Nancy Merz Nordstrom
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You're Never Too Old To Learn! Expert
Nancy Merz Nordstrom Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Lifelong Learning for adults over age 50
- Best Sellers
- Learning Later Living Greater: The Secret for Making the Most of Your After-50 Years
- Career Focus
- Bringing the message about the value of lifelong learning to older adults.
- Affiliation
- Elderhostel, Inc., Nancy Merz Nordstrom, M.Ed., LLC
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Nancy Merz Nordstrom Books
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
Creating Balance In Our After-50 Years
A greatly admired older friend of mine once said that a balanced life, after leaving full-time work, should be composed of one-third work, one-third play, and one-third giving back. For those of us in our “After-50 Years,” the opportunity to make that balanced life a reality comes once we bid ...
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Article
Lifelong Learning: A Health Club For The Body, MInd and Spirit
Imagine the excitement of exploring the historical and cultural treasures of the Tuscan countryside, the thrill of taking part in a lively discussion about the life and works of Vincent Van Gogh, or the satisfaction that comes from helping a reluctant student discover the value of education. ...
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Article
Top 10 Benefits Of Lifelong Learning
Scientific research from the 1990s now reveals that more than ever before, a challenged, stimulated brain may well be the key to a vibrant later life. As 78 millio Baby Boomers prepare to redefine their own retirement, news that staying active and keeping their brains constantly engaged may ...
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Article
10 Ways Educational Travel Is Better Than Your Average Vacation
Since 1975 when Elderhostel, Inc., offered its’ first programs, the educational travel industry has grown by leaps and bounds. Today, the field is booming, and many organizations, both for profit and not-for-profit, offer similar programs for all ages. Elderhostel, however, remains the largest ...
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Article
Ten Ways Educational Travel Is Better
Baby Boomers are seeking a new level of enrichment in their leisure travel activities. This is born out by the U.S. Department of Commerce which says that educational travel is growing and older adults are leading the charge. “Educational travel programs are one sure way to guarantee a higher ...
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Article
Twelve Easy Ways To Keep Learning
For 78 millio Baby Boomers keenly interested in a more active and healthy retirement, lifelong learning through meaningful community service can be an essential part of their everyday life. “Lifelong learning, combined with such service, engages all your senses,” says Nancy Merz Nordstrom, ...
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Article
Twelve Easy Ways You Can Keep Learning
“Mentors, mediators, monitors, motivators and mobilizers,” that’s what the late Maggie Kuhn (of Gray Panthers fame) envisioned as the role of those who no longer hold full-time paying jobs. It’s a tall order. But thanks to millions of older adults already offering their time and expertise, and ...
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Article
The Doors of Wisdom Are Never Shut
"The doors of wisdom are never shut." Little did Benjamin Franklin know, when he uttered those words some 250 years ago, how prophetic they would be. Today, wisdom is indeed available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Franklin’s open door is the Internet, the Information ...
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Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Nancy Merz Nordstrom
"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere"..Old Chinese Proverb
"You don't grow old: When you cease to learn, you are old."....Reul L. Howe
"Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect."...Leonardo da Vinci
"To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart - and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love."...Karl von Bonstetten
Contacting Nancy Merz Nordstrom
Please feel free to contact me at learninglater@comcast.net
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Introduction to "Learning Later, Living Greater: The Secret for Making the Most of Your After-50 Years"
Early on a warm August morning in 1993 I awoke to find myself a widow at age 48, with four children, the youngest just 15, still living at home. Three years later, after the fog caused by my husband’s unexpected death had lifted, I returned to school. It had been more than twenty-five years since I was last a student. When I walked across the academic threshold at age 51, I felt and acted old. In short, I was old! Over the course of two years I underwent a complete rejuvenation, a higher quality rejuvenation than any spa or resort could ever hope to provide. In fact, I felt as though I had found the fountain of youth. I emerged from my studies full of zest, joy and enthusiasm. I was more alive tha I had been in years. Henry Ford’s comments, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether they are 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning is young,” certainly applied to me. Being back in school did for me what therapy, grief counseling and the passage of time could not do. It gave me back not just a life, but an enhanced life-a life with increased self-esteem, focus and vitality. In a way I had been given a second chance, and I felt it was critically important to make the most of that chance. I also felt that I wanted to leave some kind of legacy about how one can remake a life when the unexpected happens, not only for my own descendents, but for all those who would walk that same road. The opportunity to do that came shortly after my schooling was completed. I joined the Elderhostel organization, the world’s first and largest educational travel organization for older