(Comments from ILRs, July-August 2000)

Original Query from John Webber – WALLA, Purdue U., Lafayette, IN
First, let it be known that I do not speak for WALLA. It is my opinion that all ILR's are faced with problems. In an era where many seniors are encountering problems of how to cope with what a new millennium presents, the focus of all ILR chapters are (or should be) in a state of flux. There is a whole population out there that is crying for services that is not necessarily concerned with academic elitism. With ILR, as a movement, there is an opportunity to expand the scope of our organization to explore the potential for reaching some of these populations.

The problems being experienced by some chapters may reflect the frustration felt by seniors whose needs are not being met by current programming. I am, by nature, a visionary, and I can see such a potential for programs, presented under the guise of ILR, that can address these frustrations and make a contribution to the community that far surpasses those of solely academia.

I wonder if there are those who participate in this forum who might share my view to any degree?

Follow-up Query in EIN Newsletter of 7/31
I was very interested to see the recent thoughts of some Forum members about ILRs meeting the needs of older adults in ways other than educational. It was especially timely given that I have been informally brainstorming this very topic with some of my colleagues here at Elderhostel. I would be most interested in learning what you think about ILRs developing a broader approach to meeting the needs of their members, such as creating service programs, offering physical fitness programs (lots of new articles about keeping mentally and physically fit as we age), and perhaps even offering entrepreneurial and medical/holistic services - a kind of student union approach for older adults. Feel free to drop me a note about this idea, which is only in the very early discussion/exploration stage at this point.

From Mary Caroline Mitchell – Lincoln Land CC, Springfield, IL
Re: Broadening of ILR mission- Each ILR's situation will be different in relation to this question. Since some ILR's are independently incorporated and others are integral to an institution of higher learning and there are others in varying other type of relationships, the first issue will be who can ultimately determine the ILR mission. It will also vary depending on the other resources for seniors in the community, the sense of cooperation vs. competition between institutions on who does what etc. I happen to be on the Board of our Senior Center which is in many communities the student union for seniors. We also as a community college have many political considerations related to the hospitals, health clubs and other entities in the community that we try to work in coordination with. There are also the RSVP programs that involve seniors in community service as well as Volunteer Centers throughout the country. Perhaps what I would suggest is that ILR's serve more as a resource for what is available for seniors in the community and if there are gaps then the ILR might fill it. Seniors of course are the hottest group on anyone's list for a business opportunity. We have to be sure that we are not another entity expanding our mission to take advantage of a great business opportunity rather than looking at the services that we are in a unique position to offer and assisting our ILR members to support those entities in the community that already exist.

From Bruce Murphy – Academy for Lifelong Learning, Cape Cod CC, Barnstable, MA
We have about twice the average US density for elders here on the Cape. Yet our membership is less than 1% of the “market.” There are many reasons for this such as lack of space at the Cape Cod CC as well as the possibility that our ILR program doesn’t speak to the needs of our target populations. I maintain that socialization is an important key element of ILRs. Yet lack of space hinders the ability to socialize on a daily basis. Our ILR is split gender wise, 70% to 30% reflecting the truth that women do outlive men. One of the beautiful things to see in our ILR is how “experienced” widows in our membership can serve as a meaningful resource to newly widowed members.

We are sensitive to avoid an elitist aura in our ILR as that is not reflective of our senior population. I would be interested in your views as to how ILRs could better meet the needs of our generation.

From Dick Vernon – ILR, Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, OH
I am pleased to learn that there are people who don’t want to limit ILR activities to traditional classroom academic endeavors. I also believe that the social opportunities are most important in any seniors’ activity. However, it seems to me that there should be a focus (learning) to an ILR organization and then hopefully, there can be subsidiary activities (daily social meetings, group trips, etc) which can occur almost naturally as a result of the primary activity. I believe any new organization needs to examine its priorities and desires, if learning isn’t at or near the top then perhaps the founders would be better off if they found an umbrella other than the ILR movement, EIN. There are so many possible activities, I thing that no one single “parent’ organization could provide meaningful assistance in all the possible areas. With learning as the focus, and limiting other activities, I think we have a very workable arrangement. I would hope any parent organization would encourage the individual groups this freedom, but the individual ILRs, with learning as their primary activity, should then define their other activities and determine how they want to accomplish this. I look forward to seeing other comments on this stimulating subject.

