ellenscult (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellenscult) wrote2008-06-12 12:40 pm
ellenscult) wrote2008-06-12 12:40 pm
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Era duly ended
Last night was my last dressmaking class. The moderator came in and looked at all my stuff, as well as other people's work. He ticked all the boxes. I passed.
There will be no more dressmaking: the Government has slashed funding for adult ed, because why would you want a bunch of white, middle-class, middle-aged people taking pottery classes anyway? It's not as though these classes are used by the poor, the undereducated, the disenfranchised as a means to better themselves, is it? And reportedly the new principal of the college dislikes adult ed because it doesn't bring in the funding and wishes to get rid of all of it. So, dressmaking is no more. After all, it's not as though it had a waiting list to get onto it, each and every year, even after they doubled the cost of it. Not at all, no.
I have mixed emotions about finishing the course. On the one hand, I'm very glad to have passed, grateful I've learned so very much, and relieved that I'll have my Wednesday evenings back and no more coursework to do. On the other hand, I shall miss very much getting together with a bunch of women of disparate ages and backgrounds and making things. It's been important to me. And I'm very angry at the way adult education is being treated. My father worked as a lecturer at Huddersfield Technical College for pretty much all of my life, even after he 'retired'. I believe this is the first year he's not planning on teaching any classes. In his career he's taught everyone from school-leavers, to day release apprentices, to pensioners taking, yes, evening classes. And he's made an incalculable, vast impact on the lives of many of the people he's taught.
All this is at an end.
In future years, you won't get people bumping into their ex-evening class tutors in the supermarket and saying, 'Thank you. I would have been working here, if not for you. Now I teach at a university. You changed my life for the better, and I can never thank you enough.'
Because that really happened, and still is happening, right now. But as adult ed. recedes behind us, and teachers and former pupils grow older, we'll be moving into a world where those who don't get ahead in their school years, who don't figure out their path through life when they're 11, who don't come from a supportive background which values education - they'll be the ones working in the supermarkets. And they won't have any way out.
A world without the possibility for education is a world I can't even begin to comprehend. It makes me furious, and it makes me want to cry. Fuck you, Gordon Brown. Fuck you very much to the depths of your miserly, grasping, university-educated, ignorant soul. I hope you're proud of the country you're leaving to your kids.
For those who are interested in such things, this is my pile o' stuff:
Yeah, it was a good year.
There will be no more dressmaking: the Government has slashed funding for adult ed, because why would you want a bunch of white, middle-class, middle-aged people taking pottery classes anyway? It's not as though these classes are used by the poor, the undereducated, the disenfranchised as a means to better themselves, is it? And reportedly the new principal of the college dislikes adult ed because it doesn't bring in the funding and wishes to get rid of all of it. So, dressmaking is no more. After all, it's not as though it had a waiting list to get onto it, each and every year, even after they doubled the cost of it. Not at all, no.
I have mixed emotions about finishing the course. On the one hand, I'm very glad to have passed, grateful I've learned so very much, and relieved that I'll have my Wednesday evenings back and no more coursework to do. On the other hand, I shall miss very much getting together with a bunch of women of disparate ages and backgrounds and making things. It's been important to me. And I'm very angry at the way adult education is being treated. My father worked as a lecturer at Huddersfield Technical College for pretty much all of my life, even after he 'retired'. I believe this is the first year he's not planning on teaching any classes. In his career he's taught everyone from school-leavers, to day release apprentices, to pensioners taking, yes, evening classes. And he's made an incalculable, vast impact on the lives of many of the people he's taught.
All this is at an end.
In future years, you won't get people bumping into their ex-evening class tutors in the supermarket and saying, 'Thank you. I would have been working here, if not for you. Now I teach at a university. You changed my life for the better, and I can never thank you enough.'
Because that really happened, and still is happening, right now. But as adult ed. recedes behind us, and teachers and former pupils grow older, we'll be moving into a world where those who don't get ahead in their school years, who don't figure out their path through life when they're 11, who don't come from a supportive background which values education - they'll be the ones working in the supermarkets. And they won't have any way out.
A world without the possibility for education is a world I can't even begin to comprehend. It makes me furious, and it makes me want to cry. Fuck you, Gordon Brown. Fuck you very much to the depths of your miserly, grasping, university-educated, ignorant soul. I hope you're proud of the country you're leaving to your kids.
For those who are interested in such things, this is my pile o' stuff:
- 1 blouse, flower-patterned, cotton with lycra
- 1 kirtle, dark green wool with linen part-lining, handsewn
- 2 linen shifts, white, handsewn
- embroidery project: C16th blackwork on the cuffs of one of the shifts, folder with write-up and examples
- textiles project: naalbound hat & mittens in Asle stitch, felted naalbound bag in Oslo stitch, folder with write-up and examples
- sketchbook with original designs
- craft book showing pattern construction
- folder containing samples of sewing techniques
Yeah, it was a good year.