I taught fitness classes for older adults in the 1980′s and 1990′s in rural North Carolina. A lot of these people had worked all their lives on the line at the local denim plant, had a small tobacco farm at home to supplement income and were the epitome of conservative in politics, religion, and just about everything else. This relates to the questions asked in the intro of our discussion thread, “Should we encourage them to relax before engaging them (students) in learning activities?” and in another post here “Do you think that as we get older, we lose our ability to structure our own thinking in new ways?”
These were individuals that if I had ever used the term “Method of Loci” “Memory Palace” I am absolutely confidant that not only would I have lost all my clients I would have probably lost my job. What WAS important, though, was that these were individuals who absolutely needed to learn new concepts in terms of health and wellness. While meditation and guided imagery were consistent aspects of each class, they were incorporated in small, incremental steps and were not given labels other than being part of the warm up and cool down. I knew we were making progress when individuals would request “that breathing thing you do” or ask for that “we’re at the beach thing”.
If the instructor accepts not just responsibility of conveying information but also creating a positive and effective learning environment, being responsive to student’s different learning styles and readiness to learn is essential. At what age to do we stop learning? When we close ourselves off to new learning opportunities. When we’re open to new experiences we can go the beach, even if it’s just in our head as a way to slow our breathing, remember a place we always enjoyed and deepen our ability to relax and heal.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
