Lifelong learners back on campus

Earlier this month, the cafeteria in the University of Alberta Education building was buzzing with chats on film techniques, Canadian foreign policy, Roman history - and Dean Martin.

More than 250 'older adults' were back at the U of A for the three-week Edmonton Lifelong Learners Association (ELLA) program which ran from May 1-19 at the U of A campus. Each year, ELLA offers a banquet of classes, ranging from geology to urban ecology and management. Myrna Grimm spent her mornings listening to classical music in teacher Robert Klakowich's Mozart's World class before heading down the hallway to Larry Pratt's class, Philosophers of War.

"It's a great way to start your morning. The music clears your head before you take on the heavier subject matter," said Grimm.

ELLA is a volunteer organization in partnership with the U of A that offers a variety of non-credit courses to adults 50 years and older in liberal arts, fine arts, science, and the humanities, as well as emphasizing physical and mental well being. "Well, we say it's for 'older adults,' but I don't know that we've ever turned anyone away," chuckled Marg Stephen, an ELLA student and chair of ELLA's program committee.

The program has been volunteer-run for more than five years, with volunteers choosing classes and teachers for each year's sessions. Students pay a $20 membership fee and a $185 registration fee, which entitles them to take as many as five classes, plus sessions with Writer-In-Residence Caterina Edwards. There are also lunch hour keynote speakers, who address topics from animal-assisted therapy to how to communicate effectively with your doctor to, yes, Dean Martin.

"We try to provide as wide a variety of courses as we can to appeal to a wide audience," Stephen said. "Music has always been a popular component of our programming, as has the literature and visual arts."

But one of the biggest selling points of the ELLA classes is the friendships that are built over the three-week period. "You can take one course on the weekends and then you just disappear afterwards, but I think that when you've set aside three weeks to take part in something like this, you really build camaraderie."

Allison Wells, Grimm's classmate in the afternoon Ballroom Line Dancing class, would agree. ELLA classes led to her participation in weekly discussion sessions on Greek literature and political sciences to a group of fellow dancers who get together for regular lunches.

"The discussions can get quite heated," she laughed. "But it's very invigorating."

And that's the point of the whole thing, said Stephen.

"It doesn't matter what your age or physical abilities are, if your brain is working and stimulated, it keeps you out of Medicare and out of the health-care system," she said. "It's just good for you."