When it comes to education in the United States, one of the fastest growing segments is adult education. Tom Flanigan reports Tallahassee is the home of one of the top adult ed programs in the country.
That program is commonly known as “OLLI”. That’s short for “Osher Lifelong Learning Institute” and it’s connected with the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy at Florida State University. OLLI Director Debra Herman says it now attracts hundreds of students each year, all over the age of fifty.
“You know, they’re interested in a lot of things; a lot of different things that they couldn’t study when they were originally in college. Things that they had to study for, they couldn’t take part in music classes let’s say if they were science majors, they didn’t take music courses so now they have an opportunity to do so.”
There are two-six week terms each year; one in the spring, the other in the fall. There is also a three-week term called a “Maymester.” OLLI Program Coordinator Terry Talbert Aaronson says there’s a great range of course offerings.
“We’ve got computer classes to help people with their new I-phones and I-pads. We have some interesting music classes, opera appreciation with Tobias Mostel, Zero Mostel’s son; Music-Six Decades of Your Life. We have ‘World War II – Who Won the War?’ We’ll find out this time.”
Dozens of courses, Aaronson says, given at various locations in Leon and Jefferson counties.
“A medical class, ‘How to Build a 20th Century Doctor’ being held by the Med School; we have our writing classes, Mary Jane Ryals, who’s a local author; we have a great class being taught at Tallahassee Community College, ‘Wisdom Through the Ages’, one of our TCC professors Ursula Morgan; a class in archeology being held at the Governor Martin House; and of course our partner Westminster Oaks has some classes out there as well.”
OLLI Director Debra Herman says there are plenty of ways to find out more.
“We have a web site. We have a Facebook page and it’s under the ‘Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the Florida State University’. But the web site will include course information. We also have a newsletter that we issue and publish every term that’s also included in the web site.”
And, with course fees as low as thirty-dollars, OLLI has to be considered one of the nation’s biggest adult education values.