This catalogue (above) arrived this morning (Saturday). Don’t ask me why. Like many of its kind, mainly in digital form, it arrived unsolicited. I get much less of what used to be called junk mail in physical form through the letter box. But my laptop spam folder has really taken off in recent weeks. From a situation when I used to get hardly any spam mail now I get loads, all of it American, to the point where I just delete it.
In the past I used to get one or two ‘proper’ emails in the spam folder so I used to check it. Now I just delete it all and still it keeps coming – heaters, free torches, compression bandages, ultra wi-fi, insta savings, Boots opticians, Pastbook, etc, etc. If I have an on-line profile I can only vaguely imagine what it must be like. Incidentally, it keeps coming even though I have tried several times to unsubscribe. They don’t take any bleedin’ notice. Which is annoying and makes me determined not to claim my free gifts let alone actually buy anything from the tossers.
Anyway I digress, because that’s not the point of this retirement blog. You’ll be relieved to read that the focus is something much more relevant to retired people. It is that on-going theme for this retirement blog – life-long learning, learning new skills, call it what you will. What is certain is that any reading of what makes for a happy retirement will include a recommendation to pursue a life-long learning goal. I think its big plus is that it keeps you mentally active. Keeps the dementia at bay. At least that’s the plan.
We all know these are different times and, as a result, we make decisions we wouldn’t have made say this time last year. Even around life-long learning. In this case that means on-line courses. I haven’t actually signed up for an on-line course since I first retired and that’s seven years ago. I signed up for (and received a certificate for) a Berklee Music College course called ‘how to write a song’ or something similar. About the same time I did a course on music theory.
In those early days I thought that on-line learning would be a huge part of my retirement life. It was a no brainer, or so it seemed. But it hasn’t been. Until now. It dropped by the wayside along with golf, photography and long-distance travel.
But by virtue of the above Great Courses catalogue, I’ve just signed up for 3 courses, all of which have an historical flavour. The Celtic World, The Story of Medieval Britain and an Economic History of the World since 1400. In the sale at £57 total for the three. Half price if you believe in these on-line course sales. So far I’ve looked at the first few minutes of the Celts course. Very American (as you might reasonably expect) but too soon to judge the merit of this form of on-going learning but I will keep you informed. You’ve got to admit it’s quite an impressive selection.
Making the choice was quite tricky, even allowing myself 3 options, because they allegedly have more than 800 plus courses to choose from and they are apparently a well-respected on-line learning organisation in the USA. So the first decision was whether to choose a course that related directly to what I already know about but the course might just add a bit but mostly I’d be within my comfort zone – piano playing, how to play guitar, how to draw, photography, art appreciation, even, understanding opera. A kind of safety first, no risk option.
Or go for something entirely beyond. And that’s what I went for, as above. But the risk is that stepping outside one’s comfort zone can make the learning experience a difficult and even unpleasant one. And that can lead to disenchantment and giving up. Which would of course be self-defeating in a number of ways.
But before that, Mrs Summerhouse and I had an interesting conversation. Along the lines of, if you could order up any course in the world, any topic you wanted, what would it be? Mrs SH had a bit of a think and came up with, how to cook authentic curries. That seemed fair enough.
Myself, on the other hand, found that making a choice was more difficult. To the point that, several hours later, I haven’t come up with anything at all. This tells me I am either a creature of very little imagination or I’ve got it all sorted out and don’t need any further retirement life additions. I can’t even decide on this let alone what my ‘dream course’ would be.
I think the above choices emanate (nice word) from a vague idea that, if I hadn’t been an art teacher / special education teacher / psychologist, what career would I have chosen? And the answer was, something to do with history. Even an archaeologist, except I don’t like dead bodies. So that might have been a problem.
At school, history was my favourite (and best) subject. Unfortunately when the decision was made that my career would be that of an architect, history didn’t figure and I had to give up history as one of my ‘O’ level choices. I ended up taking physics and maths, which I hated. Go figure.
And here I am, about 55 years later, trying to compensate by choosing three history courses. Just put me down as a slow learner. And I’m not sure whether I’ve made a sensible choice even now. Will it be that these options turn out to be the start of a new adventure for 2021 (as many of us are seeking) or just another red herring on the road to a fulfilling retirement?
The courses arrived digitally on Saturday and it’s now Monday and apart from a quick glance, as above, the new learning opportunities remain untapped. Still there’s time yet.
I did wonder what the most effective way of working through these three courses might be. Is it better to have a regular routine spot / a timetable for each day or to do what I tend to do with other activities – as and when the mood takes me and sometimes it doesn’t take me at all.