I teach at a community college, so I see a lot of people who do this. The ones who are actually interested are great to have in class.
The ones who pretend to be quirky and humblebrag about “I’m just hear to learn! LOL so random” are insufferable, and generally set out to try to show the class how smart they are.
A friend of mine from high school recently started taking chemistry and was the latter. I was convinced for a while that he was only interested in posting about how CRAZY it was to be taking ORGANIC CHEMISTRY for FUN omgz hey this ISN’T THAT HARD guys!!!. He’s now talking about going to dental school so I’m looking forward to several more years of this nonsense.
Another alternative might be The Great Courses from the Teaching Company. I have their Great Courses Plus subscription which is like a Netflix for college courses. The advantage is that you can stream the courses anytime. The drawback is there’s no camaraderie or feedback from fellow students. Most of the classes are the equivalent of college freshman or sophomore classes, so general survey classes that would be at the 100 or 200 level.
I used to love Coursera but they have made it hard to do it for free these days.
Yale, MIT and a couple of other schools had an open university online program. I still run across them on YouTube.
Sure. And the state I currently live in would make it easy - state residents over 62 can take classes for free at almost all schools in the University System. I don’t know how many other states have such a program, but it would be worth looking into.
When the last crisis hit and everybody started cancelling projects left and right I said “OK, I can spend a year or so going crazy or I can do that thing I’ve long wanted to of going back to school for some official training as a translator”. I did the second. I had very little interest in becoming a professional translator, but it’s nice being able to inform people of details about the profession such as how to find the type of translator you need, how to communicate which type of translation you need, etc. I’ve got several masters’ I’ve got as a “general culture” thing which are somewhat related to my job but I don’t really expect to use them as my main selling point. My uncle Iñaki collected doctorates and masters, most of them were long-distance: he’d do a lot of his coursework during work lulls. I’ve seen several articles in Spanish newspapers about retirees attending regular University, some to finish a degree they’d dropped out of way back when, some just as a general culture thing. UNED, the Spanish Long-Distance University, has many no-degree-oriented courses which get heavy attendance from retirees; the rest are other people wanting to study the subject just out of curiosity, as a general culture thing.
So no, you’re definitely not the only one out there. Attending a regular uni may make you feel like the world got ridiculously young, but then, you’ll have a good excuse to treat your classmates as if they were your grandkids For me one of the interesting things about the translation degree was comparing “my” Spanish system with the younger kids’ experience in the current systems of their countries (including several from Spain) with the Brit grad school.
Just in the last couple of years the frequency of dreams about not being prepared for class/not knowing where the classroom is and being on the brink of final exams despite having mostly cut class have diminished markedly.
I wouldn’t risk their return by ever going back to school, even for “fun”.
An online seminar or two relating to a possible retirement sideline might be a different story.
I don’t consider taking tests and writing papers fun. I think some colleges still use the Blue Books for exams? I always left the lecture hall afterwards with my hand cramping.
Never, ever again. I hated those Blue Books because that meant most of the test was Essay questions.
I have taken gardening, photography, and diy classes. They typically meet weekly for maybe six or eight weeks
Since officially leaving school, I’ve taken classes here and there at the smaller colleges in my area and a couple of “certificates” from the university (2-5 classes evenings and weekends), and I’ve taken a ton and a half of edx & coursera type classes. I’ve also taken classes in things like glassblowing, &tc. I just took a quick workshop in wireworking. I hope I stay in a position where I can continue to take more of all of these sorts of classes and lessons.
For me, it’s easier to have some sort of direction- a lot of the subjects I’m kind of interested in are very broad. It’s helpful to rely on someone for a curriculum or at least an entry point rather than trying to google my way into the middle of a subject. If it catches my attention, I can find out more. If it doesn’t, then at least I can reasonably believe that I have given it a fair-ish shake.
I also tend to be a bit skeptical of “learning books.” Many of them seem to just be someone rambling about their favorite subject. I often get really frustrated because the information isn’t organized well.
It’s part of my retirement plan. I’ve got two years of GI Bill with no plan to use it for anything else. I was looking at using it starting at 58 for something that would be fun at a community college. There was going to be the the challenge of fitting it in because it expired at 60 for me. I was going to have to be above the minimum to be considered full time and get the benefit. Thanks to the GI Bill For Life recent change my first two years of retirement are going to be as a student. There’s no need to squeeze it in. Just find something that feeds hobbies afterwards and keeps me out of the house learning something interesting.
Of course I have an extra motivation. The housing stipend effectively makes being a full time student a low paying job while the GI Bill is in effect. It’ll let me retire a bit earlier without straining the retirement savings.
For me one of the interesting things about the translation degree was comparing “my” Spanish system with the younger kids’ experience in the current systems of their countries (including several from Spain) with the Brit grad school.
I hated those Blue Books because that meant most of the test was Essay questions.