Joan Kennedy Kinnaird was nervous the first time she stepped into a university classroom.
“What would it be like? Would I be accepted?” Kinnaird said.
This wasn’t your typical case of freshman nerves — Kinnaird is 81 years old. And though she may be decades older than her peers, all it took was one small gesture to bridge the gap between generations.
“In the first class I ever took, an Italian class, a month into the course a student turned around and offered me a stick of gum and I thought, ‘I’ve been accepted.'”
Though it may seem unusual to take a class with someone the same age as your grandparents, older students are finding their way in among a student body dominated by the babies of the 1980s and ‘90s.
“[Older students] add points to discussion because of their age and experience, so everyone shows respect for their place in life and experience and knowledge, and the students mutually enrich each other,” said art history professor June Hargrove, who has had a number of older students in her classes.
Older students take courses at the university for a variety of reasons. Some are professors here who want to take other classes and others simply enroll of their own accord, but all are motivated by an urge to learn, not just to earn a degree.
Many take advantage of the university’s Golden ID program, which is dedicated to integrating retirees into the classroom. The program, which began in 1977, accepts state residents 60 years of age and up and has about 80 participants, who generally partake in classes but aren’t expected to take tests or write papers.
“A program such as the Golden ID shows the University’s support for retired citizens who want to pursue opportunities for education and self-growth,” coordinator Addie Beatty wrote in an e-mail. “This program increases the University’s ties to the surrounding community.”
Kinnaird has taken courses at the university as part of the program every semester since 1997, studying everything from Italian to architecture.
Eda Levitine, 82, has also been a part of the program since 1997 and has taken at least one course every semester since. Levitine said the age diversity benefited all age groups.
“I don’t feel it’s more challenging as an older student,” Levitine said. “There is something we can contribute as older students. [Younger students] also contribute something. So it’s a nice mixture.”
Levitine’s husband George became head of the art department in 1964, and the 19th century French art seminar she’s in meets in a classroom decorated with prints she and her husband donated.
“People like Mrs. Levitine, who are very aware of the dynamic of a classroom and who understand they have lifetime of experience that young people in the room don’t necessarily have, leave space for them to develop ideas in the course of discussion,” said Hargrove, who is teaching the seminar.
But that doesn’t mean it’s always smooth sailing. Hargrove has had some older students who have taken too much of a lead in the classroom, trying to lead the discussion.
“You do get people who don’t understand they are not there to lead discussion,” Hargrove said. “That takes some tact on my part to make them understand without hurting their feelings.”
She added that Levitine has helped Hargrove’s other students outside the classroom translate French texts for their dissertations. Levitine often brings food to class, something many Golden ID students do, Hargrove said, and holds a party for the class at the end of the semester.
Levitine and Kinnaird moved to the state after their husbands took teaching positions at the university. Kinnaird and Levitine both started teaching at Trinity Washington University, Kinnaird as a history professor and Levitine as a French professor. When Kinnaird began teaching in 1968, she said spouses at this university were not allowed to teach at the same establishment as their husbands, forcing both to go to Trinity.
When the pair eventually retired, they were both widowed and wanted to exercise their minds, prompting them to join the Golden ID program.
“What really attracted me was the fact that they didn’t have lower classes for old people,” Levitine said. “These were true-blue, regular classes.”
An avid reader, Kinnaird was looking for something more than reading on her own, craving other people’s opinions and group discussions.
“You get to hear other people’s ideas and slants from different departments,” Kinnaird said. “So that part has been really interesting. It’s just the joy of learning something new and being stimulated by it.”
Professor Alfred Boyd, 80, teaches chemistry at the university but fell in love with the German language at a young age. A combination of that and his love of German operas, particularly those of Richard Wagner, led him to take German classes in addition to his teaching.
“I could take German 401 and 402 over and over again,” Boyd said. “It is not like chemistry where you learn the same stuff. By the language’s very nature you get different material. My purpose is to have fun.”
He feels no age difference while in class and even had such a good friendship with a woman a few semesters ago that they would refer to each other jokingly as Ehefrau and Ehemann, which translate to wife and husband, respectively.
Architecture professor Richard Etlin has had several Golden ID students in his class over the years and said they enrich the classroom learning experience.
“I would say that the presence of Golden ID students in a seminar helps to foster the sense of a learning community in which all participants -— regular students, Golden ID students, and instructor — are integral players,” Etlin wrote in an e-mail. “The presence of the Golden ID students also reminds students that learning is a life-long process and does not end at graduation.”
tousignant@umdbk.com
