A View from the Fifteenth Century.

Overview & Synopsis

The future and past of adult continuing education are discussed. Four predictions are made concerning the future of Extension in the university: (1) within the next 20 years or so, the turning over to the established units of the university the part-time credit, extended university, open university activity; (2) the expanded development of continuing professional education as a major line of Extension work; (3) an expanded development of general cultural education; and (4) the development of compulsory adult education. The present day is said to be a time of change similar to that which prevailed in the Renaissance, in the 15th and early 16th century. The heritage of the university is described by quotations from Thomas More's "Utopia," by descriptions of university life in the 15th century, and by descriptions of 11th and 12th century cathedral schools and cloisters of Italy. These descriptions point up the fact that at its beginning, the university was primarily an action program in adult and continuing education, the first students being mature people in search of knowledge to develop solutions to social problems. The next dimension in universities is seen as the development of post-professional, post-degree continuing education for mature men and women, with roots that go back to the beginning of universities. (DB)