In our Education Issue this Sunday, we explore what it takes to send every child to college; get people reading poetry; create an always-on tutor; and fire up a university. Below, accounts of notable people learning new things at an older age.

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MARIE CURIE

The scientist learns to swim

The pioneer of radiation research and two-time Nobel Prize winner did not learn how to swim until her 50s, when she was taught by her two grown daughters. Her daughter Eve later wrote: “You forgot her gray hair, hidden under the bathing cap, and her wrinkled face in admiring the slim, supple body, the pretty white arms and the lively, charming gestures of a young girl. . . . Without ever openly proposing a race, she put herself in training to break the records of speed and distance held by the university teaching body.”

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AYN RAND

The author learns philately

The author of “Atlas Shrugged” — and a determined enemy of “collectivism” — took up stamp collecting in her mid-60s. In a 1971 essay describing her passion for philately, Rand reflected that “no matter how dreadful some of mankind’s activities might be, here is a field in which men are functioning reasonably, efficiently and successfully.”

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MILES DAVIS

The musician learns to box

In his late 20s, the jazz icon was battling a heroin addiction. He became inspired to change his life by the world-champion welterweight and middleweight boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, who “was one of the few idols that I have ever had,” Davis wrote in his autobiography. “I figured if he could be as disciplined as he was, then I could do it, too.”

In 1952, Davis showed up high at New York City’s Gleason’s Gym and asked the trainer Bobby McQuillen to take him on as a boxing student. McQuillen initially turned Davis away, but within two years, Davis had cleaned up enough to begin training. Davis wrote, “You’ve got to have style in whatever you do — writing, music, painting, fashion, boxing, anything.”

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LEO TOLSTOY

The novelist learns to bicycle

The author of “War and Peace” took his first bicycling lesson at age 67, only a month after the death of his 7-year-old son, Vanichka. He was still grieving, and the Moscow Society of Velocipede-Lovers provided him a free bike and instruction along the garden paths on his estate. He became a devotee, taking rides after his morning chores. “Count Leo Tolstoy . . . now rides the wheel,” declared Scientific American in 1896, “much to the astonishment of the peasants on his estate.” A close friend noted: “Tolstoy has learned to ride a bicycle. Is this not inconsistent with Christian ideals?”

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DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

The general learns to paint

Eisenhower started painting when he was 58, after World War II, in part to calm his nerves. In 1950, the five-star general wrote to his friend Winston Churchill: “I have had a lot of fun since I took up, in my somewhat miserable way, your hobby of painting. I have had no instruction, have no talent and certainly no justification for covering nice white canvas with the kind of daubs that seem constantly to spring from my brushes.” When Eisenhower became president three years later, he assigned a sergeant posted to the White House the job of preparing his canvases and paints.