In 1917, the Lloyd George government set up a Reconstruction Committee to, well, ‘build back better’ after the war. It included a subcommittee on adult education, which reported in 1919. Thread!

The cover letter to the 1919 report, from the Chairman, Arthur Smith, to PM Lloyd George, is a lot of fun — in places dated, but in places pretty relevant. Some choice quotes follow...

“Long ago some foreign critics pronounced us a profoundly uneducated people who knew no foreign languages, worked short hours, substituted ‘good form’ for efficiency, depreciated teachers, had no respect for knowledge…"

"What sort of Cabinet are we to have in future, and what sort of Second Chamber? Can we shake off the baser sort of politician...the secret funds and the sale of honours? Is it not manifest that a democracy which has to solve these questions must be an educated democracy?”

“This [education] might do much to counterbalance the growing tyranny of machinery, and mitigate the increasing soullessness of our industrial conditions.”

“The essence of democracy being not passive but active participation by all in citizenship, education in a democratic country must aim at fitting each individual progressively not only for his personal, domestic and vocational duties, but, above all, for duties of citizenship…”

"It is a truth brought out by this war, that there is a latent in the mass of our people a capacity far beyond what was recognised, a capacity to rise to the conception of great issues and to face the difficulties of fundamental problems…"

(Then Smith ramps it up, giving the prime minister the ALL-CAPS treatment)

“ADULT EDUCATION MUST NOT BE REGARDED AS A LUXURY FOR A FEW EXCEPTIONAL PERSONS HERE AND THERE…BUT A PERMANENT NATIONAL NECESSITY, AN INSEPARABLE ASPECT OF CITIZENSHIP, AND THEREFORE BOTH UNIVERSAL AND LIFELONG.”

The full letter and the report here: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Final_Report/0RBOAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
And last year there was a 100th anniversary report, making the same good arguments: https://www.centenarycommission.org . Support their efforts at @AdultEd100