Keeping the Mind Sharp After School Is No Longer Just for Children

Matthew Hersh

While some believe that life's lessons are what keeps the mind sharp, there are others who believe that keeping busy with life just might not be enough.

There are several programs in Princeton that offer continuing education for adults, from the Princeton Adult School to Princeton University's Community Auditing Program, but one relatively new program has slowly crept into the mix. Geared for seniors, although ostensibly open to anyone, the Evergreen Forum provides its students with enough activity to both keep the mind sharp, and keep the participants busy.

Sponsored by the Princeton Senior Resource Center, this "lifelong learning institute" (LLI) is now entering its sixth year.

"What we've done is we've got our own little university now," said Judith Pinch, who co-chairs the organization with her husband, Harry.

A very small liberal arts college perhaps ‹ but with 150 students enrolled for the upcoming semester, the program has grown 300 percent and ballooned from four to 14 course offerings.

Originally confined to class space at the Suzanne Patterson Center, the Evergreen Forum has branched out to various locations in the community. And while the University's Community Auditing Program offers a chance for non-University affiliates to sit in on world-class lectures, no interaction is allowed ‹ something that could make programs like Evergreen Forum even more attractive.

"It's participatory, whereas the auditing program is not, so it fills a niche," said Edith Jeffrey, a vice chair of Evergreen's steering committee and the leader of the course "Doing Local History," which concentrates on oral history as a resource.

The courses are also peer-led, said Ms. Pinch. "Everybody who is leading the course is a citizen and a volunteer," but, she added, the courses include "experts from time to time."

Evergreen also stresses a "content-laden" curriculum, with subject matter focusing more on liberal arts than on foreign languages or trade classes that might teach practical skills. Course subjects range from "Science Tuesday on Thursday," which studies the pages of that week's New York Times Science Tuesday section, to "The Novels of William Faulkner." The courses are generally picked by soliciting the opinions of current students or surveying members of the community eyed by the steering committee.

Classes in history, music, and art, are also included in this year's curriculum.

LLIs are not revelations, but they have become more visible in recent years. According to AARP magazine, more than 200 similar programs opened between 1988 and 1999, with a total of around 1,000 in North America, about half of which are affiliated with a college or a university.

And while Evergreen is not associated with a University, some courses are conducted with the help of area professors. "Women in Culture and Society," for example, enlists professors from Princeton University, Rutgers University, SUNY, and George Washington University.

"The classes are the products of the people conducting them and not of a curriculum-devising body," Ms. Jeffrey said.

Ultimately, the courses go to promote community participation and social interaction. Several classes of past semesters, Ms. Pinch said, continue to meet on their own, though they are no longer formal units.

"Many people who have taken courses together over our five years have found some nice friendships," she said, adding it's a good way to keep the mind "ever green."

Most of Evergreen's courses begin in the last week in September and are listed on the group's Web site, www.TheEvergreenForum.org.