Integrative Function of Continuing Education

The Integrative Function of Continuing Education at the Georgia Center

Cy Houle, professor and noted author of the field of adult and continuing education, says that there are three functions for adult and continuing education--the remedial, the operative, and the integrative.

The remedial function is where educational opportunities are provided for adults to learn something they should have learned at an earlier time--basic literacy, high school equivalency, and so forth.

The operative function, usually the largest programming area in most continuing education operations, is where opportunities are provided for adults to learn to "operate" more effectively in society in one or more of the many roles they play, such as parent, worker, citizen, supervisor.

The integrative function, often not addressed due to the difficulty of generating sufficient return to assure self-support, is where opportunities are provided to address the larger questions of humankind, such as: Who am I? How does art relate to zoology? What's it all about?

At the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, the integrative function is addressed on a regular basis by activities and programs such as those conducted by the Department of Special Event Services, under the leadership of Roger C. Comley, associate director for hotel and operating services at the Georgia Center. While other divisions provide programs, activities, displays and exhibits that, from time to time, address the integrative function, it is the Special Events unit that develops and delivers an ongoing series of cultural and artistic activities that have become a trademark of the Georgia Center through the work of the Masters Hall Singers, formed in 1993, and the Masters Hall Players, formed last year.

These pages of the Georgia Center Quarterly feature two specific activities of the integrative function response by the Georgia Center--the Masters Hall Performing Arts Programs, focusing on the inaugural season of the Masters Hall Players, and WUGA-FM, the National Public Radio affiliate operated by the Georgia Center, which is administered through the Georgia Center's Division of Communication Services.

Masters Hall Performing Arts Programs: The Masters Hall Players

The Masters Hall Players (profiled in the Winter 1995 issue of the Georgia Center Quarterly) completed their first season of performances this March. Guest artists were resident for two of the three shows--Lauren Tewes (the cruise director, "Julie," for the ABC-TV show "The Love Boat," which aired from 1977-1986) for "The Tender Trap" and James Hawes (veteran regional and university theater actor/director and former chairman and artistic director at Radford University in Virginia) for "Barefoot in the Park". The Players also performed "Butterflies Are Free"

The Players provide enrichment programming for conference groups as well as opportunities for emerging talent to develop their craft in an educational setting. The plays also bring the general public to the Center, permitting them to become more familiar with the work done by the Center.

WUGA-FM

WUGA-FM, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, serves Northeast Georgia and annually provides more than 8,700 hours of broadcast programming. The station, scheduled to increase its power in late 1995, recently began offering information over the World Wide Web and took part in a University of Georgia exchange program with radio professionals from the former states of the Soviet Union.

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Last revised: 1/31/96; 4:07:29 PM

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