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Mostly Cloudy Seniors head back-to-school, too
Local adults can choose among a number of continuing education classes
As Rockville Centre’s children head back to school, Ronald Hailparn is enjoying his month off from class.
The 83-year-old Rockville Centre resident just finished off the summer session in the Personal Enrichment in Retirement (PEIR) program at Hofstra University, and is looking forward to relax before the next session begins in October.
"The month of September we’re off. That’s our school vacation," said Hailparn, a 15-year-long PEIR member who was elected chairman of the program in May. "And we actually have some members who can’t stand it. So we have a former college professor who runs a seminar one day a week during vacation. But I’m going to play golf."
Hofstra’s PEIR program is just one of a growing number of continuing education programs—classes for seniors to keep them learning and their minds growing, just without the tests. PEIR members, which number almost 200, come to the Hofstra campus from all over Long Island to teach each other and keep their minds active and their social circles growing.
"The PEIR program is a program for education of seniors who have retired and who are not willing to sit around and watch television for the rest of their lives," Hailparn said. "We do our own teaching—occasionally we’ll have a Hofstra professor who’s kind enough to give us a presentation or a talk about a subject, but mostly our own members prepare and deliver presentations to the group."
For their lessons, PEIR members choose a topic that interests them, but they don't necessarily already know a lot about. They then take time researching that topic in depth, and eventually host a lecture on it to their fellow PEIR members.
"[The lecture is about] any subject which you have an interest in but you never had the time or the ability to develop any expertise in before," said Jack Hollenberg, also 83, and also of Rockville Centre. Hollenberg was elected the PEIR program's vice-chairman in May.
"Although you’re not ever considered an expert, most of us develop a degree of expertise in which we have much more knowledge of the subject than anyone else in the organization," he said.
