Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of historical articles written about Mayland Community College from the 1970s.
Meeting held to boost MAY Technical Institute
The Mitchell Ledger
Oct. 28, 1971
An open meeting was held last Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Harris High School, Spruce Pine, at which Dr. O.M. Blake spoke to those assembled on “A Perspective of Technical Institutes and Adult Education.” The meeting was for those interested in the North Carolina Community College System, and particularly for those interested in the new Mayland Technical Institute in Spruce Pine.
According to Dr. Blake, there are three essential parts of a technical institute. One is counseling – helping the student find the educational program that is best for him. The second is a broad curriculum that offers many different types and levels of educational programs.
The third is high-quality instruction that has as its objective the highest possible educational development of the individual student.
“A technical institute,” said Dr. Blake, “is an educational institution that offers adult education courses in many areas, one-year vocational programs and two-year technical programs.”
The phrase “Adult Education” is being replaced rapidly by the words “Continuing Education,” according to Dr. Blake. “Frankly, I like continuing education better,” he stated. “The present notion that formal education is something one gets in his passage from kindergarten through college and which is supposed to stand him in good stead the rest of his life has been made obsolete by the stupendous increase in knowledge and its application. There is no stopping place if one is to remain aware of what is taking place. Education at the adult level is the most important phase of education for which all the rest is merely preparation.
“It may have been true once upon a time, but it simply is not true today, that we can make our way through life subsisting on what we stored in our minds during our school days. We have to add new facts and to rethink old thoughts,” he added.
According to this well-known educator, every adult is responsible for his education. Learning and knowledge are perpetual.
“Too seldom do we find the individual who sees it as the normal and natural continuation of the educative process that begins with the child, a process that is as necessary at 40 as it is as 14. This is the true meaning of adult education,” he emphasized.
In closing, Dr. Blake declared, “We have a tremendous job to do in the counties of Avery, Mitchell and Yancey. Without cooperation and resources, it can’t be done; with cooperation and resources, nothing can stop us.”
O.V. Talley, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mayland Technical Institute, introduced the trustees and discussed the responsibilities of the trustees briefly at the meeting, which was well attended.