I've looked at the website, but frankly it sends out mixed messages to me.

Some of the contributors and moving spirits seem eclectic enough, but the entrant is crudely asked - do you enjoy playing English/Irish traditional music?

If I hadn't spent my youth in teacher training college with not very clever people working out the meaning of education and precisely why the realities of life in a secondary school were irrelevant to such lofty thoughts, no doubt the icy fingers of foreboding wouldn't be poking me so hard at the moment. Academics are awful people. They can't be trusted with big ideas like education and folk music.

Having said that, I'm glad the Newcastle course is there. Its at very least a step in the right direction.