By Ken Witty
“I was looking for a place to take some courses, and I found a whole community of fellow students and friends.” That was a year and a half ago when I joined The New School’s Institute for Retired Professionals (IRP). For 45 years I was a television producer at news and public affairs broadcasters such as CBS News and PBS. Now I am one of some 300 members of a pioneering lifelong learning group that has changed the lives of many retirees. The IRP serves three generations of retirees ranging in age from the mid-50s to over 90. 60% of members are women and 40% are men.
There are no tests or papers but when you attend classes, called study groups, you better be prepared to speak up and know what you are talking about. Study groups are run as seminars with no more than 25 students and are led by the members themselves. These members are all ex-teachers, professors, lawyers, doctors, businesspeople, social workers, and journalists who are committed to lifelong learning and sharing what they’ve learned with fellow retirees.
Each semester member-coordinators lead some 35 study groups in subjects such as Greek Drama, Slavery, Early Japanese Literature, Classics of Science Fiction, and The Changing U.S. Economy. Study groups last 12 weeks during Fall and Spring semesters and meet once a week for an hour and a half. (The summer session is 6 weeks long.) The annual fee is $980 for two semesters.
“Being in a study group with fellow students with loads of life experience is way different and a hell of a lot more interesting than my memories as an undergraduate,” stated ex-lawyer Michael Switzer who retired eight years ago and is now fully engaged with three courses a semester.
In addition to classes, the IRP offers a full range of cultural, social, and public service activities. There’s a Special Interest Group that tours museums and private art collections, another that goes to concerts and music halls, and a third that meets to discuss current plays. There are IRP trips to New Orleans, Boston, Washington D.C. and abroad; lunches for members with common interests like chess or Italian; and a men’s group that discusses personal issues and bans typical guy talk about sports and politics.
The IRP’s Fridays@ONE hosts a series of lectures open to the general public about current affairs, the arts, and other compelling topics. Tuesdays with Friends offers a chance for IRP members to hear about issues close to the hearts of member speakers. There’s also an annual art show of members’ works and an online literary magazine that showcases members’ stories, poems, and photographs.
The IRP also provides opportunities for public service by encouraging members to serve as English conversation partners to New School foreign students, mentors to New School aspiring professionals, and online teachers to home-bound seniors. “As part of The New School, we want to be an integral part of a vibrant university in the middle of Greenwich Village and do our part to be helpful where we can,” says Executive Director Michael Markowitz, who has overseen the IRP for more than two decades.
The IRP is part of a growing movement of lifelong learning efforts that exist all over the country, but The New School program was the first. Fifty-three years ago, a group of female high school teachers began this program to keep learning in a peer-to-peer setting and retain their teaching skills into retirement. Today, with the baby boomer generation retiring at a record rate, programs like the IRP give seniors an opportunity to keep their minds sharp and make new friends in a community of scholars. “I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have the IRP,” says former scientist Eva Vogel, echoing the sentiments of many New School colleagues.
