On a perfect late summer day in September, I found a parking place in the “Cherry” lot at Northwestern Michigan College, grabbed my legal pad, pens and other paraphernalia, and walked over to Scholars’ Hall where I took a seat in the Introduction to Philosophy class. Previously, I had applied and been accepted, registered and paid my fees. So, here I was in college. Again. Third time.

My first trip through the halls of ivy didn’t start until I was 40. Some semesters I took as many as three classes while working full time on a swing shift. Between my schedule and class availability, it took me nearly five years to get an associates degree in Criminal Justice.

My second foray into higher education came after I retired early from a career in law enforcement. That time I only worked part-time (but at two different jobs) and managed to complete my paralegal studies degree in the regular two years.

In the years since then, I have availed myself of a number of NMC’s fine non-credit classes. Gardening. Genealogy. World Religions. Tibetan Music. The philosophy class, however, is for college credit.

This class is also a stepping stone. It was a condition of my acceptance into a distance learning masters’ program in theology. That program begins with online orientation in October. Actual classes begin in early November and conclude with a two-week, on-campus intensive in January.

I’m still amazed (and grateful) that I was accepted into this program. Given my age (I refuse to use the term ’senior citizen’) and career goals (or more accurately the absence of career goals), I would not have been surprised to have been passed over in favor of someone in their 40s, for instance, preparing for a mid-life career change or a post-retirement second career.

There are about two dozen of us in this philosophy class. Hands down I am the oldest. Most of the students, in fact, are in the traditional college age bracket. There is one 30ish looking young man. The first day of class, we were listing the attributes of a wise person when one student offered, “grey hair,” to which I replied, “in that case, that would make me the wisest person in the room.”

In my case, I don’t particularly regret not following the traditional path of college right after high school. I learned a lot in the school of hard knocks and from reading on my own. During my years in police work, I was able to attend a lot of seminars and training sessions on many topics. I also kept up a Basic Emergency Medical Technician’s license for some years.

What I do regret is the attitude, which has waned somewhat over the years, that “education” is a finite package. It is something you acquire in packets at designated times in your life, and in most cases it is done within your 20s. If I recall correctly, it was Alvin Toffler, who wrote “Future Shock,” who used the term “plug-in plug-out education,” advocating on-going formal education throughout life.

Neither of my grandfathers went beyond 8th grade. In the early part of the 20th century that was not uncommon. My maternal grandfather died when I was fairly small, but my paternal grandfather lived to be 97 years of age, well into my own middle years.

Grandpa Cub, as he was always called, was a model of a self-educated man. He was interested in just about everything. He had several careers: baking, insurance, farming. He was handy enough to build houses. He was fortunate enough to travel in his middle and later years. AND he read voraciously.

His reading was heavily in the areas of history, biography, exploration and science, especially botany. Of special interest were wild orchids. He was the discoverer of two Michigan orchids which were named after him. He became a master photographer.

He spent one winter in the last several years of his life (in between rabbit hunting and splitting wood for his fireplace) going through his extensive classical record collection and listening to each one. Another winter he got out the slides he had taken during his travels and revisited those trips one by one.

My aunt Mozelle, who is still winning tennis championships in her 80s, is another example of life-long learning. She has degrees in mathematics (I didn’t inherit a single of those genes!) and worked in computers when they still filled a large room. In her retirement years, she has taken a vast number of non-credit classes through her community college. Her favorite topics have been economics and genetics. She has also learned Spanish. She even went to Mexico last year for a two-week Spanish immersion class.

Perhaps it is because of this rich background that I look on education as a life-long learning process, and I think I am the better for it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Rose Street Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.