Nurse finds ‘Cure’ in OLLI offerings

Maggie Ramlow admits she once suffered from “intellectual homelessness.”

After retirement her skills as a nurse or experience as a nursing educator didn’t offer remedies. In time, the learning opportunities available in Green Valley provided the right antidote.

Now she will lead a study group for the Green Valley affiliate of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Arizona to prevent others from succumbing to intellectual stagnation and atrophy, a deficiency her friend Glenda Martin dubbed “intellectual homelessness.”

“I think that can happen when you retire,” she explained. “When I moved here in 1988, I thought I had died and gone to heaven because I didn’t have to work.

“I got totally involved in fun stuff, golf and whatever; but I didn’t get mentally stimulated,” she said. “Programs like OLLI weren’t available then. Now I realize how much educational experiences like OLLI can stimulate you.”

Ramlow’s intellectual rehabilitation began while she was nurturing her physical body along with members of the Green Valley Hiking Club.

“We discovered we were talking about books while we were hiking,” she recalled.

This shared interest prompted her to start the Hikers’ Book Group and participate in book discussions with members of Desert Hills Lutheran Church.

“When the cinema finally came here, it was easier to go to movies; and I started writing movie reviews and sharing them with my friends,” she said.

Books and films were fused when Ramlow initiated the “Books to Films” interest group for the Green Valley branch of the American Association of University Women. This reading group selects books that have been made into movies, and members discuss how and why the book and film versions differ.

“I’m interested in films that have a message. Ones that have something to say about a certain cultural or social aspect,” she said. “I thought it would be a good idea to watch a film and consider what social issue this movie is talking about.”

Such provocative movies are the ones OLLI “students” will discuss when Ramlow’s “Films That Speak” study group begins on Oct. 27 at First American Title Insurance Co. in the Green Valley Village (formerly the Green Valley Mall). Each Monday for four weeks, participants will watch a film, break for lunch, then regroup to discuss the issues raised by the movie.

“We’ll examine the writer/director’s point of view and contrast this with society’s and the class members’ points of view,” she said.

“I thought it would be fun to do ‘South Pacific.’ It was brave to bring up the topic of racial prejudice at the time it was written,” she said. “We’ll be able to discuss what the environment in the United States was at that time and compare that to what the environment is now in terms of race. This is especially pertinent now when we have a presidential candidate who is a black man.”

“Under the Same Moon” is another film Ramlow has chosen for the class. It’s the story of a young Mexican boy who crosses the border illegally to search for his mother, an undocumented immigrant who fled to Los Angeles in order to support her family.

“Immigration is a very poignant subject now in Green Valley,” she said. “Some of us have sympathy for undocumented migrants.

“Others tend to lump them all together. They take the criminal ones, the drug ones, the coyotes and the hungry workers and lump them all into one basket.

“I liked this film because it got into the hearts of the little boy and his mother,” she explained.

Abortion is the controversial subject of the film “Citizen Ruth.”

“Laura Dern plays the part of a really down-and-out, glue-sniffing, paint-sniffing woman who has several children she can’t take care of,” Ramlow said. “She is arrested for the umpteenth time and put in jail.

“She’s pregnant again, and the local judge says, ‘Ruth, you cannot do this anymore. You have kids you can’t take care of. You can’t take care of yourself. If you agree to an abortion, we’ll limit your time in jail or not put you in jail’.”

The film raises the question: Does the public have the right to intervene in a woman’s choice? By introducing both Pro-Choice and Right-to-Life advocates, the film maintains its objectivity, Ramlow said.

During the final phase of her nursing career in St. Paul hospitals, Ramlow conducted management training and development courses, in which she used analyses of personality types to develop leadership and build successful work teams. She and clinical psychologist Dr. Joyce Degenhart will share their knowledge of personality testing when the pair leads the study group “All About Personality Types” during the OLLI/Green Valley spring semester from Feb. 2 through March 27, 2009.

“We’ll use the Myers-Briggs test, which you can take on the Internet, to explore the 16 personality types and how differently people communicate and deal with situations in their environments,” Ramlow said.

She also is contributing her professional knowledge as a newly elected member of the Casa de Esperanza board.

In addition to Ramlow’s “Films That Speak” class, several other OLLI/Green Valley study groups will begin in late October or November: Introduction to Judaism; Investing 101 — Beginner’s Guide; Non-Fiction Addiction II, “The Girls Who Went Away”; Great Nature Writers in America; Psychological Perspectives on War, Violence and Terrorism; Museums in Tucson; Digging the Days of the Dead.

Membership/registration packets with specific class information are available at the Joyner-Green Valley Library, or contact Penny Schmitt at the OLLI/UA office (520) 626-9039 or ollimail@u.arizona.edu. For complete information, visit www.olli.arizona.edu.

Marge Hanley is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.