From Evelyn Chasen – Adult Learning Institute, Columbia-Green CC, Hudson, NY
Your suggestion about expanding the scope of our organization to meet the needs of our members, other than in academic areas, is, in my opinion, an excellent one. I doubt that this would result, in any way, in a violation of the agreement made with EIN when we joined about maintaining the academic standards of the sponsoring college or university.

Because this is a subject that probably interests many ILRs, I believe that it would make an excellent topic for a workshop for upcoming Regional Conferences. I hope Conference Planning Committees will take note of this suggestion.

From John Webber – WALLA, Purdue U., Lafayette, IN
It is gratifying to know there is interest "out there." There can be a tendency on the part of elitist groups to resist change in what makes them elite (I looked up the definition of "elite" and discovered the pejorative is merely a connotation given to a rather positive word). The leaders of, and/or the spokespeople for a group (I would guess this is mainly the composition of this forum), because of the dedication to its purpose, tend to resist even more adamantly. There is no intent on my part to be judgmental. After all, the right of free association is protected by the Constitution--authored by a pretty elite group, I might add.

I would like to believe that I am sensitive to the purpose(s) of and for ILR. Whatever form an expanded scope might take, learning must still be at the core. My interest in learning, not that which I needed to be able to cope with life's chaos, is a relatively recent phenomenon in my life. A little over eight years ago, I became involved as a volunteer with a local adult reading program (ABE); first as a tutor, and currently as a member of its advisory board. In working with people who had "fallen through the cracks" of an educational system, my understanding of the learning process changed radically. For me, it is no longer a process of understanding and storing to memory the 3 R's and all the associated information. Now, learning is a process that teaches HOW to learn . . . how to learn to live life.

From my experience with LARA (Lafayette Adult Reading Academy), I've become aware that many seniors who merely "exist" in retirement do so because they never learned how learn. It is to this end that I would like to see ILR's expand the scope of their programs to endeavor to correct this oversight in existing learning systems. (Away from topic, but it has become my mission, in what years remain, to see this correction take place in the entire education system--birth through death.)

My personal concern maybe a bit parochial, because WALLA finds itself in a somewhat unique role. WALLA's area is one made up of Tippecanoe County at its center and seven other Indiana counties that are contiguous to it (try and imagine that configuration). Tippecanoe County is pretty much what is called Greater Lafayette and, although not that large in population, the presence of Purdue makes it somewhat cosmopolitan. The seven remaining counties are basically rural in nature. WALLA has what I consider to be an excellent program for the seniors of Greater Lafayette, but, with a few exceptions, the seniors in the outlying counties are not involved. If it is to serve the entire "WA," WALLA must expand upon the scope of its present programs.

From John Webber – WALLA, Purdue U., Lafayette, IN
Thank you for your contribution to keeping these "queries" before the group. My initial interest was looking at the possible expansion in the scope of ILRs, but, when combined with the idea of ILRs offering courses on-line, I can see some synergism developing. Once more, from my parochial perspective, the latter might be a means whereby the seniors of the out-lying counties would be able to participate in WALLA's programs.

I choose to reiterate from my previous post my belief that learning is not so much the acquisition of information, but is that of the process which allows one to do so. Before a person can learn how to learn, there must first be a desire to want to. From my experience at the reading academy, I found that when the "why" we learn is understood the steps to "how" it can be done are much more acceptable. One of the tutors at the academy came up with this parody which I think is apropos to this: "You can lead students to learning, but you can't make them think."

I have some thoughts on the "hows" and "whys," and I would like to see what others have gained from their life's experiences.

P.S. I am a student of "A Course In Miracles," a course in spiritual thought training, and the current daily lessons are focusing on learning lessons. Another of life's "sins" comes to mind. Synchronicity! As an expression of the lessons learned from ACIM, I compose aphorisms which I call Webber's Words - WW. Here are a few that have come to me over the past few day.

“As a teacher, I am my first student.”WW
“I Am, my own and only Teacher.”WW
“I know I’ve learned the lesson when I’m happy because I have.”WW
“Life is one big lesson assigned to many from which much is to be learned.”WW
“The lesson to be learned from life would have me learn to know Love.”WW

From Bob Neil, McCall, Montreat College, Montreat, NC
Most of our members are college graduates and really enjoy stimulating, thought-provoking courses. We have, however, several times offered what we consider more of a "hands-on" or activity-type course, such as "Watercolor Painting," "Drawing," "Tennis Clinic," "Learning a Way to Lifelong Fitness," "The Fascination of Carolina Crafts," "How to Take Pretty Good Pictures," and "Croquet 101." Most of these included some lecture and discussion along with activities, and generally proved to be very well-received and popular courses. Most of those who took these courses also took at least one other more academic-type course during the same term. We do not offer one of these activity-types every term, since some of our leadership feel that we should not have them at all, and most feel that we want to keep our main focus more academic. We also offer special one-day activities most every term, including sight seeing trips, hikes, and visits to museums and exhibits.

