Comments on: Cruse-o-rama

By: Bob Andelman - Mr. Media Radio Interviews – Erotic Comics are good comics, British historian says - True/Slant

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:20:50 +0000

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By: On the Road and Off Again « Loose Cruse: The Blog

On the Road and Off Again « Loose Cruse: The Blog — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:53:03 +0000

[...] Alison, for plugging From Headrack to Claude so entertainingly in your September 18 blog entry! Who else but my comics-creating colleague and pal Stephen R. Bissette, who teamed up with [...]

By: Pam I

Pam I — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:29:30 +0000

I used to make my own ‘certificates of achievement’ for the short photo courses I ran, and we had a little ceremony at the end where people would show what they had learnt and get a round of applause. We all enjoyed it, great big hairy adults to a woman/man. For that, no-one needed a proper bit of paper from an outside body.

And now they have gone, completely. My college which used to run ten nights a week of short photo classes, now has – none. Only year-long accredited courses at £1000+ a time. Something wrong here surely?

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:18:13 +0000

Oh you’re absolutely right Pam. Most of the programmes on the Adult Learning Service have certificates/qualifications with which to impress (or not) your prospective or existing employer.

I agree with your point, but I quite like having the piece of paper at the end of a course. I get a stronger sense of achievement. I do come from a working-class background though that prioritised education and higher-level qualifications in particular as a way out of poverty so it’s sort of ingrained in me.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:02:58 +0000

Pam I,
When I was in London for grad school, I worked at a school in Whitechapel. It seemed to focus on all those “employability” (it was called a “Business and Enterprise College) things. Despite that, it had a really interesting music program. There was the general music appreciation/music history part that the kids would need for GCSE’s, and then they would also choose to come to me for singing, or to one of the guys who taught guitar, drum set or even DJing/mixing.

It was really interesting, because it seemed to focus on areas of music that would draw the kids in.

I don’t think that this place was representative of other schools, and you probably wouldn’t find a program like that in an American publicly funded school. Still, though, I thought it was a valuable program.

By: Pam I

Pam I — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:05:09 +0000

@ Ian, your course comes into the treasured category of being Accredited. If you did exactly the same thing without the A Level qualification, I doubt that it would exist. I just keep hoping that the fashion will change / someone higher up will realise the huge hole that has opened up. The trouble is the people /politicians who create the strategies are sheltered from the reality of a roomful of bored, narrowminded, uncurious kids, the offspring of ditto. Visiting politicians, and in fact the higher-ups in the college, never get to sit in a room like that.

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:11:24 +0000

@Pam I: I don’t think my course classes itself as Adult Ed. It’s an AS Level that runs in the daytime as part of the A Levels and Foundation in Art courses. I can only do it because I’m not working and I get help with the tuition costs.

The University runs some learning for fun evening classes. The local history and archaeology are pretty popular. In fact, it may be the last place that offers that kind of thing. You’d like it – they run courses on the Wirral at a place called Burton Manor, which is basically an artists’ retreat where they have things like residential watercolour week-long courses.

The Adult Learning Service (administered by the council that takes place at night in various local schools and community centres) has been practically halved in recent years. The language classes are always over-subscribed, and crafts and alternative therapy courses are very popular too. But it has become very career-oriented. But there are still some courses that are learning for fun. Still, Liverpool is a place where the WEA had a good long tradition.

I find younger people (listen to me, I’m only 35), very short on general knowledge or curiosity about the world around them these days. It’s very worrying.

By: Renee S.

Renee S. — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:45:46 +0000

@ Pam #50
I see that, as a kid, you were an encyclopedia reader too! I bet you read the dictionary as well.
I still have an old set of encyclopedias in the house. It’s more fun to search for information in them instead of Googling all of the time. The problem is it becomes difficult to put the book down.

When I was a kid, my mom sent me upstairs to vacuum the carpets. She came up later and caught me sitting down on the bed, reading an encyclopedia, while I moved the vacumm cleaner back and forth over the same spot.

By: Pam I

Pam I — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:21:55 +0000

We’ve always had _this economy_. UK state schools have dropped loads of the art-type stuff, partly from cuts but largely from ideology. Employabilty again, except it’s called Core Skills or some such.

I don’t know what they do learn instead. Just general knowledge about their world, this country, general science and arts – ain’t there. I shouldn’t despair so much, but this week I’ve had two lovely examples of what-do-they-do-in-school with my new groups of 16-y-olds. I show them visual metaphors, then send them out to find their own. The slides include a set of scales, which leads to the statue of Justice on the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court), none had heard of it, or the statue, or the idea. And another discussion on the equinox, showed that none knew where Stonehenge is, and most had not heard of it.

Don’t these things appear in Harry Potter, or on TV cop shows?

Maybe I ask too much, as one whose childhood was spent reading encyclopaedias. For fun.