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Inside Aging Today
Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute, Westport, Conn., received the American Society on Aging's (ASA) Gloria Cavanaugh Award for Education and Training during the recent 2003 Joint Conference of the National Council on the Aging (ncoa) and ASA in Chicago. Timmermann, who is immediate-past chair of ASA's Lifetime Education and Renewal Network, delivered a special lecture at the conference; an excerpt of her remarks follows. Although I've been involved in gerontological education for years, my work in adult learning is really the focal point of my career, and, I might add, my true love. I know the power of education and lifelong learning and how they can open the minds and hearts of older learners, regardless of income or education level. The main premise for this lecture is that, with the aging of the baby boomers, adult learning and adult education are being mainstreamed even as funding is cut for many excellent older-adult education programs. My other premise is that we, as gerontologists and educators, need to shift our thinking from circling the wagons and yearning for better days to exploring ways to infuse adult learning into new arenas. Many who continue to be successful have already moved in this direction.
A BRIEF HISTORY
A spurt in growth in national educational programs for older adults brought about Elderhostel and AARP's Institute of Lifetime Learning. The U.S. Administration on Aging funded an initiative on education for older adults in association with the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges. Also, NCOA received funds from the National Endowment for Humanities to establish educational programs in senior centers. We also challenged stereotypes about what older-adult education programs were all about. Earlier literature virtually treated these programs as little more than an advanced form of bingo for the better educated. One manual on how to set up an older-adult education program outlined things like having a bathroom nearby and designing programs so people didn't have to sit for more than a half hour. Perhaps this advice was not so bad--but the manual contained almost nothing about content or curriculum. Older-adult educators discovered the work of academics at university schools of education and applied the adult-learning theory called androgogy (parallel to pedogogy for the young) to the older population. Some of the adult-learning principles we developed work well with individuals of all ages. A few examples include:
FROM CONTENTMENT TO SCARCITY
By the time the 1990s came along, educators of older adults found themselves in what I call the Era of Scarcity. Even excellent programs that had been well received faced budget cuts, and Elderhostel enrollments had flattened out. Many successful programs were eliminated--and the heartbreaking cuts continue today. Yet, out of adversity, creativity is born.
REASONS FOR OPTIMISM
Research on the brain and how the mind works has revolutionized the way we think about learning as we age. There is now hard scientific evidence that healthy brains can grow dendrites (nerve extensions) at any age and that brain cells can regenerate themselves in the hippocampus, the part of the brain controlling memories and information. Research by Marian Diamond of the University of California, Berkeley, and others also indicates that physical exercise, socialization and mental stimulation are critical to brain health. Could brain-health promotion enable people to lead richer lives--and to remain in the community rather than be placed in nursing facilities? I predict that as the research findings reach wider audiences, more mental fitness programs will be introduced throughout the lifespan. More nontraditional organizations and institutions want to know about older adults--what they are experiencing physically, socially and emotionally--and how to provide information to them most effectively. A strong example of the growing interest in aging in new areas is the business setting, where I now work. For instance, at the MetLife Mature Market Institute, which I direct, we have gerontologists on staff and--among other things--we help employees who deal with older customers to understand and communicate with them better. We work with customer service representatives, our sales agents and the human resources departments of MetLife's corporate customers so they can communicate more effectively on age-related concerns. MetLife's older customers, especially the preretirees, want to learn about how to prepare and save for retirement, and the institute helps develop materials and training in a train-the-trainer model. Colleges, universities and adult-education programs will always be important, but education increasingly takes place in different ways and different places, so those of us in older-adult education need to be in those new settings, too. The boomers will take lifelong learning for granted and incorporate education in their lives well into old age. Studies indicate that the more education people have, the more likely they are to seek lifelong learning opportunities. The boomers--and those slightly older, who are in their 60s--are the most educated generation so far. They are taking advantage of educational offerings that are already mainstreamed with younger generations wherever they are offered, such as adult-education courses offered by such entities as school districts, through museums or botanical gardens. The boomer generation is already redefining what their retirement and old age will look like. The new breed of retirees will want to give back to society, to learn skills that will enable them to make a contribution, to participate in what the field is now calling service learning. They will be the seekers, valuing learning at each stage of middle and later life, whether retirement planning, learning while at work or pursing better self-understanding. Continual learning is increasingly viewed as helping older adults unleash the creativity and find meaning in their lives. Research by Gene Cohen, author of The Creative Age (New York City: Avon, 2000), on the correlation between creativity and older age is significant. The National Center for Creative Aging in New York City, in partnersip with ASA, is integrating its programs into community settings and illustrating how to unleash the creativity of older adults through theater, dance, visual arts and other creative forms. I believe more emphasis will be put on tapping creativity to help older people renew themselves by gaining insight into their lives and fully appreciating their life journeys. There will always be committed, creative individuals who will have an idea, a concept for an adult-learning program that will capture our imaginations and take off. Despite the many cutbacks and the budget crunches today, the next generation will bring new people with vision like Marty Knowlton--who founded Elderhostel in a small college in New Hampshire--and James Birren--who developed the techniques of guided autobiography, which are now used in such settings as churches, classrooms and senior centers. Fortunately, there will always be people who recognize a need, think of a way to fill it--and then make it happen.
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