The author's father left school aged 13 at the start of the Great Depression. When he finally found work the wealth of educational opportunity he encountered inspired him with a lifelong love of learning. He signed up for evening classes and loved anything and everything to do with what he proudly called self-improvement. As a novice to retirement the author relished the thought of signing up for dozens of courses: pottery, philosophy, Pilates or flower arranging. These courses used to be called evening classes and they were run by local authorities. But times have changed. As a direct result of government policy, over the past two years over 1.4 million evening class places have disappeared. Increasingly, classes are run by escapees from formal adult education. Worn down by paperwork, talented tutors are voting with their feet and working privately. The author argues that the current situation is not sustainable--and that's the problem. So what is to be done? The author offers four simple suggestions.