Kerre Woodham: Look on the bright side

I've never really given much thought to night classes. I haven't felt any particular need to learn the finer points of scrapbooking and, as I have a bloke at home, I didn't need to sign up to a car maintenance course to meet one.

Apparently it's an urban legend that you meet men at car maintenance classes, anyway. It seems the only people doing the course are other desperate and dateless women - and the odd, perfectly sensible woman who wants to know her sparkplug from her fanbelt. So when I read about the Government slashing its funding of Adult Community Education, it was no skin off my snoz.

It's a recession - economies have to be made somewhere and although 80 per cent of $16 million is the Government equivalent of change down the back of the couch, every little bit helps. Then the talkback callers started ringing - and they were ropeable. I was amazed at the numbers of people who've taken night classes - indeed, some of them have become night class junkies.

Flower arranging, woodwork classes, dance lessons, cake decorating, yoga - whatever's on offer, they'll sign up for it. It's not surprising, though, as the various curriculums are diverse.

One caller pointed me in the direction of Selwyn College's Community Education programme, and the learning opportunities at just this one school are limitless. There's Life Drawing with Yulia; Flower Remedies; Drug Proofing Your Kids; How to Deal with Difficult People and Tricky Situations; Beauty Makeovers - Brow and Lash Treatments; Knitting for Beginners - I wanted to sign up for them all. No wonder people become addicted.

Around 400,000 people attend adult community education courses annually - that's a significant proportion of the population. But the Government wants to see economic returns on its investment in community education and doesn't believe courses like Life Drawing with Yulia fit the bill.

On the face of it, learning the art of tuvaevae or Thai cooking may seem frivolous, but if it brings diverse members of our multicultural community together; if it brings people out of their homes and gets them engaging with one another; if it provides the catalyst for wanting to learn more, then the benefits are real.

I may be drawing a long bow, but if people are excited about learning a new skill or rediscovering an old passion, then surely they are happier individuals. Happy people are less likely to succumb to depression.

Given that Pharmac spends more than $20 million on anti-depressants every year, wouldn't the money spent on adult education be an investment in the nation's mental health?

Adult education courses have been around for more than 100 years, improving the skills of thousands of New Zealanders - it would be a shame to see such a tradition lost for the sake of a measly $16 mill.