So, I’m thinking of going back to school once I retire in another couple of years. I thought about maybe taking some classes on forging or metal working, though not sure I’ll be in good enough health. Maybe going back to school to learn how to back the ultimate pizza! Whatever. But, unlike the other school I’ve done, this time it would be just for me…just for the fun of it. Might be on any number of subjects that interest me but that I’ve never had the time to dig into, and didn’t study in school as it wouldn’t further my career or my job.
Anyone else think this way? A lot of my friends kind of look at me oddly when I mention this, so maybe it’s just me. Would you go back to school just to study something you are interested in, not for a job or for anything other than because you want too? Would you go back to school (or study, or training, or classes, or whatever) just for the fun of it?
When I was in college, in the summers, there were a lot of retired people taking courses for fun (Elderhostel is what the program was called). Seemed like fun to me.
I think that way. Not a formal setting like actual classes, but I’ll just find a subject and start learning about it. Everyone always asks me “You doing that for work?” or “You’re just learning something to learn it?”
Seems strange to me that people question that. Is just learning something to learn it weird nowadays?
I’ve always considered myself strange for not finding learning fun. Most people I’ve had occasion to talk to about it like learning and think I’m strange for my disinterest.
Man, wish I ran in your circles. Everyone in the circles I run in wrt colleagues and such are always training or studying for a new cert or another degree to further their career and buff their creds. It’s a grind. I did that grind for years, and to a degree I’m still doing it. But they all look at me funny when I talk about going into blacksmithing or history, archeology or astronomy or pizza baking…they just don’t get it. I don’t want to study stuff because I have to anymore…I want to study all the things I haven’t ever had time for but that I’m interested in.
Well, begbert2’s friends seem to be more in our camp, but I’m with you…folks look at me strangely when I talk about studying just for the fun of it. Maybe it’s just the circles we run in.
Perhaps. I might think a little different for someone who says “I don’t want to learn anything new”, but I find it unlikely that you don’t want to learn anything. You read news, or other types of information even though it’s a chore? You don’t learn how to do things you already know better or anything like that?
That’s one of the main reasons I read this message board. There are a lot of smart people with information that I don’t already know, or ways of thinking that I’m not familiar with. Learning that is pretty fun to me. Not to you?
An example just happened the other day. I signed up for a 30 day trial of Microsoft Azure because I found a good tutorial/description of it online that contained steps to provision a server and an application, and I thought I would check it out. Someone at my work asked me what I was doing and I explained “Just learning about the Azure services” and she couldn’t believe I was just learning stuff. That attitude seemed strange to me.
My mom’s almost 79, and she still takes a class or so every semester. Cleveland State University offers free classes for folks over 60 (they call it “Project 60”), and she takes advantage of it.
She also travels all over the world. So far, she’s been to various places in Europe twice, Asia four times, Africa twice, South America three times, and Antarctica and Australia once each, plus all fifty states.
I just did a two-day jewelry-making workshop that involved metalworking. I hope to take more. I take photography workshops and go on trips to learn more about wildlife photography. I’d like to take a botany class at some point. I also want to do a master gardening workshop but that will have to wait until I retire since I cannot find any that would fit into my current work schedule. To me, learning new stuff is a lifelong activity. I don’t ever want to stop. There’s so many things to be curious about.
Yup. As my retirement date approaches, I’ve started picking up coding again in R, which is a fun language for doing a little ground-level data science. I also want to go back through the entry level bridge courses so my wife and I can start playing more regularly.
Going to the library or sitting on a computer to learn about something, yes. Taking an actual class, probably not. The best way for me to lose interest in something is to take a class in it.
Our local community college sends out a catalog with dozens of courses for seniors. They also discount tuition for senior citizens taking full-fledged academic courses.
Heck, even some of the public four-year universities in the state offer free or nominal tuition to senior citizens to audit academic courses.
My parents have been taking classes since they retired. There’s a lifelong learning program at one of the Universities in DC that attracts a lot of interesting people. They’re currently taking three classes. Some of them sound like fun to me, some not so much but they take what they want. They’re in their 80s and love to learn new stuff (which is why I now know why Samuel Clemens chose Mark Twain as his penname).
My local community college offers all kinds of non-credit adult education, most of them things like one-time cooking classes, beginning instruction in foreign languages including ASL, computer classes, CPR certification, travelogues, etc. They also do physical education programs like volleyball, ballroom dancing, and yoga. What they teach and when depends on who’s available.
A local university used to allow people 65 and over to take classes for credit at no cost as long as there was room in the class, but they did have to pay for their books and other student fees. IDK if they still do this.
I do short courses online all the time. I enrolled in Understanding Memory: Explaining the Psychology of Memory through Movies from Wesleyan University a few days ago because it looks interesting.
I’m sure that most people have their attitude toward learning poisoned by the premium placed on qualifications for work. I recently asked a bunch of graduates that I work with, “How many of you would have done your tertiary studies for free if there was no degree awarded?” The answer was none.
Sure. College was more or less a hobby for me for many years anyway. Eventually I got tired of the busy-work aspects of it and I’m still not sure I’m over being sick of that. But auditing classes might be fun - there are subjects like geology, astronomy and meteorology that I always wanted to take survey classes for, but just never got around to when I was actually enrolled.
Might just be too lazy now, though ;). Even if it were more casual. Have to see how I feel after I retire. The idea sounds sort of exhausting right now and I’d probably have to decompress for a few months and de-couple my brain from working full time before I’ll be able to tell if it is really something I want to tackle.