SAGE Advice on Keeping an Active Mind

Among the students flocking back to school this week are a few who have walked this path before.

Ph.D’s and law degrees were among the credentials represented at the opening meeting of the Study, Activity, Growth and Enrichment (SAGE) Society, a learning-in-retirement program that provides informal classes on history, economics, literature and current events. Located in Granada Hills, the program is coordinated through Cal State Northridge, and serves seniors from throughout the San Fernando Valley.

“Some people retire, vegetate and die,” said 69-year-old Frank Levin, one of 100 students who crowded Friday’s open house. “If you don’t stay active you are in deep yogurt.” Levin, a retired Encino defense worker, said he was thinking of signing up for some history classes.

“I’m becoming stale,” said Hal Garfield, 80, a retired lawyer. “I’m losing my vocabulary. . . . It’s getting boring. That’s why I’m here.”

The two-hour-per-week classes, held in a Granada Hills church, are lead by group members rather than teachers, said SAGE founder Morris Cutler. The classes are conducted in the form of discussion groups. Each of the about a dozen pupils in a class will conduct their own research, and then lead one session. This fall’s classes, available for $200 per year for individuals, $300 for couples, include subjects such as Latin American literature, contemporary China and French history.

“People who stay mentally active live longer and have fewer physical or emotional problems,” said Cutler, who formed the group seven years ago after participating in a similar program at UCLA.

“We aren’t sitting around waiting for life to go by,” he said.

Frank Coony, 69, of Simi Valley is returning for his fifth year with SAGE. “It just makes you hungry for more and more,” he said.