Learning to Use Generation Gap

More than 300 senior citizens have been lured back to the classroom in a new program at Pierce College that aims to mix inquisitive 60-somethings with energetic 20-somethings to create an intellectual stew that would bridge the generational divide.

Although it is too early to know if the program, called Encore, will meet its goals, it is already stimulating seniors who have been absent from the college classroom for more than 40 years--or were never in it. They are enrolling in classes designed to explore subjects in relation to how they affect older adults.

“I just wanted to stay active,” said retired Pacoima teacher Frances Goldsmith, who attends classes five days a week. “My husband says I’m busier now than when I was working.”

Similar programs have been in place at other community colleges in California for years, and officials say they help campuses achieve their mission of educating the entire community.

“To not do so would be negligent,” said Pierce President Rocky Young.

Young has proposed building dormitories on campus that would house both senior citizens and fresh-out-of-high-school students to encourage camaraderie and collegiality. The idea is part of the college’s proposed master plan, which is scheduled to be considered for approval in December by the Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees.

“It’s my personal belief that it’s a worthy experiment for us to become the first community college with a senior residential program,” Young said. “It’s worthy and plausible.”

Although some seniors may be finding it strange to be on a college campus, others say it gives them an opportunity to absorb what they missed the first time around.

“I just didn’t appreciate the value of Shakespeare at 15 or in college, when I thought it was just a bunch of mumbo jumbo,” said Mimi Williger, 70, of Northridge, who takes a class titled “Shakespeare Without Tears.” “Now I enjoy it immensely, and I can’t wait to get to class.”

Retired professors from USC and field experts teach the Encore courses, which are free to seniors accepted into the program. In “Our Relationship to the Mass Media,” Milton Wolpin, an associate professor emeritus from USC, teaches students to look skeptically at how Medicare, Social Security and other public policies are covered by the media. Another course probes “sexual activity issues confronting older men and women.”

Young introduced the idea of classes for senior adults last year, shortly after he arrived on the Woodland Hills campus. As a vice president at Santa Monica College, he had grown accustomed to seeing older students in the school’s Emeritus College program.

Young enlisted the help of Oasis--a nonprofit senior services agency based in West Los Angeles that sponsors classes in donated storefronts and community centers throughout the city--to design Encore. The goal is to increase Encore enrollment to 500 by the end of the school year, Young said. Pierce’s total enrollment is 14,700.

Victoria Neal, citywide director of Oasis, said people are living longer and want to make the most of their post-retirement years.

“It’s not like our grandparents’ generation,” Neal said. “People don’t want to veg out and play bingo until their lives run out.”

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Most program participants live in the western San Fernando Valley, which raises the question: Who would be willing to move from their own homes to dormitory apartments surrounded by Kid Rock-blasting 20-somethings?

“At some point in time, many older adults feel they would like to downsize,” said Susan Aminoff, a Pierce gerontologist and coordinator of senior education. “They start thinking about the big home in the Valley that has been appreciated so greatly--maybe they can do something else with that equity. Maybe they can enjoy some other activity while their health is good.”

Others said the apartments could attract seniors on fixed incomes if the Pierce housing were subsidized.

Annette Paul, a 76-year-old retired office manager, said the program would have to be well-established to convince her to move from her subsidized housing in Reseda.

“I can’t take the risk,” Paul said. “I’d have to know it was going to work out well for a long time before I give up my apartment. I’m too old to have to look for a place to live out here.”

For now, students acknowledge the effort to encourage cross-generational friendships has a long way to go. Older students generally hit campus, make a beeline for their classroom and mingle with each other.

Yet Paul said she enjoys her occasional chats with younger students, who ask, “What are so many old people doing on campus?”