Horton, Myles

Early Influences and Education

Horton developed his philosophy of education and method of operation from the social and economic situation which he had experienced. Growing up in a poor sharecropping family in Tennessee, he experienced the economic realities of the Great Depression and the exploitation of rural communities. An avid reader and inquiring student, he attended Cumberland University, a Presbyterian college in Tennessee. In college, he taught summer Bible school in the mountains. In Ozone, Tennessee, a small mountain community, he developed community discussions with the parents of the Bible school children. They discussed the problems of the communities, and he became interested in the possibilities of adult education and community participation to deal with the social and environmental problems of the region.

In college, he was active in the Young Men's Christian Association and participated in interracial conferences, and after graduation, he worked as secretary of Tennessee's Young Men's Christian Association. He continued his dream of developing a school for adults, and a congregational minister, Rev. Abram Nightingale, who had become a friend and mentor, encouraged him to learn more in order to do adult and community education. He gave him a book by Harry Ward, On Economic Morality and the Ethic of Jesus (1929), and urged him to go to New York to Union Theological Seminary to study with Ward. At Union, he also studied with Reinhold Niebuhr, who headed the Fellowship of Socialist Christians. Niebuhr became a lifetime friend and supported Horton's dream to develop a school in the mountains.

In New York amid the stock market crash, he saw first-hand the collapse of the industrial system, observed jobless bread lines and labour strikes and listened to the radical speeches of communists, socialists and activists of all sorts. Horton was also influenced by the New Deal programmes, populist politics (including Fabian socialists) and Karl Marx, whose work influenced him, he once said, not because of the conclusions but in his approach to understanding and analyzing society. While in New York, he also learned from the progressive educators John Dewey and George Counts. In order to further explore and develop his educational philosophy, he went to the University of Chicago to study with the sociologists Robert Park and Lester F. Ward, and there he met Jane Addams of Hull House and learned about settlement houses.

Still seeking a model for his educational work, he was advised to visit and observe the Danish folk schools. He spent a year in Denmark and was influenced by the folk schools, where people learned from their own experiences and related their education to life problems. He also observed a number of practices which would become a part of the way Highlander operated, including peer learning, group singing, freedom from examinations and students and teachers living and working alongside one another.

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