Never Too Old To Learn

At the age of fifty, Theodore Roosevelt, one of our truly great Presidents, made this sage comment: "Now I am fifty years old, and if I had stopped learning, if I felt now that I had stopped learning, had stopped trying to better myself, I feel that my usefulness to the community would be pretty nearly at an end."

Those who have studied the life of Theodore Roosevelt know that he never did stop learning. He was eager to learn and do until the end. He never grew too old to learn.

Many people have the mistaken idea that age is a drag on learning - that you lose your capacity to learn as you grow older. Nothing could be further from the truth. Surveys show that the capacity to learn does not diminish greatly after age 20, said Dr. C. Ellis Nelson, well-known educator and professor of Christian education in The Presbyterian Seminary at Austin, Texas. These tests show, said Dr. Nelson, that in reading and vocabulary skill there is no significant difference between the ages 20 and 60. Age 20 may show greater facility in mathematics, but this is due almost entirely to the fact that age 20 uses that skill, while age 60 doesn't so much.

As you grow older, or if you have already reached or passed middle age, don't fool yourself with the idea that the capacity to learn diminishes with age. It just isn't true! You can learn and grow intellectually as long as you want to progress - for as long as you live. That is one of the truly thrilling facts of life.

Cato, the wise man of ancient Rome, was forever seeking new intellectual worlds to conquer, and at about the age of 80 started to study Greek. When a sceptic asked him why he was beginning such a formidable task at such an advanced age, Cato replied wryly: "It is the youngest age I have left," and went on with his studies.

"Age," said E. L. Thorndike, famed psychologist, "is no handicap to learning anything you want to learn."

You never grow too old to learn.

• The Brain
• The Power Of The Mind
• The Importance Of Formal Education
• Five Reasons For A College Education
  
  
  1. A College Education Brings A Fuller Life...
  2. A College Education Opens The Door To Distinction
  3. A College Education Brings Job Security....
  4. A College Education Enhances Earning Power
  
  
• An Educated Citizenry Is A Vital Requisite For Our Survival As A Free People
• Learning - A Continuous Process
• Business And Education - 1
• Business And Education - 2
• Business And Education - 3