The mission of lifelong learning differs from traditional education. In traditional education there is an end goal in mind, competencies to be demonstrated, material and skills to be mastered and eventual translation of that knowledge and skill into a profession. Lifelong learning is designed to engage older adults in pursuits for personal growth, the sharing and building of knowledge, and to increase opportunities for socialization and connection. In our particular program, the emphasis on peer directed and peer led discussion and exploration empowers the learners to set their own agenda, design and deliver their own content.
In my former profession, as a social service program manager, there was a great deal of lip service given to “strength based” approaches to service delivery. Unfortunately my repeated experience was the opposite, where only deficit based approaches were rewarded with funding (there had to be a problem that needed to be fixed in order for services to be funded.) Lifelong learning allows me the opportunity to truly work in a strengths based environment. Each student is assumed to have valuable contributions to make, and learning goes beyond understanding, to engagement in critical thinking. So, the bottom line is that I don’t have a “teaching” philosophy; I have a “learning” philosophy in which there are facilitators and participants, all of whom are responsible for contributing to, developing, and expanding their own learning.
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