Remarks from 1973 Continuing Education for Women Conference

P.enar s to be made at the Cc-nti .min;: 1-/1 - cation for V'cnen Conference Friday, October 26, 1573 — T5C 1. '.p:,y have a Continuing Education Program? A. V 7 e are in the r.idst of a social revolution which will affect the life style of nest people. Gone are the days of the 3 stage life cycle that people were to be locked to: 1. First one is tc study diligently and learn everything there is to learn (we call this education) 2. After commencement one is to utilize his/her knowledge (we call this work for males and for women society has tragically called it women's work) and 3. After hard study and hard work t ose that don't drop dead get a just reward (which is called retirement). This concept has never been valid. Serious study without work experi¬ ence results in an aseptic academic encounter; work becomes a dead-end without education and retirement without serious work and study cr-r. be¬ come a "life sentence of inactivity." I'nile this concept has never beer, valid it has been true in the oast that this is the attitude that society in general and educators in particular have had. Nov: it is neither valid n r true. The college freshman today may well be a 25 yr. old accountant, a 32 yr. old moth r of 5, a Vietnam veteran, a 65 yr. old grandmother or grandfather, a policeman, a teacher, etc. Continuing education is, indeed, an idea w..ose time has come and it must rankle the veterans in the field of continu'n- «ducat cn who have, beer dpery4 ng this need for decades and now see a variety of coll egos and universities talkin’ about innovative pro- w--y c;i have been suggested since tine immemorial* Nevertheless, it is an i whose tine has cor e and there really is nc way of stopping it.