Salisbury & District U3A Press Report
March 2008
The March meeting began with the AGM. The business was despatched with speedy efficiency, so that most of the meeting could be devoted to a talk. Jack Leeming stood down after serving three years in the chair. A much-appreciated characteristic of his chairmanship has been an amusing anecdote to begin each meeting. A member paid tribute to this by telling a story himself, which raised a good laugh from the audience. Moira Dickson was elected unanimously as the new chair. To follow the business meeting Jack Leeming had invited John Illston, his immediate predecessor as chair of this U3A branch, to speak. His topic was A life in Education. We learned how Dr Illston had, through what he presented as a series of happy chances, changed career from practical civil engineering to teaching. He began his educational career as a grammar school teacher in South London in the days when a university graduate could take up teaching without any formal teacher training. From this he moved to higher education as a lecturer at his old college, Kings College London, eventually ending a distinguished academic career as director of Hatfield Polytechnic, now the University of Hertfordshire. All this he described with modesty and humour as he explained the differences between the 'old' university approach to teaching and the polytechnic approach which he described as ‘real engineering’ – education that prepares students directly for working life and conducts applied research, rather than the pure acquisition of knowledge. Any idea that civil engineers are more concerned with buildings etc was quickly dispelled by his obvious warm affection for his students, a good number of whom have kept in touch with him. And we, the audience came away perhaps surprised to have discovered that hearing about a career in engineering could be so interesting and absorbing. |
| Details of future outings can be found under Outings News. |