adults. Their mission as the “preeminent provider of high quality affordable educational opportunities for older adults,” was the perfect fit for me as an advocate of how lifelong learning can change and enrich your life. Elderhostel believes that “learning is a lifelong process and sharing new ideas, challenges and experiences is rewarding in every season of life.” These were exactly my feelings. As the Director of the Elderhostel Institute Network I found myself immersed in lifelong learning. Sometimes known as continuing learning, it’s learning for the sheer joy of learning, or learning not dictated by academic requirements. For the purposes of this book, however, we’ll use the term lifelong learning. Time and time again, I spoke with people whose lives, like mine, had been changed by the power of this incredible tool. It was a wonderfully validating experience for me, proving over and over that lifelong learning in any form, and at any age, but especially as an older adult, could transform lives. Lifelong learning in later years is the perfect opportunity for people to take part in all the things they have never had time for. Here is an opportunity for people from all walks of life, who have been busy working and/or raising a family, to do what they always wanted to do, to learn, travel and socialize, all the while expanding their knowledge and wisdom. It doesn’t matter what form your work life took, how far you’ve climbed the corporate ladder–or how much you have ignored it-lifelong learning is not exclusive. Anyone and everyone is welcome to indulge! Yet, every working day I also realized that many people knew little or nothing about this vehicle for enhancing their later years. Of course, everyone is, to some extent, a lifelong learner. Reading books, newspapers, and magazines, taking up a hobby or doing crosswords is considered informal learning. But what I’m talking about here is a more formal type of lifelong learning–non-credit courses in classrooms, educational travel programs, and learning that takes place through meaningful community service. The Elderhostel Institute Network, as the largest and most respected educational network for older adults in North America, provides resources that ultimately help approximately 100,000 people through formal non-credit classroom programs. But, there are millions more out there, including people already retired, the soon-to-retire Baby Boomers, and even younger generations who know little or nothing about these and other types of learning programs, not to mention the incredible value lifelong learning brings to our later years. Hence this book. It’s a breezy, up-beat look at lifelong learning in three different ways–in the classroom–through educational travel–and in the community. Hopefully it will spur you on to learn more, to delve deeper into the value of lifelong learning in your “After-50” years and seek out the opportunities that await you. Imparting the message about the value of lifelong learning has become my passion. I want to tell you to throw out all your old memories about what being in school was like. As an older adult returning to school, for credit or just for fun, it’s an entirely new and very different experience. And I want to reassure you that your past academic attainments have no bearing whatsoever on joining a lifelong learning program. Forget degrees and all the credentials that society fosters on us. All you need is the desire to keep your mind active and alert and an innate curiosity about the world around us. Gone are the “talking heads,” rote memorization and test-taking. In their place are facilitators eager to learn as much from you as you are from them, welcoming the give and take of lively discussion, rich with life experiences. There really is no greater way of learning than by sharing in and absorbing the many different viewpoints of a spirited discussion. So, if your previous academic experiences were negative, forget them. If they were positive know that lifelong learning as an older adult will far surpass them. Philosopher John Dewey said it best, I think. “…Education must be reconceived, not as merely a preparation for maturity (whence our absurd idea that it should stop after adolescence) but as a continuous growth of the mind and a continuous illumination of life…real education comes after we leave school and there is no reason why it should stop before death.” In writing this book I’m hoping in some small way to awaken in you what was awakened in me-the value of lifelong learning as an older adult. Although this book focuses on what is called “non-credit” lifelong learning, “for-credit” lifelong learning is equally valuable, and there are many books out there that address “for-credit” lifelong learning opportunities. Colleges welcome degree-seeking students of any age. It remains for you to decide which route is right for you. Lifelong learning, no matter what its form, is an incredibly important tool in helping you find life satisfaction. Life, especially in the “After-50” years, is all about choices and opportunities. Having choices and opportunities are what make life worth living. It gives us a reason to get up in the morning. Every day we are given new choices and opportunities. It’s the way we select them that gives our life meaning. So make the choice and take this opportunity to learn what lifelong learning is really all about. My hope is this book will do that for you. Then, if you decide lifelong learning has a place in your life and you seek out the opportunities in your community, I can just about guarantee that a year from now your life will be richer, fuller and far more satisfying. An old Chinese proverb says, “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere” Great treasures await you in the lifelong learning world. Nancy Merz Nordstrom, M. Ed.
Other highlights
Visit the Elderhostel Institute Network web site at www.elderhostel.org/ein/intro.asp
to see if there's a lifelong learning program in your community.
Visit my blogs at www.eons.com or www.growingbolder.com or www.egenerations.com or www.successtelevision.com or www.myspace.com