Foreword

(taken from the NIACE publication ‘A Passion for Learning’)

It is my privilege to be serving as President of NIACE as it marks its 80th birthday by publishing this fascinating collection of reminiscences and essays. My first duty is to thank everyone who has contributed, but especially Howard Gilbert, who conceived of the project and has driven it through to completion with patience, good humour and steely determination.

As Howard says in his overview, this is not a careful analytical and critical history of the role of NIACE and its predecessors in shaping policy and practice in adult education - though anyone writing such a study will find much of interest in these pages. Nor is it a festschrift, contributed by pupils and colleagues to mark the retirement of a distinguished scholar. For far from beginning to wind down in wisdom and maturity, NIACE is experiencing the most rapid growth in its history, and coping with the immense constitutional, managerial and cultural changes which are involved, many from the margins, as it were, to the heart of government planning and policy-making. Yet, as in the best festschrift, there are some contributions here which will become required reading. Mostly, however, these are speeches at a birthday party for an old and trusted friend, the odd sharp phrase or risky anecdote carried along in the joyous celebration.

Passing through a similar - though lesser - ‘decade birthday’ recently I found that instead of an autumnal regret, two other, linked, emotions dominated. First came embarrassment, then astonishment: I didn’t feel so old: indeed it was only yesterday that I was much, much younger, and I still felt that inside, whatever my present physical state. NIACE, by contrast, can rejoice in its 80th birthday, for it remains as vigorous in its outward actions as it is in its internal discussions. ‘Older and Bolder’ might be the motto of the whole organisation, not just one of its important projects. I demit office, as I commend this book with affection and pride.