Heading back to the classroom has long been popular as an enrichment activity in retirement. But   adult learning also can transform lives and lead to new careers. It’s also becoming clear that keeping the brain challenged is benefi cial to health and general well-being.

The concept of brain fitness has caught fire in recent years, with much of the attention focused on software programs and games that claim to help older people maintain mental acuity and blunt the cognitive decline associated with aging.

Learning activities stimulate the brain, producing benefits such as enhanced mental alertness, thought processes, response times, and reflexes. “When you look at the benefits gained from keeping your mind sharp, it’s incredible,” says Nancy Merz Nordstrom, one of the nation’s top experts on lifelong learning. “Lifelong learning is like a health club for your brain.”

Another important benefit is participation in a community of likeminded learners. “People come for the learning, but they stay for the community that they find,” says Judy Mann, director of the Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI) at Northwestern University’s School of Continuing Studies. “This gets more important as people unplug from connections professionally, because they can find like-minded people in learning communities.”

The landscape

Adult learners can choose from a very broad array of programs, including Lifelong Learning Institutes, continuing education, and educational travel.

Lifelong Learning Institutes. These are self-directed learning communities organized and run by members, most of whom are 50 or older. LLIs usually are operated under the auspices of a college
or university, and their numbers have grown rapidly in recently years, partly because of the work of the Bernard Osher Foundation, a California- based philanthropy that supports educational and arts programs.

Osher has funded a network of Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes at 120 colleges and universities around the country. The LLI movement is very bottom-up and member directed, and community is just as important as curriculum.

Continuing education. Career retrainers are fl ocking to community colleges and other postsecondary campuses for job training and career transformation. Community colleges trace their roots to training teachers and nurses in the early 1900s; they later accommodated World War II
veterans studying on the GI Bill and then expanded to offer a broader vocational curriculum as baby boomers went to college in the 1960s. Now community colleges are gearing up to help midlife adults retrain for an array of second careers. They’re focusing on fi elds such as teaching, health care, social services, and entrepreneurial start-ups. Civic Ventures has awarded grants to community colleges around the country to spur experimentation with new programs targeting midlife learners.

Educational travel. Elderhostel is the great-grandparent on the block. Started in the late 1960s, it was the country’s fi rst not-for-profi t educational travel organization and remains the largest, with more than 8,000 programs in 90 countries. Elderhostel adopted a new name for its travel programs in 2009-Exploritas-to address a problem the organization had marketing to baby boomers; the programs were a great fit with boomer interests, but that “E” word? Not so much.

Exploritas’ success has inspired other well-regarded educational travel organizations, some of which offer more specialized programs.4 For example, Elder-Treks takes 50-plus clients on adventure travel trips in more than 80 countries. Immersion programs abroad can help you gain fluency in the language of your choice. The Smithsonian Institution operates a large museum-based educational travel program, Smithsonian Journeys.

Blending education and travel can deepen your engagement with the places you visit. Like other forms of adult learning, it also provides a sense of shared community between you and other like-minded learners.

Resources

Elderhostel Learning Network offers an online database of LLIs that can be searched by zip code.

Institutes for Learning in Retirement These programs are usually are run by participants, who develop the curriculum, and teach the classes. More information is available at the Elderhostel site.

Public libraries Many have established resource centers for researching learning opportunities of all types.

OASIS Institutes This national non-profit learning network offers programs in 25 cities: / OASIS programs integrate educational, health and public service opportunities.

Bernard Osher Foundation Charitable foundation that funds institutions of lifelong learning.

Shepherd’s Centers of America. Network of interfaith community-based organizations that provide meaning and purpose for adults throughout their mature years.

SeniorNet Technology education for older adults.

Learning Later Author Nancy Merz Nordstrom publishes a useful web site about lifelong learning. She is 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.