In reality, it was a one-week seminar. Although a significant number of individuals helped establish Metsaülikool, it could be argued that the founding fathers were Olev Träss, Vello Soots, Andres Raudsepp, Henno Sillaste and Heino Jõe. This great tradition has spread around the world and continues to this day. Today, the atmosphere is more laid back. In the past, the debates were more heated when Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union.
The same Metsaülikool format spread to the West Coast of the USA, Australia, Sweden, and eventually to Estonia for the first time in 1989, when the Soviet Union was crumbling. Many of these initiatives lasted for years, but today, two Metsaülkoolid remain. The original one at Kotkajärv, Ontario (most recently August 21st to 27th, 2022) and a second one in Eesti, at the University of Tartu's sports centre in the southern Estonian village of Kääriku (most recently August 17th to 21st, 2022).
If you are a regular reader of Eesti Elu, then you have probably come across numerous articles on Kotkajärve Metsaülikool. As fewer Eesti Elu readers from North America make it to Kääriku Metsaülikool (a three and a half hour drive south of Tallinn), the following is a summary of this year's Kääriku Metsaülikool (Kääriku MÜ).
Kääriku Metsaülikool is held at University of Tartu's Sports Centre, about a 45 minute drive west of Tartu. It is a general sports centre, but its peak season is during winter, when the world's top cross-country ski teams go there to train, including France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Russia , Sweden, and the USA. A few years ago, the facilities were not quite at the level of a Hilton or Marriott, but after very recent renovations, Nordic standards of comfort prevail. In contrast to Kotkajärv, camping out in a tent is not an option.
Down the hill from the main facilities is a scenic lake with two separate saunas, hot tubs, and an outdoor fireplace. The bar in the reception area stays open all night long (a very different vibe than Ontario).
Kääriku MÜ is always organized by theme or topic. This year's theme was how to “age gracefully” or the cheeky title “Happy Ending” („Õnnelik Lõpp“ in Estonian).
If the above description has piqued your interest in checking out Kääriku MÜ, a key consideration before signing up is that not only does Kääriku Metsaülikool take place exclusively in Estonian, all seminars and lectures are held at a university level of Estonian. During the day, the tone is serious. It is like being back in university… except in Estonian.
The five day seminar begins with an opening lecture by a leading Estonian academic. This year was no exception, with the opening lecture given by the University of Tartu's Director of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Professor Toivo Maimets.
Maimets is a very well known figure in Estonia at the moment, as he heads up Estonia's COVID-19 response team (think of him as the Estonian equivalent to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the lead member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force). The subject of his lecture was: “Can death be forecasted and directed?” Maimets maintained that by the 1920s and 1930s, it was accepted wisdom that “you age because natural selection has let you down” and diseases arise because of your age (not the other way around). Much of his lecture was about the roles genes play in ageing (e.g. antagonistic pleiotropy theory, epigenetics, the Hayflick Limit).
The general structure of Kääriku MÜ has remained similar since 2005. A scholar delivers a lecture, which is then followed by a panel discussion. This seems to work well and has stood the test of time.
All mornings at Kääriku MÜ kick off with a seminar to generate more discussion among the participants. One could pick from four seminar groups and attend the same seminar each morning. This year’s topics were: 1) creative writing (led by one of Estonia's most famous writers, Jan Kaus), 2) history and tales of our forefathers, 3) Ukrainian symbols and literature, and 4) the fine line between myths of ageing and the changes that come with ageing.
The author of this article attended the creative writing and every day Kaus gave homework which meant that all attendees had to write something during the day and present it to the group the next morning. It was fun as there were many witty and creative writers in the group including the hard hitting reporter Andrus Karnau from the influential Estonian daily newspaper, Postimees.
On Thursday, the first lecturer was retired professor Ene-Margit Tiit with her presentation showing world wide ageing trends. The next speaker, Martin Klesment, talked about Estonia's aging trends. Both speakers noted the problem was not so much ageing (it was a good thing that people lived longer), but falling birth rates.
Rein Taagepera, a grand old man of both Metsaülikoolid (and a very spry 89 years old) asserted that from 1920 to 2020, the world's population had increased fourfold. He noted that as many new borns would live to be 100 years old, the distribution of a country's population could be expected to be as follows:
1-14 years of age: 15%
15-64 years of age: 50%
65-100 years of age: 35%.
When asked, Taagepera declined to suggest how this would affect governments around the world.
The afternoon panel was led by Aimar Altosaar, a journalist at Postimees. He was the main proponent for featuring ageing as the theme of this year's Kääriku MÜ. His main point was that in Estonia, as in much of the rest of Western world, society held a negative stereotype of elderly people, demonstrated for example, by the difficulty elderly people have in re-entering the work force.
