Learning later in life a pleasurable pursuit - lawrencecountycentennial.com

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

It’s never too late to learn something new.

Just ask Joseph “Bud” Weiser, who traded his basketball shoes for leotards after turning 40.

“I couldn’t run the court anymore,” Weiser said. “And in the back of my mind, I always wanted to get into dance.”

At the time he was living in Washington, teaching engineering and math at Centralia College. Weiser found the Johansen School of Ballet in the Yellow Pages, enrolled in a class and was hooked.

“It was just such great fun,” he said. “I just had such a marvelous experience.”

Dancing in public was the furthest thing from his mind. But two years later, Weiser found himself joining Ballet Northwest, a community dance company, where he performed for 10 years.

Weiser, who’s now 69 and lives in Keystone, is still dancing. He looks for whatever classes he can find â€" ballet, tap, Pilates, yoga, flamenco, Latin fusion â€" to keep him moving and improving.

“It kind of gets in your blood,” he said. “It’s just fun.”

For him and many other lifelong learners, education doesn’t end with graduation. Private instructors, universities, fitness centers and community education programs draw thousands of older adults each year. And that’s just in Rapid City.

Some are grandparents who have always wanted to learn to paint. Others, such as the tri-athletes who frequently enroll in swimming stroke improvement classes at the YMCA, want to build on the skills they already have. And some just like to learn, regardless of the subject.

Since Community Education of the Black Hills began in Rapid City in the 1980s, it has grown to include nearly 200 classes offered throughout the area. About 5,000 students each year â€" most of them women in their 30s to 70s â€" take courses in everything from cooking to finances to archery to local history.

The variety of courses amazes even Tammy Sellars, the program director. Computer and art classes are now offered alongside classes in identity theft and gold panning.

“It used to be I could pinpoint the popular stuff,” she said, but not anymore. For instance, one well-received class that was created by student request is “Meat 101: Identifying Cuts and Values.”

Many instructors are experts with years of experience. They see teaching as a way to give back to the community. Some even donate their fees back to the program, which is entirely supported by tuition.

Sellars is proud of the low fees.

“I can offer inexpensive classes for people from all walks of life,” she said. “Anyone can afford to take these classes.”

Vaudeth Oberlander has taken at least 10 community education classes over the past decade. She’s enrolled in courses on writing, cooking, finance, Islam â€" whatever strikes her fancy when she receives the biannual class catalog.

“I’m just one of those people that loves learning, and I love going to school,” she said. “Especially when you don’t have to take tests.”

This year, Oberlander, who is a Master Gardener, is teaching classes on perennial gardening and seed propagation. Most of her students have been women in their 40s, 50s or 60s. Some were new to the area. For them, Oberlander’s class was an opportunity to meet people with similar interests and learn about local growing conditions.

Sometimes learning requires courage. For Suzanne Looyenga Norton, taking swimming lessons at age 36 has been a spiritual journey.

Looyenga Norton has always feared the water. “I just kind of felt that sense of shame that I couldn’t swim,” she said, though sometimes she did venture in to the pool. “Whenever I would get up to my chest, I would start to hyperventilate and panic.”

It wasn’t until Looyenga Norton was married with children that she decided to confront her fears.

"I finally reached a point where I decided I can't live my life in fear," she said. "I felt convicted by that. Because

Jesus came to give us life and to give it abundantly."

It's been difficult, but she's made progress. After a year of lessons, she can stand in chest-deep water. She's working on putting her face in the water. She can even see where swimming could be fun.

Looyenga Norton plans to resume lessons after her third daughter arrives in May. Her older girls, ages 6 and 3, already are taking lessons. They've given her another incentive: She wants to know she could, if necessary, jump into water to save them.

Frances Seeley, the YMCA's aquatics director, understands completely. Her own mother learned to swim at age 49.

"She was scared to death," Seeley recalled. "She couldn't leave the ladder."

Seeley's mother had nearly drowned as a child, giving her a lifelong fear of water. When 2-year-old Frances tipped over in an inner-tube, her mother was too scared to venture into the water to save her - "and the water was knee-height to her," said Seeley, who was rescued by her

10-year-old brother.

Seeley and her siblings all learned to swim by age 6. "We didn't know she was afraid of the water until we could all swim," Seeley said.

Seeley's mother eventually reached her goal: to swim the length of the pool. Now a senior citizen, she takes water exercise classes where she can touch bottom.

"She doesn't want to swim laps," Seeley said. "Her goal was to get in and be comfortable."

About 30 adults, from teens to senior citizens, take the YMCA's beginning swimming classes each year.

"A child who's afraid is way easier to teach than an adult who's afraid," Seeley said. "I can look at a 5-year-old ... and he trusts me, once he knows me a little bit. He trusts me because I'm (an adult)."

With other adults, "You have to really, really earn their trust," she said. "And to earn the trust of somebody who's afraid takes a special person."

Julie McFarland has taught Weiser and many other adults at Academy of Dance Arts in Rapid City. She, too, said teaching adults is far different from teaching children.

"With adults, we do actually require more repetition," she said. "Our learning curve is not as steep as it was when we were little whippersnappers."

That sometimes requires that a teacher have more patience, but there is a trade-off.

"The adult classes are far more relaxed," McFarland said. "I don't have to worry about the structure for how to manage social skills. Those parts of the class make it just a joy for me, to be able to relate to them as individuals and not worry about side issues in class at all."

The Academy offers adult classes in ballet, tap and hip-hop when there's enough interest.

"We end up getting some very loyal clients, because once they find something that they like to learn, of course they're hungry to learn more of it," McFarland said. "My most common adult is one who maybe experienced a little bit of dance in childhood, and it's a hidden dream that they want to come back and explore it a little more."

Many are over 40. "In every class, I have at least two senior citizens," she said. "We have such interesting people involved in the classes."

Of course, a senior citizen can't physically do everything an 8-year-old can. But older learners generally have realistic expectations of themselves. They want to have fun and learn, McFarland said, "and it's that openness that's so delightful."

McFarland has noticed that she gets more calls about adult classes after shows like "Dancing with the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance" receive media attention.

"It reignites our spirit and our imagination, and just a calling," she said. "I feel like it's our inner child calling and saying, ‘Yoo hoo, listen to me; I'd like to try this.'"

Weiser, for one, is grateful he listened to that voice.

"I would have hated to miss that opportunity, because so many good things come from dance," he said. "It was one of my good decisions in life."

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.