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The 60-year history of a pioneering global organization

The Experiment was the one of the first international educational and cultural exchange organizations in the world. Begun in the United States in 1932, it has evolved into a worldwide federation representing autonomous member organizations in 24 nations on five continents.

What made The Experiment unique and how has it changed in six decades? This history covers ...

*  six characteristics of the traditional Experiment experience

*  effects of World War II on educational. exchange programs

*  retirement of the founder, Donald Watt, in the 1950 s

*  development of competing organizations and what they offered

*  innovative programs grown from the original homestay concept

More than a single organization's history, this volume is also a record of changing philosophies of intercultural education. It is particularly valuable in its coverage of the years since the 1950s when the first history of the Experiment was written.

DR. JOHN WALLACE was Executive Vice President of the U.S. Experiment for 22 years and later served as Secretary General of the international Federation for eight years.

CONTENTS

PREFACE I. BEGINNINGS II. THE EARLY YEARS: 1932-1939 III. DOWN, BUT NOT OUT: 1939-1946 IV. WATT STEPS ASIDE: 1946-1950 V. THE YEARS OF GROWTH: 1950-1957 VI. EVOLUTION& CHANGE: 1957-1964 VII. CONSOLIDATION & COMPETITION: 1964-1974 VIII. FUSION OR FISSION: 1974-1984 IX. THE END---OR A NEW BEGINNING? 1984-1992 ILLUSTRATIONS POSTSCRIPT APPENDICES A - Educational principles of The Experiment - 1952 B - Partial list of those who significantly helped develop the International Experiment C - Countries in which there is or has been an Experiment National Office D - The symbol E - Articles of Association of Federation EIL F - Enrollment statistics ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

This attempt to chronicle the history of the international Experiment (in International Living) had its origin in a 1991 request from Robin Bitters, director of the International Office, that I commit some time to arranging the archives of the organization.

It was a request I lost little time in refusing. I had three reasons for the refusal.

1. I am not an archivist.

2. Inasmuch as the complete archives of the organization are scattered, with great or little care, in fifty or more nations on six continents, any attempt to arrange and classify them would involve far more time than my dwindling years permit.

3. Who reads archives, anyhow?

I countered with the suggestion that in view of the impending sixtieth anniversary of the Experiment's founding, it might be appropriate to prepare a history of the organization. Robin presented the offer to the officers of Federation EIL in October of 1991. They liked the idea; this book is what ultimately emerged.

In Donald Watt's autobiography, Intelligence Is Not Enough, published by The Experiment Press in Putney, Vermont in 1967, there is a wealth of historical information which I have felt free to draw on. Watt's story was highly personal, mostly episodic, and occasionally even a bit self-contradicting. What I am seeking to do is to tell the story of The Experiment as a living organism: how it was created, how it met severe early challenges to its existence, how it matured, evolved, and adapted itself to an ever-changing environment. In no sense do I claim to be telling the complete story of every part of the organism. When did A succeed B as director of Experiment office C? Who was the first Experimenter to go to X? How many summer groups did country Z host in 1971? Answers to these questions could and should emerge from the archival investigation which I assiduously avoided.

An organization has a life of its own. It grows, it evolves, or it dies. For six decades The Experiment has grown and evolved. When it dies, as like every organism it eventually must, its death will be caused by inflexibility and resistance to change.

I would like to conclude this preface with three points of explanation.

1. This is not a history replete with names. Space does not permit my mentioning by name the hundreds and hundreds of sincere and committed individuals who had a part in these sixty years. I have arbitrarily confined the naming to the early pioneers and to those individuals who exercised great influence on the functioning of the organization, who were involved in a major crisis, or who filled a multinational role. I extend my apologies to those whom I may have offended by failure to list their names.

2. My selection of chapter date ranges is obviously arbitrary. I tied these dates either to a major change in leadership, as in 1950 and 1974, or to a major change in activity, as in 1939 and 1964. However arbitrary, the events included form a definite sequence in the fascinating evolution of this organization which has so deeply affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of the inhabitants of our small planet.

3. Non-Americans who read this treatise may well complain that the U.S. Experiment office looms too large in the telling. Its prominence stems from factors which I have sought to spell out clearly in the text. Founder Watt was an American. The United States was not physically damaged in World War II. For most of six decades it has been the world's dominant economic power. It has a large and literate population. Its educational system is committed to diversity and welcomes new ideas. Add up these factors and it becomes clear that, like it or not, in the worldwide Experiment the U.S. inevitably became primus inter pares.

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