Saskatoon senior citizens go back to school

By Michelle Boulton

Willi Braun, a U of S professor emeritus of geological sciences, teaches a class of seniors during a recent field trip to Cypress Hills in southwest Saskatchewan.

Photo courtesy of Saskatoon Seniors Continued Learning (SSCL)

Modern senior citizens do not go gentle into that good night. They are active, inquisitive and keen to continue challenging themselves. For many, retirement finally provides an opportunity to pursue lifelong dreams and interests.

The U of S Extension Division is helping many seniors realize their desire for a more interesting retirement by providing learning opportunities. In co-operation with Saskatoon Seniors Continued Learning (SSCL), the division offers non-credit courses for people 55 and older.

SSCL began as Saskatoon Seniors Cultural and Creative Studies in 1982. The name was changed in 1995. The organization’s prime objective is to promote and participate in academic studies at the University of Saskatchewan.

Seniors courses that are co-sponsored by SSCL and the U of S are offered to members. In addition to the $5 annual membership fee, students pay $30 for each class.

Each year, 19 courses are offered over three terms: fall, winter, and spring. Subjects range from astronomy to history to music appreciation. No specific educational background or prior knowledge of the subject matter is required.

Participants are from a cross-section of society, from retired faculty to housewives who have never attended a university class in their lives. “Our backgrounds are all so different, but all very interesting. Meeting each other is a real bonus,” says Doreen Kirby, a retired school teacher and president of SSCL.

“These seniors take courses for the sheer love of learning,” says Bob Cram, Program Director, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Seniors in the Extension Division. “It’s not to get a credential, or to launch themselves on their lifelong careers. So, they have quite a different attitude.”

For the instructors, teaching such a captivated audience is very satisfying. Willi Braun, a U of S professor emeritus of geological sciences, says the seniors are “magnificent to teach because they speak from their own life experiences. Their concerns and interests are very different than those of young students.”

Braun has been teaching the seniors for about 10 years. Although he says teaching regular university classes no longer holds any appeal for him, he loves teaching the seniors. “I get as much out of the courses as the students, if not more,” he says.

Instructors have a lot of freedom in planning these non-credit courses. There are no assignments or exams, so there is no need to follow a textbook.

“For the first time, I feel like I can teach the way university was meant to be,” says Braun. “I can direct the course in whatever way I, and they, like. And there is no need to test their understanding. If they enjoy it, that’s all that’s important. The whole point is to educate and illuminate people.”

Although the Extension Division cannot pay very much for instructors – $800 for each course – it has no trouble finding people to take the jobs. In fact, Bobbi Mumm, Program Coordinator, says she has a waiting list.

“They actually come knocking on my door because they’ve heard from colleagues what a wonderful experience it is to teach the seniors,” she says.

Cram realizes these courses are significantly less work than teaching a three credit unit course – two hours per week for eight weeks as opposed to three hours per week for 13 weeks – but he would like to be able to pay the instructors more. The bottom end for a sessional lecturer teaching a half class is about $4,265.

“We are currently negotiating with SSCL to charge them more [now $950/course] because we feel quite guilty about what we pay the instructors – although we have no trouble attracting instructors and no one has ever complained about the amount we pay,” he says.

Ellen Black, a sessional lecturer with the Department of Languages & Linguistics, says she doesn’t teach the seniors for the money as much as for the joy of teaching them.

“The students contribute to the discussion a great deal and I love that input. I always learn something myself,” she says.

While Braun has a career’s worth of material at his disposal and doesn’t need to prepare very much for his classes, Black admits that she has to do a lot of preparation for her German classes. “I don’t have to mark papers or prepare tests, but I prepare a lot of hand outs, and overheads, and so on. I’m not complaining though, because I love doing it for these students.”

The lecturers are also appreciated by their students. Kirby, who is a U of S alumna, says, “They must hand-pick our professors, because we don’t seem to get any of those boring ones we used to have when I went to university.”

She talked two of her friends into taking classes with her, and now they never miss a term. “Neither has much formal education and they were leery about joining, but they soon found they loved the opportunity,” says Kirby. “They make me feel like Santa Claus.”

In addition to formal classes, SSCL co-ordinates two learning excursions each year: a day-trip, which they co-ordinate on their own, and a three-day trip organized by the Extension Division. Trips are limited to 50 people and there is always a waiting list.

In August 2003, Professor Braun escorted a tour called South by South-West. The group visited Scotty the T-Rex, the Cypress Hills, the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa, and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.

Kirby, who is a freelance travel writer, likes travelling with the SSCL group. “I just don’t get all that extra information when I travel on my own.”

Mumm, who dedicates about 80 per cent of her time to the co-ordination of the SSCL program, finds this level of enthusiasm inspiring. “It gives me great hope for my own retirement years when I see these people who are so energetic and their minds are so sharp,” she says.

Mary Kay Falby, a member of Saskatoon Seniors Continued Learning (SSCL), enjoys a visit to Eastend’s dinosaur museum during a recent learning excursion to southwest Saskatchewan.

Photo courtesy of SSCL

Tuition-free credit courses available for seniors

If seniors want to venture beyond non-credit classes, the U of S has a tuition-free policy for people over 65 registering for credit courses on a part-time basis. Seniors may register without paying tuition fees only between the first day of classes and the deadline for adding classes in that term.

Bob Cram, Program Director, Humanities, Social Sciences and Seniors in the Extension Division says a lot of universities introduced these tuition-free policies for seniors about 20–25 years ago, and while many of these have very quietly done away with these policies, the U of S has not.

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