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A lifetime of learning


Starting next week, Valley residents 50 and older will have the chance to take classes and seminars from a number of prominent ASU professors and well-known scholars from across the country.

The courses, being offered at various locations statewide, are run by the ASU Osher Institute’s Lifelong Learning program.

The classes, many of which start on Feb. 8, are held in six locations throughout the state, including at ASU’s Polytechnic and West campuses, as well as the Tempe Public Library.

The Bernard Osher Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that grants endowments to educational programs, funds the classes.

“This is a program that attracts older adults, and some of them are snowbirds and are just here during the nice months in Arizona,” said Patricia Feldman, director of the ASU Osher Institute.

The program serves an important function in its participants’ lives, Feldman said.

“The program is geared for that 50-plus age group. Typically they are maybe not working full time,” she said. “Most of them are retired, they like taking daytime classes — a lot of times for the social aspect of it — but also to keep their minds sharp and keep learning.”

The classes are designed to be convenient and inexpensive for adults older than 50 who wish to continue their education. The courses range between one meeting and weekly meetings for nine weeks, and the average class costs $15, though many are free.

The courses range from music appreciation to crime scene investigation, and other titles include “For the Love of Golf,” “Introduction to Genealogy” and “Using Technology to Connect With Family.”

The classes are different from those you would find in a normal ASU course catalog, Feldman said.

“There are no grades. They are definitely learning for the sake of learning,” she said. “They are interested in learning, and there may be homework, but nothing is academically graded.”

Students are generally more comfortable in these classes than normal college courses for a few reasons, she said.

“I think they are attracted by ASU, by the name,” Feldman said. “It’s at a place that’s convenient and a time that’s convenient, and with classmates who are their same age group, which can be more fun and less intimidating.”

Participants are also attracted by the large number of well-known teachers, Feldman said. This semester includes a sports reporting class taught by legendary ASU football coach Frank Kush.

Emeritus professor David Berman is teaching a class titled “Arizona’s Age of Reform: Populists, Radicals and Progressives, 1890-1920.”

“[It’s] basically the early history of Arizona as a state,” he said.

Berman has written books on the subject as well as others in political science and is currently working on another.

“It’s very relevant,” he said of the class. “We’re also coming to a period where in a couple of years it’ll be Arizona’s 100th birthday, so I thought it’d be time to go back … and see where we started out.”

Berman said he enjoys teaching the class and interacting with the students.

“People aren’t in there for a grade, and they tend to be very interested in the topic,” Berman said. “I think it’s a very good program, I think people get a lot out of it.”

Reach the reporter at dana.sheaff@asu.edu


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