CAN AN OCTOGENARIAN LEARN NEW STUFF?

Both Body and Brain Need to Exercise

As far as I know I do not have a learning disability (LD). Usually a learning disability is a condition one is born with or it is the result of a head or brain injury. However, given the years I spent on the hockey rink minus a helmet, perhaps there is a real possibility that I do have LD! And then again, perhaps not.

The famous "they" used to say that as we grow older we will lose about 40% of our brain cells. But today, with all the sophisticated medical equipment available, we now know the opposite is true. In fact, even we octogenarians can grow new neurons! So the old axiom is still true: 'Use it or lose it.'

Just think of it when one reaches the 80's their brain is just full of stuff, especially if we compare it to someone half the age! So all the information I have absorbed over the years is still packed away somewhere. But I need to challenge these intellectual and physical skills in order to keep them fresh and connected and to use them effectively in understanding my life now.  Indeed, that is the true meaning of education. The etymology of the word is from the Latin educare -'to lead out.' So education at the lower levels in our society is not education at all! It's instruction i.e instructus - 'to build on' or as I like to think 'to pour in'. 

This might explain why I don't like trivia games. The so called trivia is not important, it is how much we are able to use our store of information to make good decisions about our own existence and our relations with others in the world. The older we are the more facts and experience we have at hand - and we have stored tons of it. That should be the basis of our 'wisdom'. If it isn't it might just as well stay in the computer.



The Wonderful Human Brain



The key then is for me to keep on learning new things, but at the same time challenging existing ideas and skills. Limiting my time with others who always agree with me is not a challenge for my brain. Our neural connections just get weaker from disuse, especially as we grow older. The brain goes into the default mode! Not using the pathways to our 'storage bins' in the brain, negates their value. Not constantly challenging my perceptions, not stretching my mind and moving away from, what one chap once said to me 'the well travelled path', is not exercising my brain and establishing new brain connections. In other words, I am not exercising my mind and like my body it will become sluggish and inactive. After all, I know if I don't remember some things I can always Google it!

We are reminded daily in the local newscasts how important exercise is. One doctor even said the emphisis should not be on the problem of obesity in today's society, but on the need for exercise. Even fat people he said,  can be in good shape. Just think of the linemen in the CFL! The same principle holds true for our brains: Keep on learning because 'if you don't use it you'll lose it.'

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week.