For ten years I enjoyed being part of East Ham College Life Drawing group-- no, enjoyed is a very weak word, it was my life, I was a teacher at the college for my bread and butter but my life was painting -and later writing. Even whilst still a mature student, I attended the East and West Ham College life drawing classes, till they were stopped by the gov as unnecessary. I was amazed, at Sheffield Art College and Grimsby School of Art I had learnt that the first basic was life drawing and if you do nothing else, you must keep up with your life drawing always.John head of East Ham College Art was also miffed. It was beyond us all, as the classes were always packed out and he had to run three a week just to keep up with demand. However, they also closed a number of Russian Language University classes-stupid or what?