INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / OCTOBER 10, 1989

 

 

 

Adult Students Learn Valuable Skills

School is not just for kids.

Today, university and college
campuses are swarming with
adults seeking to further their
education. Night schools are doing
a booming business and the class-
room is no longer exclusively a
child’s domain.

But a return to the classroom,
after years in the work force or the
home, is not always easy. Sudden-
ly, otherwise capable, intelligent
adults are confronted with lectures,
assignments, essays and exams; ac-
tivities which they have not had to
deal with for years. Reading, writ-
ing, and ‘rithmetic become for-
midable obstacles to overcome.

 

There is a solution, says Tony
Rekert, a language consultant who
teaches adults basic study skills.
“It’s all a matter of learning to un-
derstand language,” he explains.
“It’s pattern recognition.”

Rekert, who offers courses
through Douglas College on read-
ing and note-taking skills, says it re-
quires bringing things down toa
practical level. “We have to re-ex-
amine what we already do
mechanically,” — that is, listening
and reading.

“The danger in any course is
that you divorce it from the ordi-
nary world. Out there you can
read and write and communicate

 

Childcare Workshops continued from page 3

 

and the B.C. Coast. The Initiatives Fund will carry her project until October
1991, at which point Savage expects to have another proposal ready to ac-
cess funds that will further develop childcare resources.

“We're getting incredible response because of the fund,” she says.
“Usually it’s a real task finding money to realize ideas. If enough people
take the Douglas College workshops, there’s no limit to the extent we can

use the fund.”

When Carol Ebner was having her Initiatives Fund budget assessed by
an Ottawa representative, she discovered an important fact that could assist

people in accessing the fund.

“The CCIF Western Representative has her hands full assisting
proposals already in process,” she said. She would appreciate assistance in
helping new applicants learn how to write a proposal for the funding.
“That's when I got the idea to create the proposal writing workshops: if
polished, professional proposals were submitted it would unclog the system
and get more money out to us in less time.”

The funding is allowing people like Karen Norman, director of the Kids
Day Care Centre at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, to con-
duct a feasibility study of hospital-based childcare programs for the Eagle
Ridge Hospital. It’s also allowing the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre in
Vancouver to redesign its playground for special needs children with motor

difficulties.

On November 25, Douglas College will hold a Grant Proposal
Workshop designed to help participants gain access to any funds allocated

for child care.

“There are hundreds of good ideas out there for child care development
and they're slowly seeing the light,” says Peter Ashmore.
For information on the Child Care Initiatives Fund workshops call Peter

Ashmore, 876-8440. @

 

with people. Suddenly you take a
course and feel like an idiot.”

The solution? “Get involved
with language.”

In his courses, Rekert attempts
to demystify the art of studying. In
Reading Skills for Adults, he
teaches his students to increase the
speed at which they read, though it
is not a course in speed reading.
The faster a person reads, he ex-
plains, the better they concentrate.
People think much faster than they
read, so there is “a tremendous
amount of room for distraction. In-
crease the rate at which you read
and you decrease the room for dis-
traction.”

Rekert’s long term goal is to
“turn people on to reading.” He
seeks to enhance their reading
skills so they get more out of
whatever it is they read.

In Note-Taking for Adults,
Rekert also focuses on concentra-
tion and understanding. He
teaches his students pattern recog-
nition. “People think and speak in
patterns. The quicker you can per-
ceive the pattern of their thoughts
— the underlying organization—
the better you understand what is
being said.”

It is the language itself that in-
terests Rekert. “It’s all about the
use and control of language,” he ex-
plains, because “the fundamental
creative tool is language.” And he
hopes that by teaching his courses,
he will give students some basic
tools to work with.

Reading Skills for Adults will
be held at Douglas College in New
Westminster, Tuesdays, 7 to 9:30
p-m., on October, 10, 17, 24, and 31.

Note-Taking for Adults, also at
the College Tuesdays, 7 to 9:30
p-m., is scheduled for November 7,
14, 21, 28, and December 5.

For more information on the
courses contact Tony Rekert at 850-
9031. To register, call 527-5472. mw

 

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