Hi jojo,
I’m sure U3A is a noble institution and many of the courses look interesting, especially those interested in the arts, but it smacks to me of age-ghettoisation, which I don’t think is you at all. But of course I could be wrong and other might have different ideas and experience.
I had a bit of a ding-dong with OH when he claimed that Birkbeck, Uni of London, which advertises itself as London’s Evening University, was designed for ‘people in the evening of their years’. Which of course is rubbish. It is not an exaggeration to say that the demographic extends from 18-year-old school leavers to people in their 90s. With tuition fees as they are, lots of young ones are finding it easier to study part time for their degrees while earning to keep themselves afloat financially. On the MA course, there was little old me and quite a few somewhat older – or in worse nick – 🙂 but the majority were probably between mid-30s and early to mid-50s.
I was thinking of you earlier this evening when I was watching a lovely fly-on-the-wall French documentary called Etre et Avoir, about a village school in the Auvergne. All the children were in one room, with one teacher, a delightfully kind but firm – and rather dishy – mature gentleman looking after kids between the ages of 4 and (I think) 12 or 13 when they moved to middle school. All the children were lovely but the undoubted star of the show was a great little guy of 5 or so called, you’ve guessed it, Jojo. You could see that sometimes ‘Sir’ was having a job not cracking up at some of his little-boy comments.
I’d recommend it to anyone interested in France and French life, children, education, beautiful landscapes, or just in watching a very touching film.
10:09 pm
13 Nov 14