Dear Friends of the CPA
After a great deal of thought and research, the CPA has decided to follow through
with ideas for restructuring the course programme for the autumn of 2011. However,
we will limit online teaching to our Beginners and Intermediate Classes. We eventually
came to the conclusion that an organised Diploma course as we presently offer it
is simply not suited to the fixed structure required for an online course to be successful,
and altering the format of day-long seminars (no one can sit comfortably in front
of a webcam for six hours) would create a very different course which is not aligned
with our teaching goals or the inherent fluid and creative character of the Centre.
So we have decided to continue our classroom teaching, but we will be abandoning
the formal structure of qualifications.
We feel that in the present climate, a tight course structure is counterproductive,
as it requires constant repetition of material and relies on attracting a maximum
number of students to stay afloat. This inevitably hampers the freedom of the tutors
to develop their own original research and offer valuable and interesting material
that might not always attract a large group of students. We do not wish to be dominated
by ‘market forces’ and, as in the past, we are not interested in following ‘trends’,
and so we will instead pursue a more original and creative path to astrological education.
We are therefore going to take our inspiration from Plato’s Academy, and encourage
our tutors to teach material based on their current research and interests but with
greater flexibility as to the format of the teaching, without offering any assessment,
grade system, or qualification. This means that, according to the personal wishes
and aptitudes of the tutors, some seminars will continue as day-long explorations,
while some might be a series of evening classes, a half-day workshop, a two-day conference,
or a small ongoing supervision group, and some tutors might occasionally wish to
offer a two-hour class online. But no student will be required to achieve a fixed
number of seminars to complete any kind of certificate or diploma, so students can
enrol and attend according to their own interests and time commitments. This is learning
for the sheer love and joy of learning, an experience which is rapidly vanishing
from both academic and non-academic institutions in the present climate. We may also
hold seminars and classes at venues other than Regents College, and also outside
London. We intend to remain loyal to the CPA’s core commitment to the reality of
the psyche and the importance and value of the individual, and tutors – both those
resident in the UK and those from abroad – will continue to offer psychological perspectives
on astrology from different points of view. We will also continue with the CPA Press
and publish books containing various seminars and classes, both current and from
our existing library, as a way of offering our work to students who cannot attend
in person. We also intend to continue to offer a small selection of seminars in the
form of Studyshops. New online resources will also be made available, such as reading
lists and links to educational websites, which might offer valuable materials for
the astrological student.
As you know, we will end the Diploma course in June 2011 and will launch our new
programme at the end of September 2011 with a weekend non-residential conference
in London. We are very excited about the new programme and we hope you will be too.
Best wishes
Liz Greene
Director
