Lifelong learning in the community

It's lifelong learning season in Ottawa. My mailbox is stuffed with offerings from the local school board and community centres, with lifelong and learning boldly stamped on most brochures. This season, I'm tempted by the promise of Curry Rendeng in the Malaysian Cooking Part 1 class. The brochures don't seem to promote the real reason I enjoy these classes, which is to discover the often fascinating lives of the people in my neighbourhood through our shared interests. One neighbour is a regular in the spring bicycle repair class, which she uses to prepare for the annual MS bike tour; she also has MS. My ballroom instructor gave Richard Gere dancing lessons for Shall We Dance. The couple down the street met in a Cantonese class, each with a desire to learn their parents' mother tongue. Their Cantonese is still rusty, but they've been married for 15 years. Then again, caught up in definitions as I am, this may be in fact what they mean when they say "learning for life."

posted by: Shanta at 21:07 | link | comments
design, context, lifelong, learning