The quality of the lectures on Friday was superb. Professor Tiina Tambaum (from Tallinn University) proposed that in Estonia, the physical problems of the elderly had solutions, but the male population did not want to accept solutions for social problems connected to ageing. She asserted that in Estonia, ageing had a very negative connotation, and an older person was considered equivalent to someone with disabilities. The Estonian policy goal was to change how Estonian society viewed the elderly.
Professor Tiina Tambaum summarized her lecture by stating that the two main issues were the lack of knowledge about ageing by doctors, health care workers, and retirement homes (i.e. what is usual and what is not) and the negative attitude about the elderly. She finished with the interesting aphorism: the degree to which a person can control their environment differentiates a human being from an animal.
Looking at Kääriku MÜ from a social perspective,, given the topic of this year's Metsaülikool, the average age of participants was a little higher than in the past. A majority of the participants are from Tartu, including many B.A. and Masters students, some Ph.D. candidates, plus some professors. Many of the other participants were in their 20s and 30s. Past social programs have included nature walks (biologists showing different type of fauna in the forests surrounding Kääriku), theatre performances, movies, craft beer tastings, buckthorn juice tastings, etc. A younger crowd meant that the sauna evenings were livelier and there was a little more social interaction. I kid you not that one evening, the lecture about psychotropic substances began at 9:00 PM, followed by one on stars and solar systems beginning at 10:00 PM (admittedly, this later lecture would have been difficult to hold during daylight hours).
Estonia's top cardiologist, Dr. Margus Viigimaa contended that if one controlled four factors, one could significantly increase one´s lifespan. These factors are: to not smoke ,to control high blood pressure, reduce high cholesterol, and to regularly exercise.
Saturday morning began with a discussion of the relations between different generations of a family, lead by pastor and family therapist Naatan Haamer. Many topics were discussed, including how to raise the topic of death, dying, or wills with elderly parents or relatives. He suggested starting the sentence with: “It is helpful or important for me to know what your views or wishes are regarding…” Naatan added that the biggest gift or bequest you can make for your children is not a financial one, or money in your will, but to spend time with them in the first twenty years of their life.
Rein Taagepera spoke of men having the courage to be weak. To speak of personal matters, and he shared the experience of his relationship with his three children.
The chief editor of Estonia's leading women's magazine (Eesti Naine or “Estonian Woman”), Heidit Kajo stated that it was important for both men or women to not place all their bets on one life priority (i.e. men not over emphasizing work in their lives, women not only living for their children). Another interesting analogy she used was: you are as old as you are flexible. She did not mean only physical flexibility, but also a willingness to adapt to changes, technology, children's needs, etc.
The most honest admission was a woman telling the Metsaülikool crowd how she came out of the closet (that is, to say that she is gay) to her grandmother and how her grandmother reacted. She was very pleased when her grandmother said: “I do not know what to think.”
The afternoon session was about how the elderly are portrayed in Estonian and non-Estonian films. In general, the elderly are not that often portrayed in films. Teet Teinemaa, lecturer and researcher at Baltic Film, Media and Arts School of Tallinn University, stated that in Eastern Europe, masculine role models tended to end in middle age, and an Eastern European male was often shown as being unsuccessful in transitioning from the Soviet era to the new capitalist/democratic societies.
On the last day, Sunday, pastor Annika Laats spoke about dying and how it was a part of life. It was a topic too often avoided by families and people in general, and is a topic that should be discussed. She emphasized that although it was not possible to practice it (i.e. death), it was more than advisable to prepare for it.
She also touched on the lack of hospices in Estonia and how hospices give human dignity to dying. Just as there are family rooms in hospitals where mothers are together with fathers and newborns, there could be family rooms for people close to death.
An interesting speaker was Karl Käsnapuu (M.A. from the University of Tartu), who specializes in studying death and did his Master's thesis on the topic. He mentioned that in some societies, like Tibet, they start teaching their children about death at an early age. They talk about death as a part of life. He said we were making a huge mistake if we tried to hide the subject of death from our children.
In summary, the lectures were fascinating and of the highest quality. It is clear that the organizers of Kääriku MÜ are able to attract the best speakers in Estonia on whatever theme is chosen for that year. It is an intense five days if you are looking for intellectual stimulation and development. After participating in this kind of programme, you have really earned a sauna and a few beers by the end of the day. If you are seriously thinking of participating in Kääriku MÜ but have questions, please feel free to write to the new coordinator of Kääriku MÜ, Lennart Kitt (lennart.kitt@gmail.com ).
