reading  groups;  socie-
ties, scientific,  historical,  philosophical,  art,  and  liter-
ary, national,  State,  and  local,  of  men  and  women ;  the
millions  of  newspaper  and  magazine  issues,  with  their
volume  and  variety  of  matter ;  the  tons  of  Government
publications  upon  matters  of  great  historical,  scientific,
civic,  and  industrial  interest;  the  numerous  fraternal,
professional,  and  social  organizations,  many  of  which
furnish  both  entertainment  and  instruction  in  impor-
tant ways;  international,  national,  State,  and  local
expositions,  exhibitions,  and  fairs,  for  the  showing  and
comparison  of  the  products  of  human  handiwork  and
achievement;  the  wealth  of  literature  bearing  upon
hygiene  and  sanitation;  the  several  guilds,  industrial
societies,  and  labor  organizations,  of  recent  rapid  de-
velopment and  distinct  and  far-reaching  influence;  the
systematic  and  incidental  encouragement  given  to
travel;  the  Young  Men's  and  Young  Women's  Chris-
tian Associations;  and,  finally,  the  numerous  municipal


62  Science  of  Education

and  civic  organizations,  including  commercial  and  busi-
ness clubs,  civic  leagues  in  the  cities,  neighborhood
improvement  societies,  national  and  local  tree-planting
and  irrigation  and  public-park  movements,  art  and
landscape  decoration  societies,  pioneer  historical  and
patriotic  societies,  and  the  public  and  permanent  com-
memoration of  historical  places  and  personages,  general
and  local  public  education  societies,  and  the  official
reports  and  manuals  of  the  respective  State  and  local
governments.
