ABSTRACT
The future of adult education as a field and as a discipline cannot be separated from its past. The problem concerned the fact that the grasshopper suffered each winter from severe pains due to the savage temperature. After a number of these painful winters, in which all of the grasshopper’s known remedies were of no avail, he presented his case to the venerable and wise owl. Thereupon the whole Flemish community reacted with the demand that the existing Universite Catholique de Louvain leave Flemish territory. The national government fell over the issue, and in the end the decision was taken to move the French-speaking university to Ottignies, where the campus of Louvainla-Neuve was erected. “Education for survival” and “Survival learning” have become leading notions on the educative world-scene. ducation was seen as a process based in the existential needs of “participants” which would eventually lead to a more critical insight and increased personal and social action skills.
