SOUTH BAY / COVER STORY : Keeping an Open Mind : Seniors who aren’t ready for the rocking chair are enrolling in a mini-college for retirees who still yearn to learn.

Ethel Allen doesn’t want any part of the bingo games and sing-alongs that stereotype many people’s retirements. She’d rather study Islamic culture or the science of chaos.

“They have senior citizens centers where they treat you like a baby and talk to you like you are 3 years old--so you begin to think that you are,” the 68-year-old Palos Verdes resident says.

To find more stimulating conversation, three years ago she joined a tiny South Bay study group that eventually developed into Omnilore, a mini-college for retirees that now meets at Knob Hill Community Center in Redondo Beach.

Part of a national trend that has seen the number of these mini-colleges triple in six years, Omnilore now has nearly 100 members. Increasingly, retired people, who are healthier and living longer than ever before, are forming groups that will provide companionship and intellectual stimulation.

“I think sitting around and doing nothing is very debilitating,” says Francis Meyers, president emeritus of the Assn. of Learning in Retirement Organizations of the West.

Meyers has participated in the UCLA Plato Society, one of the first retiree learning organizations, for 14 years. He says the group has been a crucial part of his life.

“It kept me alive, frankly. It’s kept my mind going. I am constantly studying, reading, discussing and teaching and so forth,” he says.

At Omnilore, the entire membership chooses six or eight themes by ballot. Each discussion group, usually eight to 15 members, studies one of those themes. The group has no teachers--members take responsibility for researching an aspect of the chosen theme. There are no tests or grades.

Members say the mini-colleges function at about the same level as graduate school courses.

Most Omnilore members put in 30 or more hours preparing for a half-hour presentation on each topic. Each group meets twice a month, and typically each meeting has two presentations.

It’s what the presentations stir up that members prize.

“What it comes down to is you want to get some good discussion going instead of lectures,” says Virginia Engstrom, 57, who recently took a course on human nature. Engstrom, retired from Xerox Corp., says she keeps active, going sailing with her husband and spending time with their grown children. But Omnilore helps her keep up to date on current topics.

Other members find the give-and-take in the group stimulating.

“If you have something controversial, that gets everyone hot under the collar, and you are so busy doing that, you don’t have time to be old--and that’s good,” says Allen, who takes time out from playing with the Palos Verdes Symphony Band and activities with the Great Books Foundation to study for Omnilore classes.

Besides the mental stimulation, the courses offer access to a group of people interested in many subjects.

“When you are working, you are surrounded by a peer group that is pretty much like you,” Engstrom says, adding that in retirement it’s harder to find people who have similar interests. “You do end up searching around for people that are like you.”

Participants also use the courses to learn about things they never knew much about.

“For me it’s a big catch-up,” says Burt Cutler, 80, who established and ran an educational products company. His firm created GeoSafari, an electronic learning device that’s sold all over the world. But because he was on a career track during high school and college, finishing his engineering degree as quickly as possible was his main concern. He says he skipped most of the courses in Western civilization.

“I never even knew the name Herodotus--let alone reading Herodotus,” Cutler says of the ancient Greek historian. Now he stays away from the courses that he knows anything about, preferring to fill in the gaps in his studies.

“I know 20 or 30 times what I knew five years ago,” Cutler says.

Allen says that because she was a music student in college, she stayed away from math and science, fearing it would bring her grade-point average down. But now, free of grades and tests, she relishes exploring new things.

She has read British physicist Stephen Hawking’s book “A Brief History of Time” and studied the science of chaos--the idea that mathematical order underlies what appear to be random phenomena.

For one of her presentations, Allen taught the class about Mobius strips--surfaces with only one side, formed by giving a half-twist to a narrow rectangular strip of paper and then pasting its two ends together. Mathematicians use the strips to prove that a three-dimensional object can have only one side.

“I’ve learned things I couldn’t imagine I would have done before,” Allen says.