From Mary Thompson - RISE, Rivier College, Nashua, NH
These are my ideas, not those of our group as we don't meet in the summer months.
First, we are already branching out as a natural outgrowth of our members coming together and finding mutual interests. One of our members has taken the initiative to get a group of us organized to work with our local historical society on photo preservation and collection of old photos as well as current photo documentation of our downtown buildings. This could very well evolve into courses since we also want to add video interviews with some of the oldest city residents. We have always had RISE fitness classes, 2x a week, in our gym which are led by the college's physical fitness director in addition to offerings of Yoga, T'ai Chi and Chi Kung this fall. Our membership allows us free use of the work out room and a group began walking this summer at a local park after the semester ended. I would very much like to see all ILR's incorporate a service type program. In my working life I was involved with the University of Utah's Service Learning Program. Almost all students in the state from Kindergarten on are involved in service learning every semester. This is an excellent way to capture some of the wonderful skills of every age group and should include seniors. I believe each ILR program will expand to meet the needs of their members if enough flexibility exists. It is a much richer experience. We all have real lives outside of the classroom and in many cases the members serve as extended families for each other.

From John Webber – WALLA, Purdue U., Lafayette, IN
There is innate in everything the potential to grow into that which serves a greater purpose. (An example of how WWs come to me.) I find it exciting that there is this exchange between ILRs and Elderhostel. There are many programs that originate around a certain purpose that expand into something greater--without losing the essence of the original.

I appreciated Mary Thompson's post, for it offers a suggestion of a way an ILR might expand its program and, in the process, enhance a senior's continued use of life experiences. I can speak from personal experience that community involvement can and does keep a person thinking "young."

The comments from others who are responding to this are proving to be helpful to me. I'm getting a feeling there are ILR programs that are serving the purpose for which they came into being. "If a thing ain't broke, don't try to fix it." comes to mind. I somewhat lose sight of this when I'm involved in an ILR that has, IMO, need for programs to address unmet learning needs of seniors in the Wabash Area.

If you feel I can contribute in any way to the discussion between Elderhostel and the ILRs, please, don't hesitate to contact me.

From Richard DiVecchio, LLI, Norwalk CC, Norwalk, CT
We here at LLI in Norwalk Connecticut have included hands-on courses almost as long as we have been in operation.

Our members love them and it provides another avenue for elders to come together. In our opinion (that is most of us) think that we serve a social role as well as an educational one. Incidentally, we have two watercolor courses, an oil painting course, a very special experimental art course that uses acrylic paints, and a sketching course. All are very well accepted, usually filled to capacity and we'd probably be run out of town if we tried to discontinue any of them.

From Dick Shultz, LIFE (Learning Institute For Elders), Burlington County College, NJ
The operative word in ILR is LEARNING. It matters not if the subject is nuclear physics, history of ancient people, literature, politics, line dancing, cooking, embroidery, day trips, or helping others. If your curriculum meets the needs of your constituency, then by all means present it. Not every one is a retired professor or research scientist with advanced degrees. There are many members who never
went to college, but who still want to LEARN whatever the subject of interest. Elitism may have its place, but not in our ILR. If subject material does not meet the needs of an ILR's membership, they will vote with their feet. They joined to LEARN; ask them what they want. Good luck to all who want to try something different.

From Karl Kregor, RENESAN, College of Santa Fe, NM
At RENESAN in Santa Fe, NM, our concern is not 'elitism,' but maintaining a focus on a niche we've discovered we fill.

I believe it's critical that every ILR assess the resources available to ensure they don't spend time and money on what's available elsewhere in town. If we get into a competitive mode with those other resources, and growth for growth's sake becomes a goal, then an ILR loses its original uniqueness.

In Santa Fe we have an excellent community college with a wide variety of non-credit offerings from crafts to spiritualism, and a sophisticated liberal arts college, St. John's, with community 'great books' oriented offerings.

We discovered members and contacts who provide still different course/lectures, in convenient, accessible settings -- and the prices can't be beat.

Maybe we're lucky to have a setting where we don't feel the need to be all things to all 380 members (up from 35 in our first year, 1995), because other options are out there.