Learning with age: lifelong learning is not limited to senior colleges
Curiosity is an instinctive need of human beings, and in modern society, learning has become a lifelong need for everyone.
For some post-60s who want to recharge their studies in their later years, it is difficult to get admission to many elderly universities in many places, and the popularity is comparable to the "degree competition" of children.
"Difficulty in going to school" has become a regret for many "new and old people", and it has also aroused people's thinking: Is lifelong learning really only available in elderly universities?
A learning society, how to open more new windows to the "new and old"?
Register an account in advance and race against the clock
10 minutes in advance, the family of three refreshed together, and all the courses that could be selected were selected. After a lot of hard work, the 60-year-old Aunt Yan finally sat in the paper-cutting class of an elderly university in Shenyang.
"I originally wanted to take a calligraphy class, but it was too popular to take it. I could only take whatever class I had." Aunt Yan was helpless.
Aunt Xu didn't even have the "good luck" of Aunt Yan. At the same time, the whole family went to battle to help out, and she and her wife didn't grab a class.
"Students who haven't taken classes in this senior university before, need to register their personal information before entering the course selection channel. After I register, the degree has already been robbed, and they can only be robbed when the semester starts next year."
It has become the norm that a university for the elderly is hard to find, reflecting the general thirst for knowledge of "new and old".
Li Yuhuan, director of the training department of Tianjin Hexi District Cultural Center, told Banyuetan reporter that taking Hexi District Senior Citizen University as an example, the school offers 12 categories and more than 60 courses every year, and the number of students is stable at more than 1,500 throughout the year.
"All available classrooms are used, and all available classes are open, but during the admissions season every year, nearly half of the elderly in this district are still unable to enroll."
And those "new and old" who are lucky enough to get a degree and eager to enrich themselves have more new demands.
Taking the curriculum of the senior university as an example, most of them are art training such as piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and the teaching content is relatively simple, so that many seniors who participate in the study joke that it is better to call it "senior primary school" or "senior art school" instead of calling it a senior college. ".
Even if health courses are set up, they are mostly dubbed "health preservation" and "health care", lacking more systematic and in-depth scientific health education.
In order to meet the more refined learning needs of "new and old people" and the needs of receiving higher-quality education, many universities for the elderly have made dynamic adjustments to the course content. For example, the dance category is divided into classical dance, folk dance, Latin dance, Ballroom dancing, belly dancing, and calligraphy are also subdivided according to regular script, running script, and official script. In addition, Taijiquan, traditional Chinese medicine massage, mental health and other courses that are closer to life are also offered, and the teaching is classified according to the level of difficulty.
No regrets, no more lonely, no left behind
Wearing a rose-red trench coat, high heels, and a beret, 57-year-old Xing Yonggang has nothing to do with "old" at all.
A few years after retiring, this "Chinese aunt" has gone from being lost and empty at the beginning to gradually deciding on a new direction in life, living a fuller and more valuable life.
In her own words, "live a fuller and more nourished life".
Her change stemmed from joining the Ningxia Senior University Dance System.
"I didn't go to college when I was young, I wanted to make up for my regrets, and I liked dancing very much, so I chose the dance system."
This is not an exception. The reporter's investigation found that behind the "going to school fever" of the post-60s generation, there is a "compensatory psychology" caused by changes in society and the times.
Zhang Xuemin, president of the University for the Elderly in Fangshuihe Community, Hedong District, Tianjin, said: "In the process of growing up in life, some elderly people lack the conditions to cultivate their hobbies, and they are busy managing their livelihoods and serving their families. Now they have the opportunity to make up for their regrets. Everyone is very happy. high."
As a knowledge harbor, the University for the elderly is also a kind of psychological sustenance for the empty-nest elderly, the elderly living alone, and the "old drifters".
The 62-year-old Auntie Li told Banyuetan that she came to Tianjin from her hometown of Hebei three years ago to help her daughter bring her granddaughter. When you’re bored, you can only watch short videos.”
After signing up for dance and recitation classes at the University for the Elderly, Auntie Li not only had a place to go in her free time, but also had her own "circle of friends" in Tianjin, where she studied with her new acquaintances and bought vegetables together, "Not at all. lonely".
As the concept of lifelong learning has become more and more popular among the people, compared with young people living in a fast-paced life, the post-60s "new old people" have stronger learning motivation, and their willingness to learn without being left behind by the mobile Internet society is generally strong.
