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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Why adult education needs Vince Cable
May 15, 2011 11:00 AM
• [May 14] Tom Sperlinger writes: I STARTED teaching adults 9 years ago and, from the start, I loved how my students challenged assumptions and used education to transform their lives. I waited in vain to hear a New Labour minister speak about learning in such terms. Only last year, when Vince Cable made his first speech as business secretary, did I finally hear someone in government speak about adult education with passion and insight:
"Education for education's sake - learning how to learn - benefits the economy in the long term. A story from own life makes the point. My mother and father left school at 15 to work in factories. My father eventually taught building trades in the local technical college: we need more people like him. My mother was a housewife and when I was 10 she had a major nervous breakdown and spent time in a mental hospital. When she recovered she saved her mind through adult education - learning for the first time about history, literature, philosophy and art. We need more people like her, too."
. . I spent my first year in adult education teaching on a course that was being shut down. (In retrospect, this was an appropriate induction into the profession.) During the exam board at the end of the year the course leader said: "In a few years' time, someone at this institution will turn round and say: 'We haven't got many mature students. Maybe we need a course for them?'" At the time I heard only bitterness in these remarks. But I recognise the hope in them now; her belief that such work would be needed again.
Cable understands the value of adult education for those, like his parents, who need it most. He remains the person best placed to ensure that such provision no longer has to survive only on hope
• Why adult education needs Vince Cable [Tom Sperlinger Guardian May14]
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