Friendship Village begins In-House Schoolhouse program

Last fall, the In-House Schoolhouse program was introduced at Friendship Village. The lifelong learning initiative, integrated our residents who never cease wanting to learn, with our residents who love to teach and share their life experiences and knowledge. Due to the program's overwhelming success, we are proud to be launching its second season which covers a wide variety of topics, conducted by residents with special expertise in their respective subject.

In-House School House was initiated by Henry Acres. The resident of Friendship Village is a retired professor of English at Hofstra University in New York. Henry was also the founder of the Institute of Learning in Retirement at Cedar Crest College; an initiative which eventually drew 500 subscribers and from which the In House Schoolhouse was modeled. His philosophy, which is consistent with that of Friendship Village, is that lifelong learning keeps minds, bodies and spirits young. “It brings us pleasure to learn new things,” said Henry, who added that it's also a pleasure for the residents who do the teaching. Henry established a committee of residents to help develop the program.

“It's such a great thing, using the residents of Friendship Village as resources. We have so many residents with incredible knowledge, backgrounds and life experiences,” said Jeannette Magdaleno, lifelong learning coordinator for Friendship Village. “Our residents have fascinating lives.”

The spring 2012 session of Friendship Village's In-House Schoolhouse is as follows:

March 27-Architecture and Friendship Village

April 3-Activism and Citizenship: A Personal Record

April 24-A Day in the Life of Live Radio

May 1-Running a Rooming House for 15 Years

May 8-Hijacked!

May 15-Elephants as Families

May 22-Basic Prevention

May 29-Antiques

All sessions are held at 10:30 a.m. and are free and open to the public. For additional information call Jeannette at (847) 884-5539.