Never Too Old to Learn: 8 steps to learning something new at any age

I’m 63 years old now and having had my last child at 41, I’m glad I got a new outlook on life.

It is true – aging isn’t easy. The body aches. It gets more difficult to rise up off the floor, if you can get down to the floor in the first place. Your back hurts from sitting too long on the chair, and you start to slow down. Watching a young child race around you may wonder, “Where do they get that energy?” And, “Can I borrow some?”

Your mind, too, begins to slow down. It may take you longer to remember the name of the person you were just introduced to. You may struggle to grasp new concepts. You may wonder where you put your keys.

You may have watched a parent with dementia slowly forget who you are.

And you may fear, that is what is in store for you. 

It doesn’t have to be that way. Our brains are incredibly intricate and capable of much more than we realize.

Brain structure

The brain is made up of approximately a trillion cells. There are two basic types of cells in the brain, neurons and glial (glia) cells.

Neurons are broken into three basic parts – dendrites, the cell body or soma, and the axon. The dendrites accept information from other cells and pass on the information to the cell body or soma. The cell body or soma joins the information received from the dendrites and organizes it, and the axon brings the information to other neurons, as well as transmitting the information to relevant parts of your body. 

The glial cells provide supportive services. The word glial comes from the Greek word glue, as they were originally thought to only provide structural support to neurons. However, they do much more: they protect neurons; support neurons; help them to grow;  maintain their environment (either inhibiting or allowing a synapse to fire); clean up the environment from harmful substances; and in short, help the neurons to operate at an optimum level.  

As we age, the hippocampus – which is responsible for the formation, storage, transmission of memories – shrinks, and the protective myelin sheaths begin to wear out. This affects the speed at which neurons can “speak” to one another, and their ability to communicate with each other. However, dendrites increase, and that enables those who are older to make connections between different types of information. The way we learn changes, but we can still learn.

Prevention

In the (not so distant) future, gene therapy may be able to slow or reverse the ravages of brain damage caused by genetic diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Gene therapy is in the early stages, and some human tests have begun. Eventually, the disease may have little or no impact on the lives of the aging. For now, even if you have a gene for dementia, there are actions you can take to delay or prevent the onset of cognitive impairment associated with age. There’s a really good chance you are already familiar with them – eat well, exercise, get a good night’s sleep, take care of your mental health, your emotional health, and stretch those mental muscles.

How can we stretch our mental muscles?

Learn something new.

Lifelong Learning

Just because you are beginning to see normal changes in your cognitive function doesn’t mean you can’t learn anything new. As mentioned above, even though those neurons aren’t communicating like they used to, your ability to make connections is actually better than it ever was before. So it’s not that you can’t learn, it’s just that you learn differently.  

Here are 8 tips for learning at any age:

1. Be curious

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his Passover Haggadah, explains that, “Education means teaching a child to be curious, to wonder, to reflect, to enquire. The child who asks becomes a partner in the learning process, an active recipient. To ask is to grow.” 

Curiosity is the basis of any learning. It is hard to learn something we don’t care about.

Curiosity inspires us to dig deeply into a subject.

What are you curious about? What have you always wanted to do? Learn? Find out about?

Curiosity, the fire to learn, is the first step.

So sit back, close your eyes, and think: “What am I curious about?” That’s where you begin.

And don’t let that negative judge take a seat in your brain. If Ms. Negative starts pounding your brain with “waste of time” and “you are too old” or “silly thing to want to do at your age” tell Ms. Negative to shut up.

It isn’t a waste of time – halachically we have an obligation to take care of our health, and caring for our intellectual health is part of that. You are not too old – there are a plethora of firsts for people past 60. And it is never silly – whether you want to learn to paint or learn calculus. Learning is healthy.

The subject you pick should have one criterion: it makes you stretch your mental muscles, meaning it should be fairly new to you or, if the subject is already familiar to you, advance your knowledge in that subject area.

Got a topic? Have a few? We are fortunate to be living in an age when there is tremendous opportunity to find learning activities and expand our knowledge, from online classes to classes given in local community centers, colleges, and the like. It is likely that for any topic of interest you pick there will be something out there for you.


2. Take action

The second step is to sign up for that course, or download it, or whatever is needed. If you are feeling unsure, check out a few programs, sit in on a few classes, make certain that you feel this class is for you, that the teacher and other students are patient and respectful of each other, and the atmosphere is one conducive to your learning style.

Feeling emotionally safe is vital to learning anything new. Fear of failure, and the ensuing embarrassment, cause many people to shy away from learning or sharing what they think they know. You want to know that you will be supported in this endeavor, not knocked down for it.

Accept from the outset that you are going to make mistakes. Be prepared that it may take you longer than you expect to learn a new concept or technique, but that’s okay.

Set aside a specific time for learning; days of the week, hours, etc., for classes that are not themselves scheduled, as well as time to review your notes. Make this time important to you and make certain others understand that you are learning now. You are not to be interrupted. It is your time. 

Keep in mind: the struggle is the point, not a drawback. 

The fact that it is difficult means you are stretching your mental muscles. 

3. Be daring

Ask questions in class, at the appropriate time, if you aren’t understanding something. Answer questions. Give your opinion. State what you know, the knowledge you have gained from your lived experience. Be an active participant in the classroom and don’t be afraid to go beyond the classroom to get what you need.