Can old dogs learn new tricks? How about "old" people? Join our conversation this week about growing older but staying up to new challenges.

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Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series from Our Values about core American Values. Dr. Wayne Baker is away this week and has invited Our Values guest columnist Terry Gallagher to discuss this week’s theme: When did you get old? Terry is a communications director for a nonprofit environmental organization in Ann Arbor.

When did you get old? Teaching old dogs new tricks!

Don’t believe the cliché, because the evidence is clear: You can teach an old dog new tricks.

“Whatever they say about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks, it is patently untrue,” according to the charismatic Tufts University veterinarian Nicholas Dodman.

“Old dogs may not learn as quickly as they did when they were young, but with time and patience, most older dogs can be taught to do anything that a young dog can.”

But we’re not really talking about dogs here. In Our Values this week, we’re asking: “When did you get old?” Exploring how and why some people (read organizations, businesses and governments) seem reluctant to tackle new challenges and adapt to changing circumstances.

As for individuals? Researchers on the MacArthur Foundation study Successful Aging report that “older people can, and do, learn new things — and they learn them well.”

Scholars John Rowe, M.D., and Robert Kahn, Ph.D., both members of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network, tell us that “research has demonstrated the remarkable and enduring capacity of the aged brain to make new connections, absorb new data, and thus acquire new skills.”

Some OurValues readers are echoing these conclusions in their comments: They don’t feel old — as long as they keep growing.

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80,” Henry Ford once said. “Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

In the end: Who are you calling old?!

Watch out how you use that O-word! That’s one of the messages of this week’s series on the question raised by marketing guru Seth Godin: When did you get old? If you’re just catching up with us, scroll back through this week’s posts via the links above.

“Old” could be a lame excuse, Seth argues, a way to justify letting ourselves slip into inflexible, unwilling-to-adapt, unable-to-change patterns in our lives. But growing old doesn’t have to mean any such thing! And thank goodness, too, since there will be 10,000 baby-boomers turning 65 every single day from the start of this year until 2030.

“Getting old isn’t nearly as bad as people think it will be,” according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report, Growing Old in America: Expectations vs. Reality. (Click here to download the Pew report in PDF form.) While not ignoring the many drawbacks to aging, the older adults in the survey “have a count-my-blessings attitude,” according to the report.

“Old” also is an offensive label to millions! While many younger people say the average person becomes old at 68, the Pew research suggests we shouldn’t try selling that to people that age. Among those between 65 and 74, only 21 percent say they feel old, and even among those over 75, just over a third say they feel old.

“Among adults 65 and older, fully 60 percent say they feel younger than their age, compared with 32 percent who say they feel exactly their age and just 3 percent who say they feel older than their age,” according to the report. “The survey findings would seem to confirm the old saw that you’re never too old to feel young.”

Join the conversation at Our Values or on Facebook or reach us at ourvaluesproject@gmail.com.