After several decades of productive work as a physician, David Presman retired and found that his life lacked a meaningful outlet for his still-creative mind.
Now, seven years later, as 18-year-old Northwestern University students make their first venture into higher education, Presman and other retirees join them on the Evanston and Chicago campuses to attend the eighth year of the school’s Institute for Learning in Retirement.
An open house for prospective students will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Wieboldt Hall, 339 E. Chicago Ave., and classes begin Oct. 3.
Unlike first-year college students, who have to sit in large lecture halls and take notes for exams, the learning program is a peer experience where coordinators, not professors, direct the group into active discussions about the material.
“It’s been wonderful for me,” says Presman, who entered the program five years ago and now coordinates the “Ethical Philosophy” course. “I retired at 73 and was at my wits’ end until someone told me about this. It gives us something to do besides watch television and go to the baseball games and walk in the park.”
Kathryn Shenk, an assistant coordinator on the Chicago campus, says the program has been not only a place for learning but, in some cases, has saved lives.
“A number of people work all of their lives, and then they retire and the next day or week they become very ill and in many cases they die,” says 42-year-old Shenk. “They just have nothing to do. These people (in the program) are truly inspirational, and I hope when I’m 60 or 70 or even 80 that I’m as active as they are.”
Coordinator Beth Hart says the turnaround in morale can be dramatic.
“I knew one man who was in an active and demanding career,” Hart says. “He retired and became extremely depressed and when he found this program it changed his life. It gave him focus and a purpose.”
Hart also says the small discussion groups help people who are shy to open up and share ideas with people who are of a similar age group.
The institute was created in 1987 on the Evanston campus after research was conducted on the effectiveness of peer learning. Other universities, including Harvard, Duke and Yale, have developed similar programs. In 1990, because of increased enrollment, the program was expanded and courses were designed for the Chicago campus.
The variety of courses gives retirees a chance to explore subjects that may have always interested them but that they never had a chance to study when they were younger.
“I’m a retired physician,” Presman says. “I’ve always been interested in philosophy but because of the requirements of science in pre-med there was no way I could study it. So I decided to start a course.”
There are no educational or experiential requirements to take or to coordinate a course-except sincere interest. New courses are proposed in the spring and a committee of the program’s members decides whether a course should be added to the curriculum.
Members come from a variety of backgrounds and educational levels. The roster includes the former head of an advertising agency, an actress who appeared in a movie with James Cagney and an Episcopal priest. There also are homemakers and other non-professionals who want to further their studies, or just want a good reason to get out of the house and meet others their own age.
While most members are in their late 50s to early 80s, there is no age requirement.
“We had a man in his late 30s who was sick and needed something to take his mind off his illness,” Hart says. “I think the program was a factor in adding years to his life.”
Harriet O’Brien, a retired high school physics teacher who coordinates the “Literary Nobel Laureates” course, says the program differs from regular student classes because the students are not seeking knowledge that will help in a career.
“This is more like going to the opera,” she says. “It’s for the sheer joy of learning and sharing ideas.”
And the interaction often extends beyond class into what members call “the third hour.” If discussions are lively and the group wants to continue, they head to the cafeteria for lunch to mingle with some of the younger students or faculty.
“When you go to the student union for the third hour, you see more gray and white heads than you do younger people,” says Mary Ralston, Hart’s assistant. “It’s really great.”
Each year the institute also plans a few social gatherings where members can meet for dinner.
Classes meet for two hours once a week. But occasionally, a course will add a special option of traveling to a place where members can gain first-hand experience into the subject.
Ralston, 72, traveled with a group to Europe to delve further into their discussions of Irish and English literature. This year, Ralston says, some members who take the “Mexico: Spirit of the People” course (on the Evanston campus) will travel to that country with members of the program from other states.
Members are allowed some of the same university privileges as regular students, including access to the libraries, and discounts for some NU theater and musical events. The university holds other intergenerational events that members may join.
While the discussions are informal and there are no grades or papers, some of the courses have assigned reading that members must prepare to discuss.
Jack Ellison, a retired principal of Francis Parker School, said he was interested in Presman’s philosophy course, but did not realize the reading would be difficult.
“It means reading something two or three times to understand it,” Ellison, 83, says. “But having found that to be true, I found it challenging and I enjoyed it.”
For those more interested in the social aspect of the program, several courses have been designed for minimal study. “Let’s Go to the Movies” involves watching a classic film every week and discussing its meaning or merit. The “Point of View” course debates current world politics and “The New Yorker” group reads the magazine and discusses interesting articles.
Ralston, who has coordinated several courses, says that whether the subject is easy or difficult, the learning process is in many ways more effective than a lecture format.
“Sometimes I see faculty members in the hall and they look a little patronizing because they don’t think you can learn this way,” Ralston says. “But there’s a difference between reading something passively and reading something when you know you’re going to have to discuss it. And when you lead the discussion, then you really have to know it.”
In most of the courses, the coordinator elicits volunteers to lead the discussion for a week. That person usually does the reading, researches any other relevant material, and then creates questions to spur the conversation.
For a $260 annual fee, members can take up to three study groups a semester. To receive a list of classes and times, call the Evanston campus at 708-491-7724 or the Chicago campus, 312-503-7881. More classes are available in Evanston but both campuses have a Monday-Friday schedule.
“One of the things I really like about this group is that everyone comes from an entirely different background,” Presman says. “But they all have two things in common. They are all knowledgeable and they are all eager to use their brains. Because if you don’t use your brain it’s going to atrophy, just like any other part of your body.”
For Hart, who has watched Northwestern’s program grow from 75 members to more than 400, it has proven that retired people can learn new things that will enrich their lives and the lives of those around them.
“Over a period of a year or two (the program members) develop themselves in a different way than they ever have before,” Hart says. “You can’t meet any of these people and think that there’s no growth after retirement.”
