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Seniors Can Turn Lifelong Learning into Wisdom, Says Self-education Advocate
For a printable version of this release, please click here.
March 1999 - WASILLA, ALASKA, March 1999 -- Seniors not only gain the most from lifelong learning but also are readily able to turn it into wisdom which can be passed on to younger generations, says self-education advocate Charles Hayes. The 55-year-old self-taught author of three books and dozens of articles points out seniors have:
- The acumen to assimilate new knowledge into their own experience;
- an awareness of their own mortality;
- the time to contemplate and reflect on the future;
- a wish to leave the world a better place and impart their values to later generations.
"We should expunge the word retirement and replace it with reflection," says Hayes. "Imagine what a different perspective advanced years would bring to society if, instead of saying we were looking forward to retirement, we said we were eager to begin our years of reflection, eager to sort the truth of our experience from society's fictions." He hopes for a world that harnesses this accumulated wisdom to eliminate injustice and dishonesty.
An ancient story illustrates Hayes' point: A Roman governor walking in Palestine sees an old man digging in a field. To the governor's query, the old man replies that he's planting a carob tree. "How long before it bears fruit?"
"About 70 years." "But old man, you won't be alive to enjoy the fruit of your labor?" "Someone planted carob trees for me to enjoy. I will plant for those who come later." Hayes' latest book, Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World, urges seniors to continue a lifelong quest to acquire and apply new knowledge. Destined to change the way society approaches education, philosophy, and economics, it has been praised in the American Library Association's Choice Magazine, won the prestigious Management General citation as one of the Top Three Books of the Year, and has been praised by such authors as Philip Slater, Barbara Ehrenreich, and many others. This impeccably researched book, with a 25-page bibliography, will be required reading among thinking people for years to come. Beyond the American Dream, ISBN 0-9621979-2-0, is available from your favorite bookstore, via Internet booksellers or direct from the publisher at (907) 376-2932 (voice or fax), autpress@alaska.net.
Nancy Frey
Autodidactic Press
907-376-2932
autpress@alaska.net
http://www.autodidactic.com/
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