By Heather Lamb
For less than the price of a good seat at a Senators’ game, Centretown seniors will soon be able to study something new.
Carleton University’s new Learning in Retirement program is taught by retired professors and targets the growing number of seniors who want to continue learning, without taking regular university courses.
Gerry Glavin, 69, is a Centretown resident who graduated from Carleton in 1953 with a bachelor of science degree. After learning of a similar program at McGill University in Montreal, Glavin put the idea forward here.
Glavin says the program promotes an interest in learning throughout life.
“It’s purely for the love of learning, that’s all.”
Three separate seminars are scheduled to run for six weeks each, starting in early October. The subjects are life in the year AD 1, 20th century film, and nuclear waste management in Canada.
Gary Shaver, assistant director of Carleton’s alumni association, says the seminars are not for credit, and there will be no homework.
“They’re purely for the enjoyment of the participant,” he says.
At $45 per seminar, the courses are affordable, but Shaver says the seminars are not a low-cost alternative to degree programs, for which seniors now pay tuition fees.
Carleton University used to let seniors study for free, but began charging them tuition fees last May, saying the university could no longer afford it.
Bruce McFarlane, a member of the task force and a retired sociology professor, is in charge of finding professors to teach the seminars.
He says the participants do not need to know much about the specific subjects.
“We’re looking for the intelligent lay person to come,” he says.
But not everybody is happy about the new seminars.
Peter Harcourt, 69, will be teaching several of the seminars on film.
Harcourt retired at 65, though he still wanted to teach. He says the university did not recognize his ability to teach once he became a senior.
Harcourt says he thinks the university sees the seminars as entertainment.
“I’m not taking this very seriously. I was sort of coerced into it. I’m doing it as a favour to Bruce (McFarlane).”
McFarlane says the seminars are a way for seniors to stay busy, learn something new, and be a part of discussions on various subjects.
Nobody knows how many people to expect for each seminar, so it will be difficult to judge the program’s success.
But for seniors like Glavin, who will be taking the seminar on the year AD 1, the new program is already a success.