                                 9.  COMMENTARY
        
                "The reason the wheel is so round is because we keep
        re-inventing it."  Dr.  Kenneth Earl Eye (1992).
        
               Many theoretical notions were woven through the cited
        presented in this paper.  But I ask, were they all just
        reinventing the wheel?   Is adult education really something
        unique, or just a rehash of educational dogma that resulted in
        the creation of volumes of new information regarding one of the
        oldest pursuits of humankind?      
        
               I believe not.  
        
               Toffler's concept of the Third Wave is not fiction, but a
        paradigm representing a new social reality.  Since its
        publication in 1980, the information explosion increased
        exponentially.  In The Third Wave, Toffler mentioned that he
        wrote the last part of the text using a word processor, and
        predicted ironically, this new machine writing would probably
        impact the future in many ways.  That comment was pure
        understatement.
        
               Since 1980, computers not only facilitated new ways of
        communication, but impacted every facet of civilization.  The
        world is now linked by the "magic box" through optic fiber phone
        lines, satellite dishes, modems and FAX machines.  In many ways,
        the microprocessor is the harbinger of the Third Wave.  And those
        that are computer literate, or worse yet, who avoid learning how
        to manipulate information using them, may be left in not only a
        communication but a social time warp.  In many respects, they are
        the very ones who are attempting to maintain the Second Wave
        order by keeping information management in a pyramidal framework.
        
        
               Computer use is slowly weaving its way into the
        educational environment.  At the elementary and high school
        level, computers are intermittently used to enhance learning. 
        But computer science is still not a primary subject taught in
        most curricula.  Teaching the three R's is still done using
        methods developed by the cognitivist educational theorists. 
        Lecture and objective testing remain the predominant methodology
        in education.  In most universities and in some Communication
        Departments (Clarion University of PA where I completed my
        master's degree), instructors encourage the master's candidates
        to use andragogical processes for students in planning T&D
        modules, but lecture continues to dominant the methods used to
        "teach" them (the candidates) how to train others.  Knowles and
        others would discount this as a meaningful learning experience,
        because the instructors are not role modeling the facilitation
        process in effective adult education.
        
               Only in the adult education theories and practices
        presented earlier in this paper is there any real hope for a
        significant change in the current methodology for educating not
        only adults but youths and adolescents in preparation for meeting
        the information age with enthusiasm and joy and not fear and
        anxiety.  Knowles, Tough, Kidd, Houle, Lindeman, Hesburgh,
        Naisbitt and Aburdene, and the other authors believed there is a
        need for lifelong learning to prepare all individuals to face the
        information explosion.  Each maintained that the old systems of
        education were sorely antiquated and only by applying modern
        principles of andragogy could we hope to overcome the impending
        obsolescence of mankind.  
        
               What makes adult education or andragogy, different is its
        focus on the individual and not a mass of students.  As the world
        becomes more interconnected with mass means of communication via
        the computer, the individual learner will find it easier to
        access information from myriad sources using national databases
        like Compuserve, Genie, Prodigy, America Online, and the myriad
        BBS's which did not even exist 13 years ago when Toffler wrote
        The Third Wave.
        
               But is andragogy the answer?  It is part of the answer,
        but I believe not just andragogy alone.  There is a need for
        education to evolve into a unified system where pedagogy and
        andragogy merge together to create a true LLL environment.  Even
        though America is "graying" at a rapid pace, and by 2030 A.D.  a
        projected 65% of Americans will be past middle age, focusing
        only on adult learning is too limiting.  Lifelong Learning (LLL)
        would emphasize a "cradle to grave" approach for individual human
        development.  The best principles of pedagogy and andragogy would
        be incorporated into systematic lifelong learning curricula and
        emphasize thinking, synthesizing, and creating.  Computer
        Science, Information Management, Problem Solving, Data Base
        Searching, Applied Mathematics, Democratic Living, and Community
        Service are just a few potential subject areas the lifelong
        learner might pursue.
        
               Knowles' (1978) proposal for LLL to parallel human
        developmental stages would certainly assist the information age
        facilitator (not teacher) in assisting individuals in creating
        programs to meet his/her specific needs.  Rather than having
        learning systems founded on subject areas, the information age
        learning environment will be based upon individual stages of
        human development.  Knowles' different roles and competencies
        would be the focus for LLL.  
        
               Supporting this notion, Tough (1979) wrote that 73% of
        adults undertake individual learning projects during any given
        year and only 5% pursue some organized learning process.  Now
        reversing this reality by "whacking oneself on the side of the
        head", imagine a LLL environment in which the majority of
        individuals in the United States and the world are pursuing
        individual learning projects based on roles and competencies
        rather than subject areas.   
        
               During the "Learning" role or phase in life, the
        individual would pursue competence in reading, writing,
        computing, perceiving, conceptualizing, evaluating, imagining,
        and inquiring.  Once these competencies are completed, the
        individual would begin working on "being a self" and work on
        competencies like self-analyzing, sensing, goal-building,
        objectivising, value-clarifying, and expressing oneself
        effectively.  He will then begin working on being a "friend." 
        Now this role can and will run simultaneously with the others,
        but it is a separate and important role to be mastered. 
        Competencies in this role are loving, empathizing, listening,
        collaborating, sharing, helping, giving feedback, and supporting.
        