Xing Yonggang said: "Senior colleges teach teachers how to use smartphones, and we all work hard to learn by ourselves or with our children in private. Retirement is the end of our careers, but it is a new starting point in our lives. We cannot let ourselves be out of touch with the times. During the epidemic , the courses are all turned online, and we can all listen to the courses online by ourselves.”
Get through the "last mile" of senior education
On the one hand, there is the increasingly fierce "degree competition" in the universities of the elderly, and on the other hand, the "new and old" have a strong desire for knowledge and the unremitting pursuit of improving the quality of life in their later years.
The interviewees suggested that while increasing investment and expanding the supply of educational resources for the elderly, they could also rely on existing resources such as community party-mass centers and home-based elderly care centers to teach the elderly nearby, or guide social forces to join schools and encourage the elderly. People spontaneously organize schools, and they can also open up the "last mile" of senior education through "delivering classes to the door", and make concerted efforts to ensure that the "new and old" groups can learn from the old age.
Some localities actively promote the integration of resources such as community party-mass centers and home-based elderly care centers, make use of idle space, mobilize the enthusiasm of the elderly, and organize school-running activities spontaneously.
Zhang Xuemin introduced that before the establishment of the University for the Elderly, the elderly in the community spontaneously organized more than 10 interest activity teams, including dance teams, Tai Chi teams, and table tennis teams.
"At that time, everyone organized and taught themselves, and those who had the basics took care of those who had no foundation. That's how community colleges for the elderly were set up." Later, after applying to the street, two rooms were set aside in the community party-mass center. As the activity area of the senior university, everyone's activities are more regular and the sense of belonging is stronger.
Where conditions permit, it is also possible to promote the “delivery of classes to the door” of universities for the elderly, and to open “classes for the elderly” at the door of the elderly.
On February 10 this year, Yancheng Library of Jiangsu Province took the initiative to enter the local community to carry out the "Luming Silver Age Class", effectively solving the difficulties encountered by middle-aged and elderly readers in the application of intelligent technology, and helping middle-aged and elderly readers to cross the "digital divide" .
The class has set up an elementary course of "learning and enjoying life with wisdom" for middle-aged and elderly readers on smartphone application training.
Lao Liu, a community resident who participated in the training, said: "Through participating in the training, we learned the content of travel and online fraud prevention, which is very helpful."
In addition, activating grassroots talent capital can also serve as a useful supplement to senior education.
Nearly 30% of the residents of Fudongbeili Community, Hedong District, Tianjin are elderly people. Community secretary Xu Xiaoxian is familiar with mediation work, and makes use of her spare time and expertise to regularly combine hot issues related to law, property inheritance, maintenance obligations, etc. that are closely related to the elderly. Public lectures on legal issues are very popular.
In order to further broaden the horizon of knowledge and learn more and higher skills, online self-study through online courses has become a new choice for many "new and old people".
Ms. Yang, a 60-year-old citizen of Jilin, signed up for a Chinese opera course in an online learning software for middle-aged and elderly people. Each column has an audio guide, which is very convenient.
Ms. Yang told reporters that the introductory course she chose was free, and the upgrade course cost only 99 yuan for 3 months.
"The course can be viewed repeatedly, and the teacher is still commenting on our homework in the WeChat group. At the moment of the epidemic, choosing an online course is a peace of mind and peace of mind."
Lifelong learning is everywhere and everywhere.
A learning society is inseparable from the support of millions of learning families, and it is convenient for family members to help each other and learn from each other.
Wang Minzhi, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Shaanxi Normal University, believes that in the ever-changing digital society, digital feedback has become a two-way interaction between family generations.
The protagonists of digital backfeeding are children, whose family roles are transformed into "educators", and the parents who are backfeeding become "educated persons".
Digital feedback helps bridge the digital generation gap and helps the elderly integrate into the digital society.
Of course, to promote the completion of cultural re-adaptation of the elderly group, it is necessary not only to play the role of family digital feedback, to seek improvement strategies from the perspective of family relationship construction, but also to seek breakthroughs in the social system that transcends individuals and families, and continuously improves digital media products and digital products. The ease of use and age-appropriateness of reading materials will jointly build a fair and friendly digital-friendly society and learning society that is suitable for all ages.
Topic planning: Ye Jundong
Overall planning and implementation: Zhou Qingyin, Deng Jia
Contribution editors: Li Jianfa, You Li
Banyuetan Reporter: Sister Liang, Yin Siyuan, He Leijing, Zhao Qian