Adult Education: The Task Of A Lifetime

Tim Thomson
Professor Yamano
English 101
2 December 2012

Adult Education-The Task of a Lifetime
“We all know, and no one can deny, that no child—in school or at the moment of graduation—is an educated person”. What does this mean? Does it mean that if you had a doctorate, you would still be considered a child? Does it mean that “all” persons that have graduated are not more smart than a counterpart that has no education? I will attempt to summarize these differences with examples throughout this paper.
Adult Education can be defined as: a program of non-credit courses for adults, regardless of previous education, typically offered by a university extension or institute, also called continuing education. It is believed that if you are involved in adult education you have missed something earlier on and are going to night school or day classes to catch up. As Adler explains, this is so far from the truth. Adult education has such a negative meaning, even today. When I say that I was in “night school” to get my diploma, some people look at me funny, as if I flunked out of life and didn’t give a hoot about my education. Others say, wow, that is great that you are going back to school. What are you taking?
Some people have had circumstances to where they were unable to finish high school and are now taking classes to get their diploma, many years later. This happened to me. I was almost 40, when I received my high school diploma. We all have things in our lives that give us the opportunity to finish school at 18 or unfortunately, finish it later. I can tell you at 41 years old, I might be more educated because of life experience, but I am not anymore educated, than my son, who is 18. I agree with Adler, where he says youth does not have the patience or the experience to be “educated”. If you were to take someone my age and someone my son’s age, and put them out in the world to, for example, find a job, more than likely someone who has the experiences is going to obtain employment quicker, than someone who doesn’t. Granted, this world and our economy are still hard to find a job in, no matter how many degrees you have. However, the more experience in life, the better chances you have of making it work.
Also, a large portion of people in adult education think it wasn’t their fault they are in that particular situation, that is the school’s fault or someone else’s fault. Adler says this extreme is wrong. You can take someone with a four year degree and that are

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