        These are certainly important interpersonal skills to possess,
        and which are not presently being taught on any formal level in
        our schools today.  In fact, they are not being taught at all. 
        An individual can learn these by participating in individual
        learning projects.  He could also learn them if he chooses to
        enter therapy and through extensive work incorporate them into
        his personality.  How much better it would be if the entire
        fabric of community emphasized these competencies.  Next, the
        individual will work on the role of "family member" and develop
        the competency of maintaining health, planning, man aging,
        helping, sharing, buying, saving, loving, and taking
        responsibility for one's own behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. 
        The role of worker requires the individual to be competent in
        career planning, technical skills, using supervision, giving
        supervision, getting along with people, cooperating, planning,
        delegating, managing one's own resources.  The final role in
        Knowles' (1978) LLL system is leisure-time.  Now the individual
        will become competent in knowing resources, appreciating the arts
        and humanities, performing, playing, relaxing, reflecting,
        planning, risking and preparing for the future, one which we
        already realize is quickly making the Second Wave Civilization
        obsolete itself.  Learning will become fun, people will become
        self-actualized, and life will reach new plateaus of spontaneity
        and joy.
        
               Somewhere a traditionalist writhes in agony as these
        notions are proposed and asks:  How does one measure learning
        which is individually based, focused on roles and competencies,
        and not oriented to subject matter?  How does one decide when to
        begin a project?   How does one keep track of the individual as
        s/he pursues a LLL program which is not the same for everybody?  
        Who controls the movement from one role to the next?  How is
        this type of program paid for?   What about teachers, and
        schools, and education budgets, and all the other bureaucratic
        red tape?
        
               These questions are certainly the foundation for future
        research by those practicing pedagogy and andragogy and who
        believe the present system is obsolete, and especially by the
        learner, who knows it is.  They will need to ask questions, like
        Lindeman proposed (see pages 86-87).
        
               Again, the traditionalist asks, is it truly obsolete and
        is LLL the only approach which will arrest educational systems
        from self-destruction?   Given the arguments of the writers
        already cited, there is enough evidence to suggest that as the
        information age overwhelms the last vestiges of the Second Wave
        civilization and its mass production educational systems, LLL
        will emerge as the educational system not only of choice but
        necessity.  
        
               Some basic education will need to take place.  This will
        occur in the "learning" role.  But imagine the three year old
        who, instead of watching "Sesame Street" once a day at 4 pm on
        PBS broadcasting systems, turns on the family PC and accesses not
        only this program, but a multitude of programs and uses them to
        learn to read, write, type, think, analyze, draw, create, and
        masters these skills all by the age of six.  Computer Assisted
        Instruction (CAI) media formats will replace simple computer
        games as the preferred mode of entertainment.  A movement toward
        this type of message began with the development of Apple
        Computers 15 years ago.  The possibilities now are limitless. 
        Exciting graphics and multi-media computer applications will
        eliminate boredom in learning projects.  Multi-tasking
        capabilities under OS/2 and Windows NT (New Technology) will
        permit the LLLearner to work on many projects at one time.  Tired
        of doing advanced calculus via CAI, the LLLearner switches tasks
        and writes a letter to a friend and then sends it via fax/modem. 
        S/he then returns to an applied CAI and reviews the concepts of
        democracy and what it means to be an enlightened citizen.  If old
        enough, he may tune in to the Senate or Congress in session and
        monitor the voting.  He may, if Ross Perot's suggestion is
        finally made a reality, participate in voting via the "electronic
        town meeting."  Before the individual goes to dinner, the
        computer will prompt him to update the "task calendar" on screen.
        
        Popping down a window, the learner types in the accomplishments
        for the day and projects for the next day what new and
        interesting learning activities he hopes to complete.  
        
               Toffler (1980) described a renewal of "cottage industries"
        as individuals in the 21st century remain home and still
        contribute in many ways to the growth and development of their
        separate companies.  Imagine "cottage schools" connected again
        via fiber optics, integrated using all the best practices of
        pedagogy and andragogy, and which permit the individual to tap
        into the learning centers of the world without having to travel
        to them.  Using the current national databases like Compuserve
        (or Eduserve), the LLLearner can search ERIC, other databases,
        communicate via a host of Forums on specific subjects, check the
        weather, read the AP wire news and never leave his own home. 
        Truancy would disappear.  Boredom would be replaced with
        excitement.  Anxiety would be eliminated, because the learner
        would progress at his own pace.  In all these activities,
        curiosity, thinking, synthesizing, and creating would be
        enhanced.
        
