Charlestown	UPDATED: Monday, August 06, 2007
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‘Learning is a lifetime thing'

Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007

College courses broaden horizons at any age

By Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Students at Charlestown and Oak Crest haven’t missed a beat over the summer.

The two college-like communities are just finishing up their summer course schedule offered on-site by the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). With fall just around the corner, they join college campuses across Maryland in ramping up for another semester of classes and a new batch of students.

On average, 400 people at Charlestown and 200 people at Oak Crest register for low-cost, noncredit courses each semester. Bob Callahan, director of the Senior Institute of Continuing Education at CCBC, expects a full roster this fall when classes start on October 1.

From A to Z
“We’ll be bringing back a lot of the courses and instructors that are always popular, and offering some new ones requested by students,” he says.

Students choose from topics such as contemporary issues, health and fitness, music education, history, politics, art, and literature. Callahan says they attempt to offer a large variety of courses and satisfy requests whenever possible.

One requested course available for the first time at Charlestown this fall is “Survey of American Literature.”

High-caliber instruction
“Professor Wilson Watson, who will be teaching that class, taught at the [CCBC] Catonsville campus for 35 years, and he’s delightful. He knows his stuff backwards and forwards,” Callahan says.

Watson joins an entire faculty of high-caliber instructors. “They are either adjunct, retired, or currently teaching at the college, and they are all extremely knowledgeable in their field,” says Bill Engel of Charlestown.

Engel chairs the advisory committee responsible for suggesting courses, registering students, and keeping attendance.

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New meaning of ‘student teacher’
“Our program is unique from many normal college classes because the teachers have a very close relationship with the people here. A lot of times we’re as old and as smart as they are, so it’s a great experience,” he says.

Often, instructors learn as much from their students as students do from their instructors.

“History is one of the most popular topics we offer. David Hatch teaches several history classes, and he loves teaching them here,” Callahan says. “He says the students add so much to the class because you never know when someone is going to raise their hand and say, ‘I was there.’”

Dollars and sense
Students say taking classes at Charlestown and Oak Crest includes other perks as well.

“There’s no homework, it’s a fun thing to do, it lets you relive some of the courses you took in high school or college, and it certainly keeps your mind active,” says Ruth Pundt, chair of Oak Crest’s advisory committee.

Perhaps more importantly, these students enjoy significantly lower prices.

The state, which approves every class, also helps keep the cost down. “Other schools, like Loyola College and Johns Hopkins, offer similar programs, but the cost is more expensive than ours,” Callahan says.

“We have a great partnership with Charlestown and Oak Crest,” he adds. “I think it’s better than any other partnership I have out of all 40 or 50 sites in Baltimore County. We feel, like John Erickson, that learning is a lifelong thing.”