mature age enrollers

I spent all afternoon (avinun) helping at the registration desk which we conduct under the trees. These enrolments are for Adult Matriculation and there were quite a few senior parent age people. Some of them were doing enrolments for their children while one of two were doiing enrolments in subjects like Bais Maths for their own education. I have mixed feelings about the situation: sadness that at their age in life they finally get an opportunity to learn; wonder in their strength of purpose; curiosity that they are enrolling for their children. I could not imagine a parent lining up in the main quad at Sydney Uni to enrol on behalf of their child.
I am trying to understand how it is that a subset of society is not contributory to the whole culture. PM Howard had something to say that, "Muslim extremists cannot embrace the country's ways". The country's ways in a multicultural society are as diverse as the different cultures. I do not embrace the ways of cricket crowds or of extreme Biblical fundamentalists or the glamour set and A list but I would not go so far as to say MY WAYS means THE COUNTRY'S WAYS. How arrogant. That is what PM Howard is saying - that HIS ways ought to be EVERYBODY'S ways, otherwise they are unAustralian. Certainly Howard is supported in his views by a small majority of the population. However the satisfaction lies in knowing that anything Howard sets in place will be undone just as soon as a reputable alternative ideology manifests, even if that is six or ten years away. The people who condemned Galileo and others as heretics have been shown up for the fools that they were. Howard will be shown up as a fool and a hypocrite by history and that is comforting. If I were in politics, I would rather be without power than without dignity.