An Adult Learners Institute for Manchester?

After her husband died, lifelong Manchester resident Joan Gaughan was searching for something worthwhile to engage in. Her physician in Chelsea suggested she look into Chelsea’s Adult Learners Institute. She enrolled in a class and not only did it improve her life, but her experience has moved her to investigate building something similar in Manchester!

Several Manchester residents have become familiar with Chelsea’s Adult Learners Institute, but in case you aren’t, the courses are taught by local volunteers with expertise in their fields and the selection appeals to a wide variety of interests. This fall term, ALI’s offerings include Flower Pressing, Religious Issues in the Twenty-first Century, Native American History, Post-Impressionism and a film course entitled Hooray for Hollywood. Last winter, ALI courses included William Shakespeare, Garden Space Invaders, Western Civilization and Middle Eastern History.

ALI’s courses have one to six sessions, each normally lasting two hours. The teachers are unpaid but the enrollees in the classes pay from $10 to $25, based on the number of times the class meets, to cover the expenses of the course. No tax money goes to the program.

One option Gaughan is considering is to seek ways of expanding Chelsea’s ALI into Manchester, but because of the abundance of talent, intellect and skills that already exist here in the community, she and several other interested people are investigating starting up a new Manchester-based program aimed at all adults.

Gaughan stated, “Manchester would benefit in two ways: first, both for the volunteers who teach and for those who take the classes, there would be an enormous intellectual satisfaction in learning new things.  When we stop learning, two things happen: we get boring and second (and worse), we get bored.  That's not a human way to live. Secondly, we tend to meet new people.  And generally like them.  Thus, our social networks are enlarged.”

As a retired professor, Gaughan is more than qualified to head up this project. She received her doctorate in the British Empire from the University of Michigan in 1978. She taught history, primarily Western Civilization, at Washtenaw Community College for thirty years. Before that, she was a Peace Corps volunteer to Iran from 1964 to 1965.

Gaughan is looking ahead to fall of 2016 to start offering classes, but there is much work that needs happen beforehand. If you are interested in teaching a class, would like to suggest classes you’d be interested in taking, want to help with the budding organization by volunteering to be on the board of directors, curriculum or finance committees, or would help with technology or publicity please email Joan Gaughan at allgaughan@yahoo.com.

She explained, “An active physical and mental life after retirement (and obviously, before) not only prolongs life and health but makes it a lot more fun.”

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.