46 - Wednesday, March 30, |

994 - North Shore Naws

Learning for pleasure stimulates the grey cells

Cailege’s Eldercoliege.

IT’S ALMOST enough to make .

you want to grow older faster.

By Maureen Curtis
Contributing Writer

‘#@ Al Dines,. 67, retired
MacMillan Bloede! executive, is
tucking ‘into the unchartered (by
-him) depths of Canadian authors
_and 18th-century poets.
B Rachael Tod, 73, couldn't take
courses when she worked shifts as
a nurse but is now attending class-
es on the Klondike and Mozart’s
operas. :
- #@ Helene Winship, ‘former airline
employee, is currently dabbling in
“ philosophy and classic films.
__ All three are, doing something
eat’: ~ Capilano College's

Eidercollege that they weren't -

‘able to do when
employed.

‘ Since 1991, Eldercallege has
offered the older adult (over 55)
the opportunity to take a wide
variety of non-credit courses or
sessions, simply out of interest.

For those of us pre-retirees
who are still juggling careers,
families and a whopping dollop of
stress, the idea of furthering a pet
interest or being exposed to an
entirely new fieid of study is
evocative but often out of reach.

About 200 older North Shore
residents are taking advantage of
their escape from the 9-to-5 rou-
tine to indulge in new avenues of
knowledge at Capilano Callege.

Tod became involved in

’ Eldercollege after she had already

. Spent some of her retired years
doing volunteer work and trying
different crafts.

_ “But T wasn’t getting anything
from it,” she found.

Eldercollege fulfilled an unmet
‘need.

“It stimulates the grey cells
and keeps us afert,” says Tod of
herself and hee husband Robert,

~ whe is in the middle of a course
on antiques,

Dines found Eldercollege
when he was “ordered out of the
house” shortly after retirement.

_ . Soon he became involved in
the planning end facilitating of
some of the sessions, and joined

they were

NEWS photo Paul McGrath

CLASSES SUCH as understanding antiques (shown above) and
examining 18th-century poetry are taught through Capilano

the curriculum advisary board
where he found use for his experi-
ence as manager of employee
relations.

“Now I'm busier than I was
when ! was working,” he says.

Recently, members of his
board, all older adults, sat around
discussing the different sessions
they ure organizing for the 1994-
95 year.

They brought to the table their
ideas, the contacts they had made,
the speakers they thought they

“ could line up and the time of year

the program should be slotted in.
Lynn Jest, coordinator of

extension services and programs

was not in the room. even though

Sales & Rentals
New & Used
‘In-Home
Demonstration

she manages 15 Idercotlege
half Gime with half time
clerical support,

Other thin these teo
college staffers,
Lidercollege is complete-
ty run by its membership.

At the beginning, Jest
provided the impetus and
enthusiasm lo corral the
considerable
retired folk to plan their
own programming,

But the current sce+
nario was something she
envisioned in 1990) when
Capilano College hired
her to develop non-~cur-
riculum programming for
seniors.

After aitending a
three-day conference
back cast and listening to
experts on adult learning
from around the world,
Jest was inspired.

“I came away knowing
I wanted the program to
be for seniors and by
seniors. | wanted to
involve the community,”
she insists.

After some preparatory wark,
Jest held an inaugural forum that
attracted over 130 interested peo-
ple.

“T was astounded by the turn-
out,” she says.

With a core group of 50 volun-
teers, she was able to start limited
programming by May of 1991.

Membership soon rose to 172,
but later dropped when the annual
fee was increased.

Currently at $145, the fee enti-
tles the participant to four ses-
sions ($25 for additional ses-
sions), a couple of free sessions
and access to the college fibrary.

Although Eldercoliege was
supplied with start-up funding,

taleuts of

there is no regular support fram
the provinelal pavernment for
nen-curciculum courses for
seniors,

The plan and the necessity has
been toa have the college fully
self-supporting by 1994-95,

Membership has risen again,
up tothe 200 mark,

The first such facility in B.C,
the North Shore's Eldercollege
has since inspired similar organi-
zations to spring up elsewhere in
the province,

Jest, med while, is so enchant-
ed with learning for the retired
that she has made it the subject of
the masters degree in education |
she is working on.

She thinks the older learner is
special because he or she comes
in with their experience already in
place. plus wisdom gained along
the way.

“These people are at the slage
where they don't have to do it —
they want to do it.”

The experts who volunteer
their lime to speak or lead the ses-
sions also enjoy their association
with older learners and the format
that allows everyone to participate
in discussion und fearn from one
another. ;

Says older learner Winship:
“There's no studying, no exams,
no deadlines ... il’s learning for
pure pleasure.”

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