Adult Education - by Darylynn Starr Rank
November, 2005

“No, you can’t go visit your friend – or play outside – or talk on the phone – or play on the computer! You haven’t finished your homework yet. Have you?”

“No television tonight. You’ve got an exam tomorrow!”

“Your education has to be your first priority. I don’t want to hear any excuses!”

“Honestly, sweetheart. You’ll appreciate all of this when you get older. You’ll see for yourself how vital your education is.”
 
“Learning, studying, knowledge are so important. You’ll be a much happier, healthier person if you keep learning.”

“So, darling, what did you learn in school today?”

Does any of this sound familiar?    

Maybe endlessly familiar?

I mean, you probably started reading to your kids from the first minute you thought they could understand. Heck, you started teaching your child language skills from the first minutes of their lives.  

Heck, again, you started studying your own fingers and toes, and the way your own body moved and felt from the moment of your birth. You studied how to turn over and crawl and stand up and walk. How to ride a bike. You explored every inch of your world. In school and out!

We all know how important learning is.  

So what happens. We grow up, graduate, or maybe drop out of school. Get your high school diploma or college degree, or maybe more, or go back and get your GED.  Whatever finishing school means. And on the day we finish, how many of us think, “Ah, finally done with my education.”

So that’s that!

That process we engaged in from the moment of our birth on…That process we started in on with our kids from the moment of their birth on. We’re done. Finished. Kaput. Nothing more to learn now, right?

But of course that’s not the way things are. Or ought to be, I think. We learn new skills all the time. At work, at home, in exercise. And oh my heavens, on the never-endingly changing world of the computer. 

So why do we think that classes are just for kids?

There is an incredible amount of adult education available. Adult education that honours and values your own life experience. That’s not about lectures, or homework, or tests. Not dull rote memorization, like so many horrible courses you may remember from your school days. But fascinating, challenging, exciting ones. 

Programs that explore everything from ‘saying no’, to physics, art, mechanics, how to handle your finances, writing, cooking, setting boundaries, photography, quilting, computer skills, more computer skills, creativity, the nature of parenting. Anything. Everything. 

Adult education has all the good parts of school – friends, interesting topics, fascinating discussions, acquiring knowledge and skills. It’s got the opportunity to learn with (and from!) other people, explore the universe. So many of us are doing it. And it’s got the possibility of being so much fun. And you get to do it as a grown-up, learning just what you want, when you want it, the way you want to learn it. In control.

Hey, there’s got to be world of things out there you’ve always, always, always, wanted to learn about. Learning really doesn’t have to stop when school ends. In fact, it’s just the start – and the best part happens now!

Take care, all.

Darylynn Starr Rank (psychologist/writer) works part-time for Family Services of Greater Vancouver as a group facilitator. Her articles appear bi-weekly in The Record (New Westminster) and the Richmond Review.

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