Learning over the lifespan
A lesson plan for healthy aging and a healthy society
by Kathy Shea
Creative education consultant
Bee Bleedorn leads a Vital Aging
Network session on creative
processes and aging.
The value of learning to all aspects of health—mental, physical, emotional, and societal—doesn’t stop at age 25 or even age 70. Continuing to develop the brain and its many functions is a lifelong pursuit that should be carried out until “the last breath.”
So goes the philosophy of Jan Hively, a senior fellow in the College, who earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Work, Community, and Family Education (now WHRE) at age 69. A nationally recognized activist in the area of vital aging—which she defines as a strengths-based approach to growing older—and founder of the Vital Aging Network (VAN), Hively is coteaching a class on educating older workers through WHRE this spring.
The benefits of ongoing learning to the individual and to society as a whole are clear. The brain, like the body, benefits from regular use. Exercised often enough, it will maintain healthy cognitive function. Studies also have linked ongoing learning to physical and emotional health. And healthier, more connected seniors are less reliant on expensive health care.
Once considered a fixed piece of equipment that only degrades with age, the human brain is now seen by most scientists as a dynamic and constantly reorganizing system capable of being shaped positively across the lifespan. “Studies suggest that the brain’s left and right hemispheres become better integrated during middle age, making way for greater creativity,” writes Gene Cohen, director of the Center on Aging, Health, and Humanities at George Washington University, in “The Myth of the Midlife Crisis” (Newsweek, Jan. 16, 2006).
“A great deal of scientific work has confirmed the ‘use it or lose it’ adage, showing that the aging brain grows stronger from use and challenge,” continues Cohen, who served as the keynote speaker at the Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging conference, which VAN cosponsored last January.
So, how to “use it” most effectively? In addition to physical exercise and social interaction, mental fitness researchers point strongly to the value of ongoing learning. According to the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging, “Education is the strongest predictor of sustained mental function. Education early in life may have a direct beneficial effect on brain circuitry. It may also set a pattern of intellectual activities that when exercised later in life serves to maintain cognitive function.”
Jan Hively is interested in the entire lifespan. She recently founder Shift
with
Michael LaBrosse to support people through mid-life transitions.
What defines lifelong learning?
Hively’s co-teacher Janet Jacobson, who has a master’s degree from the College with an emphasis on older learners, developed the curriculum for Educating Learners in Mid-Life and Beyond as part of her work towards a certificate from VAN, which is part of the College of Continuing Education. The only course of its kind in Minnesota, Educating Learners in Mid-Life and Beyond emphasizes the older learner’s capacity to learn and the benefits he or she derives from that process. The class also highlights experiential learning and a give and take of knowledge—a continuous cycle of teaching and learning.
Lifelong learners, says Jacobson, “are people who are actively, intentionally, learning new things—right up until their last breath.” Learning, she says, can include formal classes, programs in the community, or self-directed experiences—pursuing a hobby or even reading the newspaper regularly, if done with educational intent.
Hively describes lifelong learning as the process of pursuing activities that contribute to one or more of what she calls the six dimensions of wellness—physical, mental, social, emotional, vocational, and spiritual. “I think of education very broadly,” she says, “as a support to help people exercise in all of these dimensions, as a way to help people achieve overall well-being.”
Both Hively and Jacobson emphasize that, as learners hit middle age and beyond, they begin to crave learning and experiences that help them find greater meaning and purpose in their lives. They enjoy more self-directed learning and become less patient with the traditional lecture format.
The wisdom that comes with years of experience also factors into their learning interests.
“Many adult learners,” explains Jacobson, “seek out learning opportunities that help them consider their own lives, what they’ve accomplished, and find a sense of pride in what they’ve done.”
These may include an autobiography or memoir, writing poetry, or simply gathering with others in conversational learning to have what Hively calls “those deep, rich, sharing conversations from the heart that help you to look at your past with growing understanding of who you are, the whole person.”
Benefits for the individual and society
Bob Gobrud participates in a creativity exercise at
Bee Bleedorn's VAN workshop.
In addition to brain fitness, ongoing learning can increase a person’s overall physical health. Cohen recently concluded a national study of older adults, for example, that found a strong correlation between serious artistic study and improvements in a wide array of health indicators.
Ongoing learning is also critical to mental and emotional health. Positive outcomes include a sense of personal fulfillment, the chance to develop strong social connections, opportunities to boost self-esteem, the chance to develop spiritually and creatively, and a way to gain a sense of control over one’s life.
Helen Kivnick, a professor of social work in the College, describes the value of ongoing learning in psychosocial terms. “I consider vital involvement—that is, interacting meaningfully with the world outside the self in a way that somehow changes you—the essence of learning. And that process is absolutely essential to a person’s psychosocial health.”
In a study to determine what gave aging role models a positive attitude, despite challenges, Kivnick found that all were natural lifelong learners—responsive to the world around them and able to apply their internal strengths to their present environment.
What’s more, lifelong learners tend to be more active volunteers and often take part in the running of the organizations in their lives—whether it’s the senior center or their church or a lifelong learning organization such as VAN. Helping to recruit speakers, put out a newsletter, write a brochure, send out e-mails, run a registration table—these are also forms of learning and social engagement.
For society, the benefits of encouraging lifelong learning are becoming clear. Lessening the likelihood of dementia-related diseases, increasing overall physical health into old age, and lessening age-related isolation and disconnectedness will reduce the national health-care and long-term care price tag. But that’s only the beginning.
With larger numbers of older adults mentally alert, active, and connected to community, society gains experienced employees, advisers, volunteers, citizens, and family members, as well as the wisdom and perspective they’ve accumulated. Kivnick refers to a Zulu proverb to describe the value of ongoing community engagement: “A person is most fully human when in interaction with other people.”
And, of course, what’s good for older people is ultimately good for all of us. Younger people will one day be old, and the abilities one needs to age well are usually developed earlier in life. Hively, who has worked on a range of aging issues since 2000, is broadening her focus to the entire lifespan with Shift, a nonprofit that aids people through mid-life transitions.
“Purposeful lives,” she says, “create public good for everyone. All along the life continuum, we, as a society, need to support each person’s search for meaning and purpose. That means supporting career centers in schools, mid-life career shifts, the traditional retirement transition, and late life changes. And each stage requires education.”