The Academy for Lifelong Learning of Cape Cod, Inc.
recently offered a program entitled Writing and Discussing the Greatest
Era of Change in History: The 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s & 70s. Participants
were asked to write and talk about their perceptions and experiences of
this era Their writings and thoughts were shared in class requiring leadership
on the part of participants. Writing techniques were also covered in class.
This summer, members of the Academy for Lifelong Learning
at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh will be examining An
Introduction to the History and Economics of Argentina and the Argentinians.
This course is not a travelog. The study leader will provide insight
about Argentina and its people through discussions of its history, geography,
and economics. Among other things, the class will attempt to understand
why this Latin American country believes itself to be part of Europe
and why it has the highest percentage of people in psychotherapy in
the world.
Members of the Adult Learning Institute at Columbia-Greene
Community College in Hudson, New York recently discussed the DaVinci
Code in their course People and Books.
Recently, members of the Baylor Institute for Learning in Retirement
in Texas were able to study the Dead Sea Scrolls. The course
examined the history of the scrolls, the different findings in the caves
of Qumran, and the state of current research of the scrolls. It also
included reading of relevant texts from these writings, which reflect
the way of life, ideology, and theology of the Qumran community.
Lord Tennyson’s Lost Friend was the title of a spring
program at the Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning in
Massachusetts. Tennyson’s long elegy for his friend Arthur Hallam
was 16 years in the writing. To better understand the poem, participants
considered Victorian memorial arts and the allure of the uncanny. They
discussed the British stiff upper-lip vs. “repression,”
Freud’s observations on mourning and some thoughts of Heinz Kohut
on difficult relationships.
Members of the Community Academy for Lifelong Learning
in State College, Pennsylvania recently studied the Appreciation
and Interpretation of Early Music. They explored a body of somewhat
unrecognized music written between the 12th and 17th centuries. Following
musical scores while listening to early music, participants discussed
the music and its historical and cultural background in Spain, France,
England and Germany.
Members of the ILR at Bluffton University in Ohio
recently studied Mr. Chips, Annie Sullivan, and Other Extraordinary
Teachers in Film. They explored how time, place, subjects, students,
culture and circumstances affect teaching and learning by viewing films
that profile various methods of teaching.
Ernie Pyle: World War II’s Most Celebrated Journalist is
the title of a course given recently at the ILR at
Bradley University in Peoria, IL. Members joined a local actor and radio
personality as they explored the life and writings of the man who created
the mental image of the American soldier in “the Good War.”
Members of the Learning in Retirement program at Sacred
Heart University in Stamford, CT recently studied Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
100th Anniversary Reflections. Led by the pastor of a local church
and a Bonhoeffer scholar, members reflected on his life and thoughts,
the man and his writings, while examining his values in present social
and moral climates.
Members of the Lifelong Learning Institute, Manassas,
Virginia recently took a course entitled Science and Religion: The
Conflict of Two Different Worlds. They examined two case studies:
the Galileo and Scopes trials and what they tell us about the real conflict
between religion and science.
Members of the Lifelong Learning program at Coastal
Carolina University in South Carolina took part last month in a program
entitled The History of Medicine. Four members of Coastal’s
Department of History shared their internationally recognized research
into several engaging areas of the history of medicine. Brian Nance
spoke on How To Save the Lord Treasurer’s Life: Turquet de Mayerne
and the Final Illness of Robert Cecil. Eliza Glaze’s topic was
The Politics of Bathing in Medieval Italy: Medicine and Power in the
Poems of Peter Eboli. Barry Price discussed The Great Flu Epidemic (of
1918) in South Carolina and Ann Pierce discussed The Scottish Experience
of the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918.
This spring, members of the L.I.F.E. program at Mount
Saint. Mary College in New York studied The Art of Criticism.
The terminology of our culture was culled by the writings of Joan Didion,
Susan Sontag and Pauline Kael. Members discussed Joan Didion’s
Year of Magical Thinking, then compared this to Didion’s novel,
Democracy and selected essays from her Political Fictions. Craig Segelman’s
Sontag and Kael: Opposites Attract Me introduced the voices of these
writers. They then selected several of Sontag’s small gems such
as On Photography, Illness as Metaphor or Regarding the Pain of Other.
Icelandic Sagas is the title of a course being given this
month at the Lyceum program at Binghamton University
in New York. Members will explore the world of the Vikings in an introduction
to the most important of the Icelandic sagas, Njal’s Saga.
Humor, Paradoxes, and Insider Jokes in Religions and Philosophies
is the title of a course given this month at the Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Philosophers and theologians, especially male philosophers and theologians,
tend to take themselves very, very seriously. However, whether by accident
or intention, there is a lot of wonderful humor in both fields. Some
of it is quite ribald and some of it is very subtle. In this class participants
will visit all kinds.
The OLLI program at California State University, Channel
Islands offered members this past winter a program entitled Language
and the Law. Taught by a member of the California Bar, this course
looked at questions such as why people can’t understand what lawyers
write – what’s behind the growing move to change the language
of jury instruction – How does one prove a fact and what is the
role of language in determining credibility. Along with other stimulating
questions, the participants studied the history behind current practices
of language used in the legal world.
The QUEST program in New York City recently gave members
a chance to share their Point of View on a wide selection of
newspaper account, op-ed pieces, editorials and magazine articles. Class
members examined and freely debated the points of view that were expressed
in the class.
Shedding Light on Mental Illness is the title of a course
given this spring at the Senior College at the University
of Maine Hutchinson Center. Participants examined the characteristics
of several major mental illnesses and the evidence for the biological
basis of mental illness. They also discussed the nature of the psychological
experience of mental illness, and the resources that are available for
dealing with it.
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