HORLEY BRANCH NEWSLETTER SUMMER 2016

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1 HORLEY BRANCH NEWSLETTER SUMMER 2016 The Branch successfully ran 4 courses, in the Spring term, Jim Chrystie gave us The history of modern China - Return of the superpower, Prasannajit De Silva gave us Art and Society in 19th Century Britain, Suzanne Bojtos looked at Ancient Egypt: Contacts with the Wider World and Gabrielle Girardey taught us essential drawing and painting skills. Our year ended on 18th June with a half-day presentation from Alan Berridge: "Honey Bees and their Management by Man". Alan started with their history and told us that bees had not existed in the Americas until introduced by the Spaniards in the 16th century. He then took us through a year in the beekeeper's life, describing the types of hive, what bees eat, how they find their way to a good source of nectar (all the workers are female), how to look after your bees, how they make and use wax and how new queens are born. He emphasised the importance of what beekeepers wear. The morning was rounded off by consuming Geoff's baking all made with honey and very delicious. Margaret Lawrence's report on the Art History Class. A most enjoyable ten week course on 'Art and Society in 19th Century Britain'. Prasannajit De Silva is an excellent tutor and was able to address each student by name from the first week. This facilitated the inclusion of everyone in subsequent discussions and role play scenarios. We were presented with a variety of paintings from early nineteenth century landscapes, through examples of social realism and looked at the influence of the Victorian Great Exhibition on the development of art and design. We learnt to compare paintings of similar subjects to appreciate how they were tackled differently in the various eras studied; how the Pre-Raphaelites were followed by the Aesthetic movement and how Plein Air painting influenced the early Impressionists. We were encouraged to look beyond a first viewing of a picture and to explore associated meanings and messages the artist was trying to convey. Prasannajit's depth of background knowledge greatly enhanced our learning experience. The visit to Tate Britain where the group studied several painting under his guidance was a great success.

2 Lifelong Learning by Lynn Davis The following piece is taken from the Southern Region WEA website at Southern.wea.org.uk and was written by a volunteer for the class held at the Regent Hall - I thought you might find it interesting. Standing looking down the length of the craft tables last Friday morning I thought, I wish we could bottle this. We were making Christmas wreaths and the table was covered in circles of wire, coloured sticky tape, hundreds and hundreds of cut-up pieces of material and ribbons (red, greens and white, shiny and glittery, all the colours of Christmas), cord, bells and other items. I d thought the same the Friday before when we were marbling using shaving foam. This was a messy activity and the tables were covered in newspaper to protect them. There were tinfoil trays, tins of shaving foam and pots of different coloured acrylic paints, pipettes and thin wooden sticks. We spent about an hour marbling, cleared up and then went back to making our knitted pom poms, turning them into different woollen mice and rabbits. Who are we? What are we doing? We re the Horley Arts & Crafts group and are part of the WEA s (Workers Educational Association) Frail and Elderly courses. Some of us may be elderly but don t call us old or frail. Some of us have physical or mental health issues and some of us have both. Some of us are carers, so coming to a craft group gives us a bit of free time. When we sit around the craft tables working together, laughing, joking and having fun we can put our problems, most of the time, to one side. I m lucky. I along with my friends Vi and Kim am a volunteer and there to help and assist in any way we can. Gabby is our tutor for the first hour of the session. She then goes upstairs to take the Art group. We used to be one group, altogether downstairs, but we became victims of our own success and grew too large to fit in the space. We were then divided into two groups one downstairs, one upstairs with Gabby moving between both. Between terms both groups meet on a Friday morning at the centre, to catch up together as we miss all being one big group. We are all there for each other. Sometimes we do have problems that we can t leave at the door. We sit and talk them through either in a small sub group or altogether. Firm friendships have been made and some of us meet outside the group too. We go to for coffee or go out to lunch or do other activities like going to the theatre. We or phone each other just for a chat and some of us are on Facebook as well. Why am I writing this piece? At the weekend Vi and I were chatting on the phone, and up came the topic of the craft group. We were both saying how much it means to us as volunteers. We said it was one of our most important weekly activities but could not put into words why we feel it is. We always say, We love that group. I said, It s been sprinkled with magic dust and Vi laughed and agreed. We don t know where the magic comes from but it s there and we love it. We don t want to lose our group. We get far more out of it than we could ever give and we need to do

