Summer school in Nelson

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33063, 2 November 1972, Page 6

Summer school in Nelson

The Workers’ Educational Association will hold its annual Summer School in Nelson this year—the first time the school has been held in the South Island.

Mr Patrick Macaskill, president of the Wellington W.E.A., will direct the school, which will be held at Nelson Girls’ College. Since 1963, Mrs Eve Emsley, secretary of the Wellington W.E.A., has spent from Boxing Day until January 5 as secretary-organiser at the school, held usually at the boarding establishment of secondary school in the i North Island. The W.E.A. Summer ! Schools offer lectures in subjects of current concern, as well as other courses in the -arts, scientific interests, or sociology. Last year’s main lecture course, “The Philosophy of Conservation,” taken by Professor J. T. Salmon, attracted about 120 students from all walks of life and all parts of New Zealand. “I suppose there are as many different reasons as there are students,” said Mrs Emsley. “There are, of course, those with a straight-out academic interest in the subject offered. But I think the main reasons for coming are social. It’s very fashionable these; days to talk about a feeling of ‘community,’ but this is exactly what one gets from living closely with a number of others concerned—if only for a short time—about commoa goals.

“Modern society is becoming structured, the opportunities for living and working alongside people with a different social background are becoming rare, and differences between people are becoming exaggerated,” she said. W.E.A. Summer Schools are residential and form a pattern of morning lectures, afternoons free for leisure or activities organised on the spot, and evenings with discussion, films, and dancing, i None of the tutors attending the school are paid. They i attend because they feel they have something to give. "We just couldn’t afford to have the kind of tutors we do if we had to pay them,” Mrs Emsley said. The main 1972 lecture course will be given by Professor A. J. Taylor, professor of clinical psychology at Victoria University, who will attempt to introduce some of the major developments and issues which man must contend with if he is to survive. Other courses are “Practical Conservation,” by G. R. Roberts, who is farming organically at Todds Valley; “Introduction to Esperanto,” by Professor C. J. Adcock; “Literary Swings and Roundabouts” by David James; and “Nelson—a Unique City” by Christopher Vine.,-