return to top page FOURTH WORLD NEWS
For Small Nations, Small Communities & The Human Spirit
Vol. 1 No. 18. February 1983 Price 25pEdited by Nicholas Albery Education Made To Measure Anyone looking for a human scale form of education would do well to imitate the 'School for Independent Study (SlS)' at the 'North East London Polytechnic'.
I am a second-year student at 'SlS', having suffered 13 years of education previously. These are the first two years that have felt worthwhile to me, with education tailor-made to fit me. It is a two year course leading to a diploma of higher education, and possibly to a third year degree by independent study.The whole of the first term one officially spends writing one's 'statement', answering very basic questions, which reminded me of the Gauguin painting of oppressed and listless South Sea natives -the five questions are:
"Where have I come from?"
"Where am I now?"
"Where am I going to?"
"How am I going to get there?"
"How will I know if I have arrived?"At this point 1 thought the whole course was too good to be true, and put down in my statement that I wanted to learn to become "a more effective radical social change agent", proposing a number of actions 1 could experiment with during the two years. This proved to be too much even for liberal 'SIS', and my statement was failed.
I spent much of the second term re-drafting it, and ended up studying the more acceptable combination of writing, journalism and psychotherapy. One also has to design how one will be examined - I have contracted that I be failed if I have not produced two books and twelve published articles within the two year course, besides a 10,000 word dissertation about body-mind therapies.
Most of the time we work alone, supervised by our individual work tutors. On Thursdays we go in and take it in turns to lecture our student group on how our individual work is going, and on Fridays we get together in small groups of five or six people to do 'group work', any work of community benefit requiring solid research or application.
For me, Fridays have been enlightening and fun, as we have to concentrate on 'group dynamics' as much as on the task. Whereas in the past I have always been good at beavering away at projects, however vile the group atmosphere, I have now been forced to concentrate on what makes a good group tick.
One term we formed a 'video therapy group' (spontaneous singing and dancing in front of the camera), another term an anti-nuclear street theatre group, and last term we promoted 'Touch For Health', described elsewhere in this issue.
For anyone interested in community work or working in small groups, and also with a need for more time to delve into an individual interest, I strongly recommend the 'SlS' course - apply well before the summer to SIS, Willis Road, London E.15. It is a full-time course entitling one to student and travel grants from education authorities (a part-time course for which one pays is also available).
But really all education should contain this self-design element, from primary level up. For instance, as a modest first step, why shouldn't 14 year olds have a year off examinations, in which they spend a few weeks answering the five basic questions, and making contracts to fulfil a self-designed course of study?
The main inspiration behind the 'SIS' course was Tyrell Burgess author of Pelican 'Education After School' and I hear he is working on extending the 'SlS' principle into other areas of education. He will face an uphill battle against entrenched bureaucracies.
copies of this document may be obtained from 26 The High Street, Purton, Wiltshire SN5 4AE, UK
Tel: 01793 77 22 14 Fax: 01793 77 25 21
e-mail: john.papworth@btinternet.com
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