3 whatever we can to keep it going. This is why I said I d try to write a piece about us which we might be able to use, by sending to our MP and other parties interested in adult education and the governments threat to reduce its budget. What else can I say about our Craft group? Well you can feel the liveliness and vibrancy as the noise rises up from the tables. We impact on everyone at the Horley Centre. The staff always recommend our group when new people come in. People visiting the centre for a snack, lunch or bingo come across to chat. They want to know what we are doing and why? They bring in items we can use in later sessions and generally take an interest in our goings on as we do in them. On a Thursday morning I also attend a WEA Creative Writing Course in Reigate. It took me ages to find a writing group that fitted in with my other weekly commitments and I feel so lucky to have found this one. This course is run by the WEA s Reigate Branch. It has a different atmosphere to our craft group as we sit quietly listening to what each of us has written. Our discussions, at the end of each reading, are lively and informative. Whatever we our reading we all help each other by giving our opinion at the end. Hints and tips as to how the piece might be changed are given in a friendly positive way. We break for tea and stand around chatting, laughing and joking. At this time I feel the same vibrancy and liveliness as I feel at crafts so maybe some of the magic dust has been sprinkled in Reigate as well. Both of these groups are part of Life Long Learning which I thought health professionals and politicians advocated. They talk the talk but don t walk the walk when they start threatening to cut the adult education budget between 25 and 40%. They are also always saying how important it is for both people s mental and physical health to be out and about in the community doing things. Why do they threaten our groups by wanting to slash budgets? These decisions will impact on other budgets if adult education goes and people end up isolated and alone with both their mental and physical health deteriorating. WEA Southern Region - Democracy Day in Tonbridge Earlier this year we did try to ensure that all our members in Southern Region heard about the free event being held in Tonbridge last May. For those that did not go here is a short summary. It was a sunny Saturday morning in central Tonbridge and WEA members from across the Region came together seeking the same thing a safe place to speak openly, express opinions and engage in intellectual debate. The day was led by Southern Region Education Manager June Diegan and we enjoyed a fascinating series of talks from several guest speakers:

4 Dr Hilda Kean, who is the former Dean and Director of Public History at Ruskin College in Oxford, on the changing nature of knowledge for a democracy. Dr Lily Hamourtziadou on critical pedagogy, democracy and change. Lily is a politics tutor at the WEA and a senior researcher at Iraq Body Count, and was nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Paul Legg, who is a WEA tutor in modern history and a former correspondent and editor for the BBC, on the free press and democracy. Professor Linden West on the effect of fractured economies, malfunctioning democracies and the narrowing of education s purpose. Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat got proceedings under way with a talk on the importance of democratic involvement. And with the EU Referendum looming, the day s topic seemed very fitting indeed. The Referendum is direct democracy we are in or out and there is no in between, he said. Whatever the result, I will respect it and I won t say it is wrong, as it has been a democratic vote. Mr Tugendhat reminded us that it is important to make our vote count - not just in the referendum, but in all future elections. He concluded: Democracy works and it really does change things. Professor Linden West, who is the Director of Research in the Faculty of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, said he had really enjoyed the day and emphasised just how important such events were. It was good to see so many members there as well as to engage with the professional staff, he said. It was the WEA at its best: serious, committed, thoughtful and questioning. Public spaces in which people can meet together to consider their situation have atrophied in the rise of individualism and the privatisation of responsibility. This is especially serious in a multicultural society, where the danger of fracture and caricature is ever present. The idea of participatory democracy has weakened as the cult of leadership, of the supreme manager, has invaded diverse public and private space. He continued: The WEA was founded for a quite different, more democratic purpose: to create quality spaces in which ordinary people could meet and learn in serious and challenging ways, across difference, in a culture of fraternity. In other words, building communities, microcosms of the good society, based on equality, respectfulness, trust and serious dialogue; what the sociologist Anthony Giddens calls the democracy of the emotions.

5 Such a spirit was embodied in the day at Tonbridge. It provided, in these terms, real resources of hope, in the words of Raymond Williams. We need many more days like these, encouraged by the national movement, to consider how collectively, in educational settings and more widely, Tawney s great experiment in democratic education can be strengthened, both in the WEA and more widely. Advance notice: the Branch Social Afternoon and AGM will be from 2.00 pm pm on Saturday 19th November at the Archway Theatre Function Room, Horley. Ann Andrews the Tutor Organiser for Surrey will be coming to tell us about what is happening in East Surrey and to listen to what we have to say. In the meantime if you have any ideas about future subjects, timing or length of courses which might be popular, the Branch Committee would be very pleased to hear from you. As you are all aware the Branch relies on the help of its volunteers to keep the courses going and your committee would welcome any help you can offer. We need people with every sort of skill from welcoming students to the first class, producing publicity, planning courses to keeping a record of receipts and payments. If you could offer help in any area not just those mentioned above please do let us know.