Cabin fever got you down? Elder Education Enrichment may be your best medicine. The spring semester opens on February 4 with a selection of two dozen hour-long classes on a variety of topics and at a reasonable cost.

Developed to appeal to older adults, EEE offers day-time classes, affordable fees, short term commitments, easy parking, and handicapped accessibility - and there are no tests, homework, papers, or grades. Organized by volunteers with classes taught by area experts, over the past twenty years the programs have ranged widely - from Russian history to cheese-making in Vermont, from the media and public opinion to robotics, from Islam to George Gershwin. Both teachers and students express the same kind of enthusiasm.

"EEE is a great organization," says Sandie Lindberg of South Burlington, vice-president and a member of the program committee. "We present a large variety of classes, and we draw expert teachers from the area. And besides the intellectual offerings, it's a great place to socialize." One measure of EEE's success is that membership dues have not increased since it started, but membership growth has allowed  the fees paid to the lecturers to double.

Jane Ambrose, former chair of the music department at UVM and currently director of UVM's Lane Series, has lectured for EEE since its inception, offering classes across the musical spectrum, from medieval music to Bach to 20th century music.

"EEE students make you feel so good," she says. "They are in class because they want to be. They are enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and motivated. They come prepared, and they ask great questions. No one wants to leave at the end of the hour. The teacher must simply stop."

Conceived in 1990 b y Jim Jackson, owner of Notch Above Tours and, at the time, a teacher at St. Michael's College and Sylvia Smith, a retired teacher from South Burlington, EEE now boasts 228 members, 50 years old and older, who pay dues of $40 per semester or $75 for the year (both fall and spring semesters). Members may attend any or all of the 24 programs offered each semester. Non-member walk-ins of any age are welcome for the $5 fee. Once you reach $40 in walk-in fees, you are treated as a member and no longer have to pay for programs for the rest of the semester. Scholarships and help with transportation are available on the basis of need.

Programs are scheduled on Mondays and Fridays, usually form 2pm to 3pm at the Faith United Methodist Church in South Burlington. Members choose the topics and recruit the speakers. The program committee makes its decisions, Lindberg says, by sitting around and brainstorming. "We look for variety and for good speakers." Evaluation forms with plenty of space for suggestions are distributed at the end of each lecture.

Each semester, the programs are presented in four six-week sections. Three of these sections usually revolve around a theme. The fourth is a variety series. For example, this semester, on Mondays, one six-part series will focus on ethics in the professions, with experts dealing with medicine, journalism, law, business and biological science. Another six-week series will explore the Medieval period, with lectures about mathematics and science, the origins of the modern world, artistic exchanges, women mystics, and sacred and secular music. On Fridays, a six-week series will focus on food - ranging from Lake Champlain chocolates to making wine in Vermont, from cooking at Shelburne Farms to the "Eating Well" diet. The variety series, as is name implies, includes lectures on green buildings, Edgar Allen Poe, and electronic species.

For over a decade, Burlington was the only community in Vermont where volunteers organized classes for older adults. But now the idea has spread around the state. In 2001, the Green Mountain Academy, a non-profit, independent "life-long learning center" started up in the Manchester-Dorset area. In 2003, Deborah Worthley at UVM's division of Continuing Education received the first of four grants from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute to start the concept in several other communities. Volunteer organizations, much like EEE, now organize programs for seniors in Brattleboro, Rutland, Montpelier, Newport/Derby, Springfield, St. Albans, the Lamoille Valley, and St. Johnsbury. Except for the Green Mountain Academy, members of any Vermont program can attend classes developed by groups in other parts of the state - at no extra charge.

"It's a pleasure to teach to my peers," says Sid Poger, retired UVM professor of English, who is offering a class this spring on Edgar Allen Poe as the inventor of the detective story. "EEE students pay attention. They listen and relate what I say to their own experience. They understand references to World War II and the Cuban missile crisis. And they never ask if a topic will be on the next test."

More Information

• EEE classes meet on Mondays and Fridays, 2pm at the Faith United Methodist Church, 899 Dorset Street, South Burlington.
  Information: Call Don Merit, 862-2531.
• Osher Life Long Learning Institutes in other Vermont communities: Deborah Worthley, 656-4220.
• Spring 2008 programs for EEE and Osher Institutes: www.EEEVermont.org, www.learn.uvm.edu/osher
• Green Mountain Academy, 802-824-3737, www.gmall.org
  

Barbara Leitenberg writes on senior issues for the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging. This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press.