No rest for our very own Charles Scharnberger

Teaching Himself By Teaching Others

Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era (PA)
Monday, August 24, 2009

Author: Lori Van Ingen

Retired Millersville University professor Charles Scharnberger believes learning throughout your adult life is important, and it's never too late to start.

Scharnberger said he believes that, in part, because of his father.


His father never graduated from high school, but when he retired at 65, he got a GED and then went on to get a college degree when he was in his 70s.

"That has particularly inspired me that it is never too late to learn," Scharnberger said. To that end, he teaches science classes for seniors.

Scharnberger finds that people who take lifelong-learner classes are interested and engaged in the subjects and bring their own life experiences to them.

"It makes it fun to teach these classes," he said.

He said there are several differences between lifelong learners and the average college-age student.

The senior lifelong learners are more relaxed than the college-age student, he said. They are not obsessed with grades; they are there because they really want to learn.

The participants in these lifelong learning classes are more or less the same age as the 66-year-old Scharnberger , so they share a common perception of things and come from the same point of reference, he said.

A native of St. Louis, Scharnberger earned his undergraduate degree in geology from Amherst College and his doctorate in geology from Washington University in St. Louis.

"My area really is geophysics - or physics applied to the earth. However, I taught a course in astrophysics," Scharnberger said.