The evening class

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

“I enrolled in a pottery class that met every Thursday at seven. There were nine students, most of us beginners, and the first lesson was about making a simple bowl by hand. My bowl leaned to one side. I tried to correct it until the clay collapsed, then watched the tutor turn the same lump into something usable. I was forty-two and had forgotten how public it could feel to be bad at an ordinary task.

At work I was paid to know what I was doing; in the studio, knowledge arrived slowly through my fingers. The clay offered no interest in my qualifications. If I pushed unevenly, the wall thinned; if I hurried, it folded. This was frustrating and, eventually, restful. Nobody needed me to lead the room. I could ask a basic question and receive a basic answer. By the end of term, I had three uneven bowls and a greater tolerance for the moment before understanding. Learning had become something I was allowed to do again, rather than evidence I was expected to possess.”

Source B: an original nineteenth-century-style letter or account, written for practice; this is not an archival document.

“The evening drawing class has been recommended to working men as a useful improvement, and usefulness is certainly among its merits. I attend after a day of accounts, when my eyes have had enough of columns but not enough of seeing. Our instructor begins with common objects: a jug, a folded cloth, the corner of a chair. No extraordinary gift is required to discover that one has never properly looked at a jug.

The difficulty is not merely in the hand. A grown man accustomed to competence is reluctant to display a clumsy beginning. I have seen a neighbour hide his first sheet as though it contained an unpaid bill. Yet the room grows more cheerful when we admit what we cannot do. The class may improve a trade, but it also gives us a task whose value is not exhausted by wages. To attend carefully, fail without disgrace and try again is an education which should not be reserved for children.”

Refer to both sources. Infer the differences in the subjects and activities in the evening classes. Write a summary supported by details from both sources.