The Summer Schools and Other Educational Activities of British Socialist Groups.

The summer school, it is generally conceded, is an American invention. It was at Chautauqua, New York, beginning in 1873, that the essential elements of a summer school were first combined in one institution. Originally a Methodist camp meeting, the “Chautauqua” became an assembly for serious educational effort and for refreshing the intellectual interests of its members. But the recreational needs of the thousands of people who each summer flocked to Chautauqua were not forgotten, and organized recreational facilities were from the first an integral part of the movement. Thus the summer school, with its central idea of study in a vacational atmosphere, was born and started on a career during the course of which it has profoundly affected other institutions, such as churches, universities, agencies for adult education, and political parties.