Back to the classroom

WRITTEN BY HANK GARFIELD

“I don’t know who I am,” Joni Mitchell sang in 1969, “but life is for learning.”

The Woodstock Generation that grew up on those words has aged into a population eager for educational opportunities. Yesterday’s young people want to keep learning new skills, languages, works of art and literature, discovery, and technology, into their eighties and beyond. What’s a still-curious senior to do?

The Bangor area is blessed with a plethora of choices.

The University of Maine is an “Age-Friendly University” or AFU – a member of a worldwide network started by Dublin City University in Ireland; Strathclyde University in Glasgow, UK; and Arizona State University in 2015. It has grown to include educational institutions around the world. The University has signed on to the 10 core AFU principles, the first of which is “To encourage the participation of older adults in all the core activities of the university, including educational and research programs.”

It’s not a novel idea. Full disclosure: I teach in the English Department at UMaine; I have had several older students in my classes, and as I continue to teach as a senior myself, I appreciate them more with every year. The fourth AFU principle is: “To promote intergenerational learning to facilitate the reciprocal sharing of expertise between learners of all ages.”

Back in 2002, a group of retiring UMaine professors got to talking about how they had always wanted the time to take each other’s classes. The result was Penobscot Valley Senior College. Today, PVSC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run by volunteers, dedicated to providing stimulating, enjoyable, and accessible learning opportunities for Mainers 50 years of age and older.

The emphasis is on stress-free learning, with no grades or tests. Courses are non-credit but in-depth and interesting. Affiliated with the UMaine Center on Aging, PVSC is one of 17 Senior Colleges in the state, each offering individual courses available to students at any of the 17 participating colleges.

Courses for seniors are offered online, via Zoom, or in a hybrid format which may include a class meeting or two but also remote learning and interaction. For more information, contact Penobscot Valley Senior College by calling (207) 659-1359, emailing admin@pvscmaine.org, or visiting pvscmaine.org.

For older adults who may have trouble navigating all the “interfaces,” Bangor Adult Education offers a series of online classes called BoomerTech Adventures. The courses consist of self-paced videos, with instructions laid out in a class booklet that comes in a printable PDF document. Three instructors are available for personalized support via phone, e-mail, and Zoom. 

Classes cover a wide range of prosaic subjects: iPhone basics; How to organize photos and e-mails; Editing and forwarding messages, and so on. Learn more at boomertechadventures.com.

Bangor Adult & Community Education also offers in-person classes to adults of all ages who want to learn practical skills. More full disclosure: My partner and I took a carpentry class a few years ago and built a new set of front steps. Many of these classes are in the evening, once a week, convenient for working adults.

“We offer a wide variety of enrichment classes for adults,” said director Greg Leavitt. “Categories include art and music, gardening, dance, fitness and health, language, financial, and technology. Some of our classes are eligible for senior citizen discounts.”

For more information, call Bangor Adult & Community Education at  (207) 941-6316 or visit maineadulted.org.

The Bangor Public Library offers free, in-person computer technology classes once a month, usually on the second Wednesday of the month, in the afternoon. The topics of the next class are posted in the library’s newsletter and website. Advance registration is encouraged. For more about these offerings,

call (207) 992-6055 or visit bangorpubliclibrary.org.