On Education: Learning Together
added 01/03/12
by Ken Davis
In its broadest sense, education speaks to a basic human drive—something that propels anyone, anywhere, to learn more than he or she knew before.
If you doubt that, try a simple experiment. Mention a term, phrase, or concept around someone who has never heard it before. Then watch what happens. Most people will ask you what you are talking about so quickly, they hardly even realize they’ve done it. Curiosity is that voracious. Wonder is that hard-wired into the human condition. And education is fuel for the mind’s fire.
“So,” says an astute reader, “tell us something we don’t know. Education is important. Few would deny that. But education at a grocery store?”
Did you know that your Co-op has a department devoted to member and consumer education? And if so, did you ever wonder why?
Cooperative Education
Early cooperators knew the valuable role education would play in the cooperative movement, and their emphasis on education left a legacy that exists to this day.
During England’s industrial revolution of the mid-1840s, the cooperative movement’s founders—known today as the Rochdale Pioneers—recognized the value of education enough to place that value within the echelon of principles that would come to guide cooperatives around the globe.
The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers was a group of weavers, artisans, and craftspeople in Rochdale, England, who banded together to open their own cooperative food store selling unadulterated food and staple products they could not otherwise afford. In doing so, they also set down the original Rochdale Principles of Co-operation, including “Promotion of education.” Through speakers, courses, free libraries, and reading rooms, the Pioneers provided learning opportunities to their members and shoppers on a variety of social, economic, and consumer topics.
In 1966, the International Cooperative Alliance updated and adopted the Rochdale Principles as the Cooperative Principles, changing the education statement to “Education of members and public in cooperative principles.” In 1995, the Cooperative Principles were revised once more to include:
Education, Training and Information: Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public – particularly young people and opinion leaders – about the nature and benefits of cooperation.
Bcause “the nature and benefits of cooperation” is a broad topic to tackle, it takes a variety of people with a lot of expertise to make it happen. And at our Co-op, we’ve taken the concept and run with it in vast and sundry ways from the very beginning—ensuring that education was a foundation of our organization even in its infancy in 1936.
Early members of our fledgling Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society produced cooperative information and consumer news on mimeographed sheets and delivered them by bicycle to other members. In 1949, Sally Gerstenberger became the Co-op’s first education secretary, setting the stage for our current-day commitment to providing consumer and cooperative education to members and non-members alike. Although today’s printed newsletter and the digital ether of cyberspace have replaced those mimeographed sheets and bicycle deliveries, the Co-op’s commitment to education remains the same.
The Co-op Approach
Education is an important part of co-ops around the globe. Ari Weinzweig, a co-founder Zingerman’s Deli, once quipped that cooperative education departments exist all over the world “in order to give liberal arts majors a place to work.” And each cooperative approaches education differently.
At our Co-op, our bylaws stipulate the organization must have an education program. The Education Department is charged with giving our shoppers information related both to the cooperative movement and to the products and services our specific co-op provides. And yes, it’s staffed with a liberal arts major or two.
Our Education Department also provides Co-op members with additional member-linkage opportunities so they can communicate directly with the Co-op they own. Our approach has always been to educate in a way that is descriptive, rather than prescriptive, so that our members and customer can make their own purchasing decisions based on the information we provide.
It’s not always an easy road to travel. While many members and consumers simply want us to be their favorite grocery store, others envision us as a socio-political lobbying body, fighting for causes as varied as our membership itself. Indeed, our “descriptive rather than prescriptive” approach is something from which we admittedly deviate from time to time—championing causes such as protecting small family farms or mending a frayed national food safety net.
So, the road to education is nonlinear and broad, and the cooperative movement has ensured that road can travel through a grocery store, of all things. If it’s a concept that sounds lofty, sometimes unattainable, and thoroughly interesting, it’s because it is. And we invite you to learn more about why it is so interesting and to take part in our education efforts.
In the issues of the Co-op News that lie ahead this year, we’ll examine more closely some of the ways we bring cooperative education to our communities. Stick around, find out more, and we’ll all learn something together. It’s cooperative education at its finest—the Fifth Cooperative Principle in action.
Follow Us!
Want Co-op education online? Visit our site, read our blog The Cooperative Consumer, check out our Twitter and Facebook pages, and subscribe to our email newsletters! The Co-op regularly provides interested members and customers with a variety of updates, including important information on food safety issues, Co-op Classes, consumer news, and more. Visit us online at coopfoodstore.coop and look for the links at the bottom of any page.
