The past year has demonstrated how vulnerable adult learning is to political intervention. In England, people are now living with the consequences of the Equivalent or Lower Qualifications (ELQ) policy, introduced in September 2007 by ministerial diktat. More recently, the consultation on informal adult learning intimates an overthrow of existing arrangements in order to empower community groups--or so the ideological spin machine would have it. A dismal year, then, for adult learning. Nevertheless, there are encouraging contrary signs. Despite politicians and policy-makers, adults remain eager to attend summer schools, where there is a meeting of minds, of persons, who bring their life experiences, reading, thoughts and reflections to the common table. Something of great value happens at these encounters, and those involved feel their lives enriched. The proof is that people come back, year after year, for more. This year the author has seen the summer school from both sides: as tutor and as student. In July, he taught a course on late Victorian and Edwardian detective stories in Oxford, and in August he attended the Greek and Latin summer workshop at University of Wales, Lampeter. In this article, the author describes how seeing the summer school from the perspective of both tutor and learner confirmed his faith in adult learning and its role in civil society.