The Senior Learning Initiative will be held at the Princeton Senior Resource Center beginning in January.
By: Jeff Milgram
When AARP asked more than 1,000 people over the age of 50 why and how they learn about new things, they discovered some interesting facts.
For example, the organization, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, found that:
* Ninety-three percent of those surveyed want to learn to keep up with what’s going on in the world.
* Ninety-two percent want to learn for their own spiritual or personal growth.
* Ninety-one percent want to learn simply for the sheer joy of learning.
And these statistics are seen across most demographic groups including education, income, gender and age levels, according to the AARP study.
Beginning in January, Princeton area seniors will get another option if they want to keep their minds engaged in the learning process.
The Senior Learning Initiative will hold discussion groups at the Princeton Senior Resource Center at the Suzanne C. Patterson Senior Center behind Princeton Borough Hall.
"Adults over 50 are eager to continue learning," said Caroline Wilson, a Princeton Township resident who has spent the past year helping to organize the Senior Learning Initiative.
The initiative is a private program patterned on some 300 senior learning centers based in university communities, according to Ms. Wilson.
Harvard has had a senior learning center for the past 25 years, Ms. Wilson said. There also are learning centers at Rutgers, Dartmouth and the University of Minnesota, she said.
She said these centers traditionally expand rapidly.
"What people like about this is they’re places where people can go and continue to learn," said Ms. Wilson.
The learning initiative will broaden the classes already being offered by the Senior Resource Center, said Janice Marmor, the center’s executive director.
"We offer many classes on different things – poetry workshops, writing workshops," Ms. Marmor said. "This will be adding some high-level professor-taught courses … Retired professors will be teaching classes."
The learning initiative is an outgrowth of Princeton University’s community auditing program. For a $50 fee, anyone can take a lecture course at Princeton, said Pam Hersh, the university’s liaison to municipalities.
She said 500 people have signed up for the program "most of them retired persons," and that several seniors have formed their own discussion groups to augment the lectures.
Ms. Hersh said the university is not connected to the learning initiative, but might be interested in exploring a relationship in the future.
The program will start small, with about three discussion groups of no more than 20 people each, Ms. Wilson said. The groups will be held during the daytime.
"A lot of older people are not eager to go out at night," Ms. Wilson said.
The program can begin after renovations at the Patterson center are complete. The renovation will transform two large rooms into a large senior lounge, a meeting room, a youth activities lounge, a computer lab that will be shared by seniors and youngsters and office space, Ms. Marmor said.
According to the AARP study, adults 50 and older are most interested in learning about subjects that would improve the quality of their lives, build upon a current skill or enable them to take better care of their health.
Most seniors prefer to learn in loosely-structured groups, workshops or by teaching themselves, the report also said.
Ms. Wilson is not surprised that the report showed that the love of learning continues late in life.
"I think that not everyone is capable of just playing golf," she said.