Amazing Salamanca !!

Salamanca is one of the oldest university towns in Europe. Salamanca is in Spain, midway between Madrid and Santander.
I was there in late July 2009 and was impressed by the many fine churches and cathedrals. But the Plazamayor was amazing: not for its grandeur, but its democracy as a space.

It was a Sunday afternoon when I arrived there with two friends Harry and Mike. The tables were out. Large numbers of people were there sitting having a drink or a snack doing their favourite thing: watching other people and talking amongst themselves. There was a buzz in the air. People were happy. Yet there were no centralising figure like a conductor of music, or a singer of songs or a politician giving a speech.
The sheer democracy of the arrangement of the square was something to behold. The buildings around the plaza were interesting, but seeing it full of people enjoying themselves talking and drinking forcibly reminded me no one person was in charge of these democratic conversational exchanges. It was a Self-Organising phenomenon, pure and simple.
It is a pity I lost my digital camera. A video clip would have conveyed the essence of the amazing atmosphere generated in this large yet enclosed space.

Correspondence Course - an intriguing beginning.

Yesterday I took an examination in Theology. (It was my second exam in fact.) It was a correspondence course from Moody College, Sydney, Australia. It has a good reputation for well managed Correspondence Courses in Theology via its External Relations department.

But for years I was always against Correspondence courses: there was no live human element. There was no other person to talk to about the topics given. Yet for a Self-organised Learner it should be a natural thing to do. Just take up the challenge. So I signed up and received their study book (left).

The idea is to complete the ten study units at the rate of one a week, then spend a fortnight revising, then take a two-and-a-half hour examination. It is all very well structured.

Furthermore the writing in the taught materials is very clear indeed: concise and focused. The examination paper is structured well, too. There are a few multiple choice questions, then four line answer questions, then half-page essays (five in all) and finally a single long essay question.

All the motivation came from inside me. Ichose to do the course - and that is a key point. The course was not imposed on me. I can defer taking the exam to another term. Just a seventy page study book and me. Remarkable.