"September University is about getting beyond us and them to the we of sustainable future," Says author, Charles Hayes.

Hayes is a self-taught philosopher and one of America's strongest advocates for lifelong learning.

Hayes' book Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World received recognition by the American Library Association's CHOICE Magazine as one of the most outstanding academic books o the year.

Promoting the idea that education should be thought of not as something you get but as something you take, Hayes' work has been featured in USA Today, in the UTNE Reader, and on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation and Alaska Public Radio's Talk of Alaska. His Web site, www.autodidactic.com, provides resources for self-directed learners-from advice about credentials to philosophy about the value that lifelong learning brings to everyday living.

A new Web site, www.septemberuniversity.org, is devoted to getting a September University movement underway all across America. Visitors are urged to spread the word and encourage others to start their own Sept-U discussion groups. All participants are invited to explore ways to positively approach the cultural obstacles we face through continual dialogue and a tireless quest for the better argument.

Enlightenment as a Legacy

By Charles D. Hayes
(Autodidactic Press: $16.95; 288 pp.)

Publisher's review

In 2029, the last of the baby-boom generation will turn 65. Numbering in the tens of millions, this age group clearly has the demographic muscle to transform society. The movement is barely underway, but the dynamics of aging suggest profound social changes ahead: 1.) The search for meaning will intensify. 2.) The psychological effects of death and dying will be reexamined. 3.) The concept of legacy will be transformed. 4.) the subject of economic justice will be reexamined.

September University as an idea is a metaphor for intellectual maturity. It represents an ambitious quest on behalf of posterity. September University, the book, is a call to action, a social forecast, and above all a passionate pronouncement that a bright future depends upon the experiential wisdom of aging citizens. The exploration within its pages has the potential to alter worldviews, heighten aspirations, and elicit reflections about each person's legacy. Readers have the opportunity to explore ways to find meaning in the last chapters of life.

September University is a state of mind: it has no physical address, no faculty, and no staff. It redefines retirement by replacing the picture of a lifestyle devoted to doing very little with the vision of a renaissance of reflective reasoning for the sake of posterity. It is a declaration that people who have entered the fall and winter of life can make their greatest contribution by reconceptualizing a better world for the generations that follow. This means looking forward to sifting through half-century or more of experience, sorting those things that are truly important from those that aren't, and finding ways to pass on that wisdom.

Humankind has moved through the centuries in fits and starts with countless wars, senseless destruction, and often little regard for succeeding generations. Too many of us fall far short in our intellectual efforts to better understand the world, and society as a whole suffers needlessly from our collective ignorance. Such ignorance at best is corrosive to character; at worst it's cancerous. One of life's greatest paradoxes is how creatures with the capacity to be so thoughtful can be so thoughtless. The purpose of September University is to reverse these trends.

A recent PBS documentary, "Boomer Century 1946-2046," introduced the term "middlescence" to describe those of the age who, as adults, transformed the workplace to make it more fun and now, in later life, are ready to transform retirement to make it more exciting and fulfilling. Coincidentally, they also have the leisure to spend time reflecting on their lives. They've come to realize that what matters is not what they've accumulated but what they've contributed. In the coming years they'll want to exercise their brains and find new roles for themselves. They're primed to confront reality and take action for change.

Enrollment in September University comes automatically with age. On a large enough scale, this kind of reflection encouraged could amount to a new enlightenment that matches or surpasses the rigorous intellectual contributions of the eighteenth century. To begin to comprehend the impact of such a movement, consider the implication of millions of citizens suddenly reaching the age where they must face their own mortality. In this moment they perceive simultaneously that time is more valuable than money and that their legacy depends upon being concerned about a future they will not live to see.