THOUSAND OAKS : At 80, Sharing Treasures of Life’s Lessons

Sharon Smith usually teaches a class of senior citizens at Thousand Oaks Residential Care Home, but the teacher recently sat among the students so one of the convalescent home’s residents could take the podium.

Smith, who comes to the facility weekly to run activities aimed at improving communication skills, yielded the floor to a student who served as a weather forecaster in the U.S. Navy during the 1940s. In the past, the convalescent home’s residents have agreed to teach lessons on English literature and other topics.

“It’s a way of getting the residents involved in sharing their own experiences,” Smith said.

Muriel Brown, 80, conducted experiments and discussed meteorology during her one-day stint as head of the class. Not only did her students learn, but Brown got a boost in self-esteem, Smith said.

Brown taught the elderly students about air pressure by burning away the oxygen in a bottle with a match. Because the pressure inside the bottle was less than the pressure outside the bottle, a soft-boiled egg at the bottle’s opening was pushed inside.

The class cheered wildly.

“I didn’t know you had all that mental capacity,” Pauline Hillman, a resident of the home, told Brown.

Later, Brown dazzled the audience again by mixing vinegar and baking soda inside the bottle to produce a fizzing gas that shot the egg back out of the narrow chute.

But not every experiment worked. Employees at the home said they suspected that a demonstration of the effects of density failed because the salt Brown added to water may have actually been a salt substitute from the kitchen.

“They say you learn more by things that don’t happen right, so I’ve learned quite a lot today,” Brown said.

Brown served as a Navy lieutenant for several years during World War II, she said. She received her master of arts at UCLA in meteorology and a master of science at Oregon State University in meteorology.

Glennie Hartzell, a resident of the home, said Brown’s presentation was wonderful.

“I like the fact that I know a lot more now than I did before I started,” Hartzell said.