An undergraduate course at the University of Toronto brings together students and residents of Christie Gardens, a retirement community in the city, on Sept. 5.

The first lecture in the “Aging and Health” class at the University of Toronto last week began with an important announcement.

One of the professors, Esme Fuller-Thomson, pointed to one of the students seated in the back row of the room. He was bald, with glasses and a white beard. His name was Earle Toppings. It was Mr. Toppings’s 94th birthday.

“How great is it,” she said, “that your 94th birthday is your first day at school again?”

This was no ordinary day for Mr. Toppings. And this was no ordinary class. Half of the students there that morning were 19- and 20-year-olds, undergraduates at the University of Toronto. And the o

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