tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post3997272597790092484..comments2023-12-31T13:47:05.758+00:00Comments on Fat Man on a Keyboard: Losing one's reasonThe Plumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244528534476387323noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post-64975471726695779322010-03-18T22:37:31.431+00:002010-03-18T22:37:31.431+00:00Absolutely Harry! It removes threat. You need to l...Absolutely Harry! It removes threat. You need to learn self-worth before you can allow your work to be judged by a system that has let you down in the past. The biggest killer of confidence is social class; brilliant people being manufactured into academic failures. This is one of the really wonderful things about adult education, it is part of a process that breaks the chains. And this is why its current state is so tragic.The Plumphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09244528534476387323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post-30909031856473780552010-03-18T21:00:09.198+00:002010-03-18T21:00:09.198+00:00The Plump : I just feel that there is an important...The Plump : I just feel that there is an important constituency which can be attracted into adult education when tests and hurdles are not at the forefront. When they prove to themselves that they have ability, then they can more comfortably move into the examination route.Harry Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01833380054575757928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post-3766730666657267152010-03-18T17:47:02.632+00:002010-03-18T17:47:02.632+00:00I had a very different target in mind Harry when I...I had a very different target in mind Harry when I wrote that intemperate sentence :-)<br /><br />There was a complacent old guard in the system that let much university CE stagnate. They spouted the ideology but ended up teaching solely the retired middle classes without noticing the difference.<br /><br />Actually, I think that, provided it is done in the right way, non-accredited work can be wonderful. I also find exams faintly ridiculous, though when I ran Access courses I always included them because I would rather the students faced their first exams on our course than in the less sympathetic world of HE.<br /><br />The important point to me is the way that non-accredited work can lead to accredited courses. Whether we like it or not, certificates of various kinds are the ways that people can change their lives and often help others change. Non-accredited work that is hermetically sealed from the world of qualifications cannot do that.<br /><br />Personally, I liked to run courses that carried accreditation, but did not require the students to take it if they didn't want to. That allowed students to use the course in the way that suited them best. Then the bloody funding regimes wrecked it all.<br /><br />Yes, and here's to farting around and long may we continue to do so. Who knows, it may turn out to be a wind of change.The Plumphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09244528534476387323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post-91787414968864288652010-03-18T12:39:31.940+00:002010-03-18T12:39:31.940+00:00"In the old extra-mural days it was all about..."In the old extra-mural days it was all about non-accredited courses for the working classes (or teaching the lower orders the virtues of voting for nice people like us without giving them the qualifications that would enable them to take our jobs)".<br /><br />There were variations to this theme. I taught for 21 years on Extra-mural/Division of Continuing Education courses for coal miners, steel industry workers, railway workers and others. No one was ever set a hurdle to jump over, but numbers then moved directly into full-time education at Adult Education Colleges. Most of them then went on to take undergraduate courses, some moving directly to University from leaving our own courses. References, interviews and examples of written work provided the avenue for moving into full-time education. When I arrived in the Commons, I met up with four of my former students.<br /><br />Of course, many of those with family and other commitments could not contemplate such a move. But as the subject areas of our courses were industrial relations, politics and economics many pursued their developing interests in local government, trade union work and in a variety of public services. Some changed jobs to cater for their developing concerns and interests.<br /><br />I also came to run Access Courses based mainly on Evening Classes which (on the whole) without exams also fed people into full-time University Studies. It was the exception for a University Department to set its own Mature Entry Exam for such students. They ended up on average with Degree Levels which were above the norm.<br /><br />Education should be about giving people an opportunity to develop and expand upon their interests, based on challenges to their basic understandings. Such interests can then be helped to expand. The questioning and alternative theories should not just come from their lecturers and their reading, but from fellow students who share such interests.<br /><br />Without training people directly for jobs, for communal duties or on how to participate in a democracy; these should all be significant side benefits which come from having such an educated population.<br /><br />Freedom of expression (but not license) are essential in a democracy. But so is they way in which people come to acquire their values and understandings. They are bound to be shaped by their environment when developing these. But the only way to break away from being manipulated by circumstances is to study and question them - and then to keep farting away at such thimgs.Harry Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01833380054575757928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post-17097110008786163642010-03-18T08:20:42.646+00:002010-03-18T08:20:42.646+00:00Agreed. "I like" (Brahms, Indian food, b...Agreed. "I like" (Brahms, Indian food, botany or reading Raymond Chandler) has to be a satisfying feeling and survive 'analysis' if adventuring into life is to have any significance. There would be, I suppose, much evidence for the notion that poor and worse teaching has been enough to drive millions away from simple pleasure.Anton Dequehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07076828639042541217noreply@blogger.com