Learning Later, Living Greater: The Secret for Making the Most of Your After 50 Years
Posted on 04 April 2008
By Mark Miller
Permanent URL of this article: http://retirementrevised.com/retirement-planning-books/learning-later-living-greater-the-secret-for-making-the-most-of-your-after-50-years
The concept of brain fitness has caught fire lately, with much of the attention focused on a new breed of software programs and games that claim to help older people maintain mental acuity and blunt the cognitive decline associated with aging.
Nancy Merz Nordstrom is a bit of a skeptic. An expert on lifelong learning, she agrees that a challenged, stimulated brain is key to vibrancy in later life. She just prefers a real-world approach to the virtual.
“You can use mind software on your own-I don’t have any problem with it,” Merz Nordstrom says. “It’s just that you also need to get out of the house and stay active.”
Merz Nordstrom would be the first to admit that she’s biased on this topic; she’s the director of the Elderhostel Institute Network, an association whose members include many of the Lifelong Learning Institutes (LLI) around the country that run adult education programs.
She’s also the author of a well-regarded book on the benefits of adult learning, Learning Later, Living Greater: The Secret for Making the Most of Your After-50 Years. The book is a great resource guide to the range of adult learning options and a catalyst for getting started.
“It’s as simple as ‘use it or lose it,’” Nordstrom says. “If we want to do everything possible to keep our whole being alert, vibrant and connected as we age, we have to continue to challenge ourselves.”