Although the topics can sound intimidating, Omnilore members say the only thing a good participant needs to have is intellectual curiosity and a willingness to do the reading.

“I have ridden in taxis where I have thought I would like to bring the driver to Omnilore--it’s not their background but that they’re a thinker,” Cutler says. “All it really takes is a desire to read and to discuss and to grow.”

Few subjects are taboo among members. Although there are no hard-and-fast rules, Allen says, the group frowns on talking about grandchildren and ailments.

“We do that around the coffeepot, but we don’t do it around the discussion table,” she says.

In the three years since that first group met, they’ve had sessions on subjects such as John Naisbitt’s book “Megatrends,” humorous journalists, genealogy, the new Russia, London and famous economists.

Topics for this spring include the philosopher Nietzsche, the great composers, evolution and the Roman Empire.

For a course on human nature, Daryl Creighton, 66, recently gave a talk on the influence of Charles Darwin’s evolution theories on the development of political conservatism and liberalism. Standing at the chalkboard, he diagramed how political opinion split into two camps when Darwin’s theories became well known: the God-fearing who rejected his postulates and those who accepted evolution. Every few minutes, group members interjected with a question, criticism or comparison.

Having done a lot of presentations in his job as an engineer at McDonnell Douglas, Creighton easily fielded the remarks and kept the discussion moving. Part of that ease comes from knowing the subject. Facing a roomful of engineers, lawyers, teachers and other professionals keeps him on his toes, he says.

“These people are pretty sharp. You don’t want to put anything out there that you are going to get killed on,” he says.

And although they aren’t shy with their opinions, the groups don’t really get mad or yell, Creighton says.

Many of the retired professionals know how to run a meeting, but for some, facing a room full of critical thinkers can be intimidating.

“The new ones learn how to do a little bit of crowd control,” Engstrom says.

The give-and-take discussions form bonds among the participants, they say, and the deadlines for reading and informing the group keep them going. Engstrom says having specific meeting dates keeps her motivated and enthusiastic. “I have always really enjoyed researching things and learning new things. But I’m also like most people--a little on the lazy side.”

Omnilore got its start three years ago when Cutler mailed a flyer to members of the local League of Women Voters, inviting people to join a new organization. Cutler had been to meetings at UCLA’s Plato Society and liked the concept, but couldn’t face commuting to Westwood.

About 10 people came to the first sessions, which were held in private homes. Because the Middle East was in the news, the group’s first topic was Islam. A UCLA professor recommended a good reference text, and they were off and running.

Within a year they were ready to grow.

“In people’s homes it lacks a certain discipline--that’s dabbling,” says Allen. After consulting with UCLA’s Plato Society, which has offered the same type of seminars since 1980, the group approached Cal State Dominguez Hills for sponsorship.

Many of the retirees’ mini-colleges affiliate with colleges and universities. The schools offer their meeting rooms and audit the groups’ books. The participants pay $75 for one person and $125 for two, which covers the costs.

Omnilore is a member of the Elder Hostel Institute Network, which has supported retirement learning groups across the country since 1988. The institute started with 70 groups, and by their reckoning, there are more than 200 in the country today, says Jim Verschueren, the institute’s director.

After a few years with only discussion groups, typically the organizations branch out, Verschueren says. UCLA’s Plato Society allows some undergraduates to participate in sessions and get credit for it. Other groups invite the retirees to give lectures on their professional or life experiences.

Allen says she hopes that someday Omnilore will branch out as similar organizations have, and members will study alongside Cal State Dominguez Hills students.

“It’s nice for the young people to see that old folks are not doddering around on a cane,” she says.

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Omnilore: A Study Group for Retirees

Location: Knob Hill Community Center, Redondo Beach.

Cost: $75 for one person and $125 for two to attend eight to 10 study sessions.

Recent topics: Islam, humorous journalists, genealogy, the new Russia, London and famous economists.

Information: (310) 541-1397.