ABSTRACT
Eleanore L., a 68-year-old former teacher, took a graduate course in counseling. She plans to open a therapy center for parents of autistic children. The other day she came into my office and asked, “Do you think I should do a doctorate?” Andrew B., a retired lawyer, aged 79, attends the New York Artists League. “I feel more creative at this point in my life than ever before,” he says. “What shocked me, though, was receiving an offer to sell one of my paintings!” Jack M., aged 82, is taking a course called Writing the Novel You’ve Always Dreamed of Writing at the University of Connecticut Osher Livelong Learning Institute (USA). The course description announces, “The final class will stress rewriting and working with a professional editor” (OLLI, 2009: 15). Weezi and Cynthia (they decline to give their ages: “Just say ‘over 21,’ dear.”) have signed up for Kayak the Low Country. This is a weeklong program sponsored by Road Scholar, formerly Elderhostel, a program designed for active older adults. The catalog copy for Kayak the Low Country reads: “Wildlife abounds … including alligators, wood stork and dolphins. Expect a physically active week of learning on water and on land about the region’s history and natural resources” (Road Scholar, 2010: 13). Six women gather in an enrichment program at a long-term care facility to reminisce about growing up in Danbury, a small Connecticut (USA) city; all have memory problems. The facilitator shows pictures of Danbury and suddenly the women are girls again with perfect recollection. One has not spoken in days, but is now exclaiming, “And that’s where I took my piano lessons!” Her husband sobs in the next room, “There she is! God bless you!” All of the above are “older adult learners,” but each individual is constructing his/her experience of learning within a highly personalized context. Who imagined the burgeoning population of people over the age of 65 who would want to learn? And
who thought many of them would be starting new careers? There is clearly a revolution afoot, and it is an international phenomenon! In 1975, Dr. Robert Butler wrote in Why Survive? Being Old in America, “Human beings need the freedom to live with change, to invent and reinvent themselves a number of times through their lives” (in Martin, 2010). At the time, this was a revolutionary concept: people do not stop growing and learning because of an age barrier. Indeed, Butler was a visionary: according to developmental theory, older adults have the greatest need to know, learn, and process their experiences in evermore nuanced and richer ways (Peck, 1968; Wolf, 2005). Older adults who have diminished memory can enjoy fulfilling educational experiences, including museums, dancing, poetry, and reminiscence. Formerly they had been stringing macaroni.
