The Third Leader: Lifelong learning

Could this, I mused to myself, be a man who hasn't seen 9am for 78 years? Does he give the same reply about his studies as Woody Allen when he was asked how his therapy was going: "Slowly"? And how many more of them are there? Does this explain the shortage of university places?

Further research, though, discloses that Mr Herzberg, a refugee from Nazi Germany, didn't start his studies until he was 80. But that only increases my admiration. How refreshing, in a time of dreary talk of vocation and relevance, that he should have then had a crack at German and German literature before taking a masters in refugee studies, followed by this one in African studies. What purity of learning!

The dreary ones will, of course, utter pious pleasantries and private condemnations of a waste of time. To which I offer a couple of senior lifetime learners. When they asked Cato, 80, why he was learning Greek at his age, the old boy said he was sorry but it was the youngest one he had left.

And when a student asked Plato what use were all his abstractions, the wise man gave him a coin so he would feel he had gained something, then threw him out. Here's to the next Freshers' Week, Mr Herzberg!