ABSTRACT
The American Association for Adult Education is dedicated to education – to the dissemination of knowledge and to the open discussion of life’s issues. Its activities illustrate the democratic process. All men and women may take part in them. All branches of knowledge may be drawn into consideration. All conceptions and interpretations of human affairs may be presented. All expounders who respect the rights of others to be heard have their day in court. The American experience of University Adult Education illustrates the ironies of liberal thought in the USA as manifest in the bonding of education to democracy. A difficulty in researching the liberal tradition is that a philosophy of liberalism in adult education has not been articulated as a distinct approach to practice. The idealistic view of knowledge as power has co-existed with the pragmatic view of education as a means of social control.
