Nancy Merz Nordstrom M.ed.

Visit the Elderhostel Institute Network web site at www.elderhostel.org/ein/intro.asp

to see if there's a lifelong learning program in your community.

Visit my blogs at www.eons.com or www.growingbolder.com or www.egenerations.com or www.successtelevision.com or www.myspace.com

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere"..Old Chinese Proverb

"You don't grow old:  When you cease to learn, you are old."....Reul L. Howe

"Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect."...Leonardo da Vinci

"To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart - and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love."...Karl von Bonstetten

Introduction to "Learning Later, Living Greater: The Secret for Making the Most of Your After-50 Years"

Early on a warm August morning in 1993 I awoke to find myself a widow at age 48, with four children, the youngest just 15, still living at home. Three years later, after the fog caused by my husband’s unexpected death had lifted, I returned to school. It had been more than twenty-five years since I was last a student.  When I walked across the academic threshold at age 51, I felt and acted old. In short, I was old! Over the course of two years I underwent a complete rejuvenation, a higher quality rejuvenation than any spa or resort could ever hope to provide. In fact, I felt as though I had found the fountain of youth. I emerged from my studies full of zest, joy and enthusiasm. I was more alive than I had been in years. Henry Ford’s comments, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether they are 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning is young,” certainly applied to me.  Being back in school did for me what therapy, grief counseling and the passage of time could not do. It gave me back not just a life, but an enhanced life-a life with increased self-esteem, focus and vitality. In a way I had been given a second chance, and I felt it was critically important to make the most of that chance. I also felt that I wanted to leave some kind of legacy about how one can remake a life when the unexpected happens, not only for my own descendents, but for all those who would walk that same road.  The opportunity to do that came shortly after my schooling was completed. I joined the Elderhostel organization, the world’s first and largest educational travel organization for older adults. Their mission as the “preeminent provider of high quality affordable educational opportunities for older adults,” was the perfect fit for me as an advocate of how lifelong learning can change and enrich your life. Elderhostel believes that “learning is a lifelong process and sharing new ideas, challenges and experiences is rewarding in every season of life.” These were exactly my feelings. As the Director of the Elderhostel Institute Network I found myself immersed in lifelong learning. Sometimes known as continuing learning, it’s learning for the sheer joy of learning, or learning not dictated by academic requirements. For the purposes of this book, however, we’ll use the term lifelong learning.  Time and time again, I spoke with people whose lives, like mine, had been changed by the power of this incredible tool. It was a wonderfully validating experience for me, proving over and over that lifelong learning in any form, and at any age, but especially as an older adult, could transform lives. Lifelong learning in later years is the perfect opportunity for people to take part in all the things they have never had time for. Here is an opportunity for people from all walks of life, who have been busy working and/or raising a family, to do what they always wanted to do, to learn, travel and socialize, all the while expanding their knowledge and wisdom. It doesn’t matter what form your work life took, how far you’ve climbed the corporate ladder–or how much you have ignored it-lifelong learning is not exclusive. Anyone and everyone is welcome to indulge! Yet, every working day I also realized that many people knew little or nothing about this vehicle for enhancing their later years. Of course, everyone is, to some extent, a lifelong learner. Reading books, newspapers, and magazines, taking up a hobby or doing crosswords is considered informal learning. But what I’m talking about here is a more formal type of lifelong learning–non-credit courses in classrooms, educational travel programs, and learning that takes place through meaningful community service.  The Elderhostel Institute Network, as the largest and most respected educational network for older adults in North America, provides resources that ultimately help approximately 100,000 people through formal non-credit classroom programs. But, there are millions more out there, including people already retired, the soon-to-retire Baby Boomers, and even younger generations who know little or nothing about these and other types of learning programs, not to mention the incredible value lifelong learning brings to our later years.  Hence this book. It’s a breezy, up-beat look at lifelong learning in three different ways–in the classroom–through educational travel–and in the community. Hopefully it will spur you on to learn more, to delve deeper into the value of lifelong learning in your “After-50” years and seek out the opportunities that await you. Imparting the message about the value of lifelong learning has become my passion. I want to tell you to throw out all your old memories about what being in school was like. As an older adult returning to school, for credit or just for fun, it’s an entirely new and very different experience.  And I want to reassure you that your past academic attainments have no bearing whatsoever on joining a lifelong learning program. Forget degrees and all the credentials that society fosters on us. All you need is the desire to keep your mind active and alert and an innate curiosity about the world around us. Gone are the “talking heads,” rote memorization and test-taking. In their place are facilitators eager to learn as much from you as you are from them, welcoming the give and take of lively discussion, rich with life experiences. There really is no greater way of learning than by sharing in and absorbing the many different viewpoints of a spirited discussion. So, if your previous academic experiences were negative, forget them. If they were positive know that lifelong learning as an older adult will far surpass them. Philosopher John Dewey said it best, I think. “…Education must be reconceived, not as merely a preparation for maturity (whence our absurd idea that it should stop after adolescence) but as a continuous growth of the mind and a continuous illumination of life…real education comes after we leave school and there is no reason why it should stop before death.” In writing this book I’m hoping in some small way to awaken in you what was awakened in me-the value of lifelong learning as an older adult.  Although this book focuses on what is called “non-credit” lifelong learning, “for-credit” lifelong learning is equally valuable, and there are many books out there that address “for-credit” lifelong learning opportunities. Colleges welcome degree-seeking students of any age. It remains for you to decide which route is right for you. Lifelong learning, no matter what its form, is an incredibly important tool in helping you find life satisfaction. Life, especially in the “After-50” years, is all about choices and opportunities. Having choices and opportunities are what make life worth living. It gives us a reason to get up in the morning. Every day we are given new choices and opportunities. It’s the way we select them that gives our life meaning. So make the choice and take this opportunity to learn what lifelong learning is really all about. My hope is this book will do that for you. Then, if you decide lifelong learning has a place in your life and you seek out the opportunities in your community, I can just about guarantee that a year from now your life will be richer, fuller and far more satisfying. An old Chinese proverb says, “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere” Great treasures await you in the lifelong learning world. Nancy Merz Nordstrom, M. Ed. 

Please feel free to contact me at learninglater@comcast.net