Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Henry Ford was once quoted as saying, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
Wash. U.’s Lifelong Learning Institute (lli.ucollege.wustl.edu) emphatically agrees. Now in its 19th year, the program provides classes to students who are 55 and older. Winter courses include studying the poetry of the Bible, Broadway musicals, modern Italy, The New Yorker, and economic scandals. But the curriculum changes each term.
“It stretches your mind in ways you had no idea it would,” says Wendy Olk, a longtime student. “You learn as much from the students as you do from the teacher.”
A key to the institute’s success is the fact that teachers are students’ peers. “It’s not university professors giving lectures—it’s all our students who give the courses,” says the institute’s director, Katie Compton. “They come up with the idea and develop the course.”
Class sizes range from 15 to 75 students. Many courses fill up as soon as registration opens. Teacher Anna DiPalma Amelung’s courses on Italy, for instance, are difficult to get into because they’re so popular, says Olk. There’s also teacher Larry Kahn, a former pediatrician. “He is 92, and he loves Shakespeare,” says Olk. “In one semester, he does just one play.”
For those interested in history, there was a four-year course on world wars. The course began with World War II before moving on to the Korean War and the Cold War. “Some people came and went, but some people stayed for the whole time,” Compton says. “It was cool to them because they were there.”
The institute’s success is largely due to students’ enthusiasm. “Learning is something that should go on your whole life, and the people who come here really understand that,” Compton says. “It’s someplace to come where you’re not talking about your health or grandchildren or problems. You are reading Shakespeare, and that is great.”
A Sampling of Courses
• The Poets of Broadway
• Operas by Mozart: Sex and Power
• Turning Life Into Fiction
• The Economics of Climate Change
• Studies in African-American History
• Science Fiction as Commentary on Social Issues
