Back to School

(2 of 2)

Kerrigan says he's glad so many seniors are finding rejuvenation in scholarly work. "There were zero opportunities for my parents' generation," he says. "This is a new phenomenonthis sort of thing just simply didn't exist until recently. It's an outgrowth of lengthened life spans and intellectually engaged seniors."

At Lasell, just a few doors down from Kaplan, Rosalind Meshekow, 84, diligently reviews her Spanish vocabulary. "I don't learn as fast as I used to," she says, "but since meals and housekeeping are taken care of for us here, I have more time to study." Flash cards in hand, Meshekow is struggling with a new list of words. She cares less about boosting her 2.9 gpa than about learning to communicate with the Spanish speakers around her. Unlike most of her fellow retirees who already have degrees, Meshekow, a former secretary, is working toward her first college diploma. She says she's attended 15 different schools over the course of her life, but this is the first time she's set her sights on completing a program. "I hope to make it before I'm 90," Meshekow says, noting that her slow pace — two courses a semester — might delay her graduation.

There's a benefit in all this for the younger college students too. Caitlin Fraser, 20, is a third-year history major at Lasell who shares a class with Kaplan. There are 20 undergraduates and four senior citizens in their seminar on 20th century American history. Fraser says her retiree classmates dress oddly — in waffle shirts, sweaters and suspenders — but they remind her of her grandparents. "It's cool that they took part in the marches in the 1960s and were actually a part of some of the history we're studying," says Fraser. Her only complaint is that it's frustrating sometimes to repeat things when Kaplan hasn't heard her correctly. In his defense, Kaplan says the younger classmates "talk much too fast and too quietly, and they don't enun-ciate clear-ly," he says, pronouncing each syllable precisely. But both sides say the courses are enriched by their different perspectives.

Putting the finishing touches on his Updike paper, Kaplan is proud that he and one of his classmates will be presenting their five-page papers in front of the 24-person class the next day. "These are the challenges that keep us alive, keep us thinking," he says. For Kaplan and countless others, learning and sharpening the mind is the key to a happy retirement. It allows them to contribute to the dialogue of everyday life in a meaningful way. "We're lucky to be learning," says Kaplan, "but right now the thought of exams really stresses me out."