$18,000 worth of college courses for the price of a parking pass and a lab fee even though I have my own darkroom. I tell you about this, not to brag that I have found something someone else did not, but to say look what is out there, possibly for you when you reach that age. This may be available to you as well as me. Fellow Apugger Bob Curtis has started taking courses in the same program.
For reasons that have not been made clear to an obvious beneficiary, the state of Ohio USA wants people over the age of sixty to take courses at state funded colleges wherever there are available classroom seats. I am 70 and have taken seventeen photography and one art history course since I retired in 2003. I followed my best man’s footsteps, who partied out of college when he returned from the Korean War and has now taken painting and sculpting courses for 14 years. We celebrated his 80th birthday in January.
You may say that you are not 60 or even close, but I suggest that retirement plans should be considered long before that age. You may say that John is a slow learner having to take 17 photography courses. I look at the courses as nearly free on going workshops. They are long enough that the project is not ruined by an equipment malfunction. I love the pressure that exists of critiques every two weeks. You benefit from young intense minds, both student and instructors.
I am doing this not to get a degree. I earned that 45 years ago. I am doing this to learn more about the hobby that has always interested me and to continue keeping my mind active in my retirement. President Obama has stressed that everyone who can should get more education. The state of Ohio, very low in the national education standards lists, offers this in any course study, not just art related. Do other states offer it? I don’t know, but if I lived somewhere else I would be looking. When this comes up in conversation it proves to be a surprise to most of the senior Ohioans I meet. Is it possible you are missing a superb benefit available where you live?
John Powers
For reasons that have not been made clear to an obvious beneficiary, the state of Ohio USA wants people over the age of sixty to take courses at state funded colleges wherever there are available classroom seats. I am 70 and have taken seventeen photography and one art history course since I retired in 2003. I followed my best man’s footsteps, who partied out of college when he returned from the Korean War and has now taken painting and sculpting courses for 14 years. We celebrated his 80th birthday in January.
You may say that you are not 60 or even close, but I suggest that retirement plans should be considered long before that age. You may say that John is a slow learner having to take 17 photography courses. I look at the courses as nearly free on going workshops. They are long enough that the project is not ruined by an equipment malfunction. I love the pressure that exists of critiques every two weeks. You benefit from young intense minds, both student and instructors.
I am doing this not to get a degree. I earned that 45 years ago. I am doing this to learn more about the hobby that has always interested me and to continue keeping my mind active in my retirement. President Obama has stressed that everyone who can should get more education. The state of Ohio, very low in the national education standards lists, offers this in any course study, not just art related. Do other states offer it? I don’t know, but if I lived somewhere else I would be looking. When this comes up in conversation it proves to be a surprise to most of the senior Ohioans I meet. Is it possible you are missing a superb benefit available where you live?
John Powers
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