The Long Road

It’s been ten years since there was any real sign of hope for change in adult learning according to the voices of the national adult learners’ forum-but what a journey they’ve been on to find that out.
 
Confronted by entire continents starving, poor and uprooted a group of adult learners from Scotland devised one strategy to help address the educational needs of these diverse communities.
 
A quick assessment of the time shows that there was real promise in this work and yet somehow some of that shine has worn off, here in the UK. The learners worked hard to develop an international adult learners charter to present to the heads of government at their world adult learning conference in 2009.  What a success, what an achievement!
 
Questions were asked about why these poor people aspired to reaching for this goal for educating other adults?
 
The answer-simple they wanted a better life not just for themselves, but for the families they care for every day, quietly, patiently and sometimes all alone, they saw the reach that adult education has within whole communities.
 
For most of the last decade we’ve been in economic decline, but unlike previous recessions the events and personalities of this decade in terms of contemporary standards and values seem to have forgotten that we need to educate generations to change lives. 
 
We could stop this downward trend right now, learn some lessons from our history and be the authors of our own success, living a true and epic story of how millions ultimately found education, prosperity and a place to call home.
 

‘When we love, we always strive to become better than we are.  When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.’  Paul Coelho, The Alchemist