Take these chances to learn

Friday, September 9, 2011

The Bedford School District is going to offer adult education classes.

The Bedford Recreation Department is offering several classes.

Now’s your chance to learn something new.

Thanks to the Rec Department, you can learn to take better photos, how to shoot with a bow and arrow, or how to prepare Indian food. And your kids can take the American Red Cross babysitting class.

The school district will offer classes in art, computers and introductory Spanish, all valuable in terms of brainpower.

It’s always tempting, of course, to avoid learning as one would avoid the plague, especially when one has finished with school. But are we ever finished with learning? Sure, school ends after we’ve been awarded our doctorates, but we still can learn.

And it might be especially important to learn something that has nothing to do with what we do on a daily basis. For instance, it’s unlikely that we’ll need archery in our day-to-day jobs (unless one is robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, as a well-known Briton once did – allegedly, of course), but it might be fun to learn. And it will turn our brains in a different direction.

We might not have much occasion to speak Spanish in our day-to-day lives, but according to a great deal of research, learning a new language is one of the best ways to ward off dementia. And given the way of the world, Spanish might become an integral part of day-to-day life in America. So, in the words of Paul Stookey in a live performance of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “If you do not know the words, you’d better learn them.”

And when it comes to a foreign language, most of us do not know the words, regardless of what language it might be. Yet when we travel outside of the U.S., we find that many people know some English.

Here, then, thanks to the Bedford School District, is a chance for us to play a little catchup by learning a bit of Spanish. And then, thanks to the Rec Department, take a class in ballroom dancing.

Think of it: gliding across the floor while speaking Spanish. Picture-perfect.