Key Takeaways
- May retirees find themselves bored even after trying all sorts of activities that are “expected” of older, retired people.
- Lois Simmons, lifelong educator, decided that she would solve that problem by going back into the classroom - this time as a student - for her Masters Degree.
- Now she has a whole new career and remains dedicated to shattering the stereotypes that exist for the word “retiree”.
Throughout her life, Lois Simmons has truly considered age to be a number. For years, the 92-year-old has proven repeatedly that the accumulation of birthdays will not define the things she can and cannot do.
Simmons says some of her outlook came from a 26-year career teaching fourth and fifth graders—“It was really nice to get a refreshing look at the world through their eyes,” she recalls—and some of it came from an appreciation for lifelong learning. She says it’s an appreciation that everyone should acquire.
After retiring in 1988 Simmons was bored. She longed for growth, and day-to-day living became a constant struggle to find contentment.
“I tried to do the retiree things like bowling, tennis, bridge, and all that kind of stuff but it was just absolutely boring,” Simmons says.
So at the age of 75, Simmons returned to the classroom—this time as a student in the masters program at the University of Akron.
“I’ll have to admit,” Simmons starts. “Most people I know would’ve never done this!” Simmons adds.
In Simmons’ view, age-related stereotypes sometimes force people to do what they are supposed to do, and steer them away from what they want to do. She credits her return to school for turning her into someone who loves being in the constant flow of knowledge.
“You’re not put in a little home where everything is closed in on you. You’re out there in the world, learning something new each day. It just boosts you,” Simmons says. “It surely boosted me.”
In 2004, at the age of 78, Simmons received her master’s degree in education, and returned to the classroom as a third-grade teacher. The return fueled a new passion—teaching cursive writing.
Simmons says she became interested in teaching the now-uncommon style of communication after noticing many of her students’ poor penmanship.
“These teachers just don’t have the time, and the world stops focusing on it (cursive) after the third grade,” Simmons says. “Everything is done on a computer nowadays.” “But you have to be able to write,” she adds. “It’s a very important life skill.”
Simmons doesn’t consider herself to be an expert cursive writer, but says she “feels a lot of satisfaction” when she helps people write cursive. She’s taught cursive to English language learners and students working on a GED degree.
Like all passionate teachers, Simmons own face brightens when she describes how the joy of learning a new skill can light the face of a student.
“They feel good and I feel good,” she says, “And that is a major satisfaction for both of us, really.”
Simmons has now retired for a final time, but she fills her days with travel—this past winter she went to Iceland—and she reads a lot.
She continues to teach cursive to a few clients, and is committed to dismantling stereotypes that form the definition of a “typical” retiree.
Her mission, she says, is to “teach the world cursive writing”—one person and one pen at a time.
