September Summary - Sean Rodgers

Sean commented on the September monthly summary of Group 3 and Group 4.

Month (and a little more) in Review

This has been a rather busy and rather illuminating month. First off, I must admit that I have never really given much thought to adult education before this class. I knew of its existence and have even thought I would be interested in teaching a class, but I only thought of it as those classes at the community college that people take to learn about something to interest them. Or maybe its a GED class. Or maybe it a citizenry class. Well, I wasn't completely wrong as those activities are adult education related, adult education is so much more. Its is ESL classes, it is parenting classes, it is people learning to live with disabilities, and adults in prison striving for a new start. So from the onset of this class (which would actually be August), I already increased my knowledge of adult education a great deal.

In the actual first week of September, the topic was the philosophical perspective concerning adult education. Once again, the fact that adult education has been studied didn't surprise me, but the amount that it has been studied (and broken down) was pretty amazing. I also had never seen the term andragogy. I also was glad to discover the cognitive apprenticeship model, which is a teaching method that I think would be useful.

The second week of September (week four of class) was about the history of adult education. Here again I felt that this was something brand new to me. I knew there would be a historical time-line of events, but I didn't really think about the adult educator all-stars. It was intriguing to learn about the likes of Malcolm Knowles and Eduard Lindeman (who I posted about). By far, the post I enjoyed reading the most was about Kathy Lambert and the work she does in the St. Louis area. Not only is her work relevant and timely, but I also found it inspiring.

Week five of class covered adult education in contemporary society. Here the intriguing subject matter of the week was that adult education is a subject that is still very much debated. Unity versus diversity. Align with the rest of education or separate identity. Focus on the individual or society. It made me wonder, but I think I am in the diversity, separate identity, and individual camp (I sound like I just finished reading an Ayn Rand novel). Also this week, I posted my favorite personal post so far, that was posting, and learning more about Jane Aaddms. She was an amazing lady, and a true visionary. I was glad to be able to learn more about her, as I still can't believe that a Nobel Peace Prize winner comes from the proximity of my home town.

Week six of class dealt with providers and forms of adult education. I was glad to be able to comment on my military education, as well as provide a little history about am often overlooked reason behind the GI Bill. I was also happy to share a post about the adult education opportunities in Chicago, but I really enjoyed reading more about the adult education opportunities that other cultural institutions have to offer.

Which brings us to week seven and the Group Project that is due this upcoming Sunday (October 5^th).

To be honest, our group has just begun to interact and get going. So, there isn't much to tell about how the group or project is coming along at this point. All I can say is that we have a busy week ahead of us. I don't have any doubts on that we will accomplish our tasks though.

Future endeavors include finishing up this immediate project, working on the blog some more, and starting on the unique adult/community educations program.