The lengthening span of retirement, combined with projections of a growing aging population, has made the retirement population an increasingly important consumer group in education (Van der Kamp & Scheeren, 1997). In the 1960s, educational programming efforts for seniors were grounded in assumptions of decline. These assumptions, and a life stages conceptualization of the teachable moment (Havighurst & Orr, 1956), led to educational programs and services designed to prepare individuals to cope with the decrements of old age, the trauma of retirement, and one's gradual disengagement from life (Walker, 1996).