“Much-craved learning” for all ages

MIT Prof. Leslie Tilley’s World Music and Global Rhythms online course finds an enthusiastic audience in these older adults

The following note to MIT Prof. Leslie Tilley has been shared with permission from the author.

My name is David, and I work in Seattle at an assisted living community for older adults. I just wanted to tell you that a group of about 10 of us have been watching your online MITx course World Music and Global Rhythms. Great job on your whole presentation. The members of my group (mostly in their 80s and 90s) are totally engaged and enjoying clapping and finger-tapping along to gamelan as well as all the other unfamiliar music genres for their ears. There is so much physical participation and much-craved learning for older folks watching your course and getting engaged with this musical subject matter.

MIT's online course World Music: Global Rhythms finds an enthusiastic audience in these older adults

We all agree that a music class that uses samples of classical Indian music, gamelan, Sex Pistols, and Dave Brubeck is a ton of fun. Learning to clap, tap, and count along with the different genres is such a great mental exercise for all of us.

Really a great student-experience for all of us, and I thought you might enjoy the feedback from this northwest corner of the country.

David Pearlstein
Ida Culver House Ravenna
Librarian and Life Enrichment Facilitator

“Much-craved learning” for all ages was originally published in MIT Open Learning on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.