               Every author described some facet of this type of learning
        environment as being the most effective for enhancing individual
        development and essential for preventing obsolescence in the
        Information Age.  However, it would be naive to believe that such
        an educational system is "just around the corner."  Toffler's
        "ad-hocracy" is not a household word yet.  Bureaucracies still
        control the major funding sources for education and the major
        systems and corporations of the world.  The National Education
        Association (NEA) is still one of the most powerful lobbies in
        Washington.  Parents who use school for child care and don't
        really care whether or not their children really learn anything
        would balk at having their children home for all, or at least
        part of the day, making it difficult for one or both parents to
        go off to work and leave "Johnnie and Susie" home with the
        "Windows" open.  Corporations still want employees to sign time
        sheets and "be present and accounted for" so that they can
        justify paying them.  Yet the facts presented thus far describe a
        vastly different work world in the not-to-distant future.  The
        21st century society will be different, unique to human existence
        and irreversible.  Just ask even the most resistant Second Wave
        supporter who recently "had" to learn to use a computer to
        perform his/her job related responsibilities if s/he would go
        back to the way things were done even a year ago, and the answer
        would be a resounding "no".  Modern communication systems free
        the individual from boredom, in learning, working, and in
        recreation.  All these barriers exist, and will not disappear
        without some reactionary behaviors on the part of the "old
        guard".  But the changes are inevitable.  When and How are the
        only questions that are relevant for the proponent of LLL.
        
               In describing this type of LLL, I believe it meets all of
        Penland's (1977) criteria why adults undertake learning projects.
        
        The learner of the future will:  
               1.      Set his own learning pace.
               2.      Use his own style of learning.
               3.      Keep the learning style flexible and easy to
                       change.
               4.      Create his own structure to the learning project
                       regardless of what role is being pursued.
               5.      Develop competency in whatever role he wants.
               6.      Participate in learning immediately without having
                       to wait for a class or some other systematic
                       learning event to take place.
               7.      Budget his time so that he can engage in
                       individual or group learning as he sees necessary
                       for his own development.
               8.      Avoid forever, the formal classroom with a
                       teacher, if he so chooses.
               9.      Worry no more about money for a course of study.
               10.     Travel only as far as his communication system to
                       access the information systems of the world.
        
               This description of a LLL system may seem to be
        farfetched, incomprehensible, a neat idea but not very feasible. 
        I believe not.  What makes it realistic, comprehensible and very
        feasible is the exponential rate of change taking place in the
        world as Toffler (1970, 1980) described, and how corporations are
        "reinventing" themselves (Naisbitt and Aburdene, 1985), and
        how adults are pursuing individual learning projects at an ever
        increasing rate (Tough, 1978), and lastly, how adults, and youths
        as well, more effectively learn (Knowles, 1970, 1978, 1980; Kidd,
        1973; Hesburgh et al., 1973).  
        
               What will it take for a LLL system to replace the current
        one presently in place?      
               
               These are just some of the strategies I believe it will be
        necessary to implement to create a true LIFELONG LEARNING
        NETWORK:
               1.      Develop learning modules (especially CAI's) which
                       emphasize individual learning projects using
                       modern communications networks rather than
                       existing traditional frameworks where the adult
                       must travel to the experience rather than have the
        
                       experience come to him.
               2.      Engage corporations in studying more effective
                       ways to train and then support individuals in
                       applying their new knowledge on as well as off the
                       job.
               3.      Create the kind of "Electronic Town Meeting" that
                       Ross Perot advocated in the 1992 Presidential
                       Campaign to engage children, adolescents and
                       adults in participatory democracy, not only to 
                       make the process of government more meaningful to
                       them, but also to teach how it actually works and
                       how it can be impacted by the mass electorate.
               4.      Raise problem solving, creative thinking, and LLL
                       to the status of an art and science to be
                       practiced, enjoyed, and promoted as           
                       essential to individual growth and development.
               5.      Undertake extensive research into the
                       effectiveness of the "cottage school" and continue
                       to make adjustments in the learning process as new
                       and more efficient communication media are
                       invented.
               6.      Provide tax breaks, incentives, and make funds
                       available for all individuals so that the purchase
                       of the necessary communication hardware and
                       software are available to all human beings on the 
                       face of the earth.  
               7.      Promote the concept of LLL for individuals in all
                       families, neighborhoods, communities, counties,
                       states, and nations.
               8.      Make all long-distance phone calls related to LLL
                       800 numbers so that communication is accessible to
                       even the poorest individual.  
               9.      Restructure libraries and other traditional
                       sources of information in such a way that they
                       become true clearinghouses of usable and available
                       information accessible to all individuals
                       connected to the optic fiber family of man.
               10.     Enjoy it.  The Third Wave.  The Lifelong Learning
                       Process.  The opportunity of being self-actualized
                       from cradle to grave.  
        
               In conclusion, like Knowles and the other adult educators
        visualized that the adult learner would be weaned away from the
        perception that he was engaged in schooling, this new LLL system
        would promote the acquisition of the skills of learning
        appropriate to the individual's aspirations as he works
        toward developing into a self-directed learner, making use of the
        world's learning resources centers that are available to him
        through communication systems on his terms as he becomes a true
        LLLearner.  
        
               Again, there will be no such thing as adult education.  
        
               Again, there will be no such thing as graduation.  
        
               There will only be LifeLong Learning.
