The Adult Learning Institute at Columbia-Greene Community
College in Hudson, New York recently offered members a chance to learn
about Beekeeping. The guest speaker has kept honeybees for 30 years and
has started two local bee clubs. He also writes a weekly column on the
subject in three local newspapers. Participants will learn about the importance
of the honeybee industry for agriculture, the economy and the world-wide
food supply. The many medicinal benefits of the products of the bee hive
will also be covered.
The Center for Learning in Retirement at Rock Valley
College in Illinois had a well-known Economist come in to discuss his
financial forecasts. Members found his straightforward analysis of economic
and financial market issues very informative.
Members of the Community Academy for Lifelong Learning (CALL)
in State College, Pennsylvania took part in Stream Monitoring
in July. As part of the PA Senior Environmental Corps’ stream
quality monitoring effort, they learned the why? Where? and How? of
stream testing in their local area.
Members of the ILEAD program at Dartmouth University
in Hanover, New Hampshire recently took a course entitled Living
With Our Mortality. This experiential course offered an opportunity
to explore experience, attitudes and feelings related to dying and death.
Member also considered issues and tasks of their own end-of-life time,
discussed end-of-life issues in a safe and light-hearted setting, gained
comfort in supporting friends and family who are dealing with end-of-life
issues and gained a better understanding of the resources available
for the final stage of life.
This past summer, the ILR at Old Dominion University
in Virginia offered members a chance to study Republic of Congo:
Who, What, When, Where? They started with the horrors of King Leopold’s
private rule of this country, and then studied the economic and political
powers needed to keep the goods flowing.
This fall, members of the Jefferson Institute for Lifelong
Learning (JILL) in Virginia will be studying Four Transitions
in the West: Towards Athens or Jerusalem? By examining the Christian
medieval world, the “rebirth,” the Reformation, and the
Enlightenment, they can study historical change and perhaps gain a few
insights on the dynamics of history.
Shakespeare’s Ladies: Women with Attitude is the title
of a course give at the L.I.F.E. program at Mount Saint
Mary College in Newburgh, New York this summer. Some critics have questioned
the strength of the female characters in Shakespeare’s plays.
The critics have also questioned the Bard’s ability to bring life
to his female characters. Participants will investigate these questions
as they relate to the characters of Lady Macbeth, Portia, Kate, Desdemona,
Ophelia, and perhaps others.
The Learning in Retirement program at Iona College
(LIRIC) in New York is offering a course entitled What Did You Say?
This program will teach lip-reading and listening strategies to individuals
with hearing impairments.
This past spring, members of the LIR program at the
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, studied Luther’s Unfinished
Reformation. They examined the Reformation in its historical context
and sought to determine what it means for the churchgoer in today’s
world. They also looked at Luther’s interpretation of church doctrine
and teaching in our everyday life and Christian experience.
Lifelong Learners at the Fairfield Senior Center in
cooperation with Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut will
be studying Religion, The Movies, and Mortality. Who am I?
Where am I going? Why am I here? Participants will seek answers to these
three questions by viewing six contemporary films. Each session will
combine film viewing with lectures’ input, background data and
discussion.
The new LLI at Armstrong Atlantic State University
is off to a great start with some excellent courses being offered. The
World is Flat was the title of one course using New York Times
columnist Thomas L. Friedman’s latest book of the same name. Participants
studied his attempts to demystify the often bewildering global, economic,
political and societal scene unfolding. The question “Has the
convergence of cheap, ubiquitous technologies obliterated all impediments
to competitive advantage, flattening the globe with a rapidity that
threatens stable economic and political systems?” was also studied.
This fall, the Lifelong Learning Institute at James
Madison University in Virginia is offering members a chance to study
The Rise and Fall of Communism. This course will examine the
communist seizure of power in Hungary after World War II, the Stalinist
years, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the years of “goulash
communism” under Janos Kadar, the fall of communism and the new
post-communist Hungary.
Over the summer members of the Lifetime Learning Institute
at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale studied the Life
of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The course focused on her life (not Charles).
She was so much more than just his wife.
Travel through a World History Perspective is the title of
a course being given this fall at the Lifetime Learning Institute
at SUNY New Paltz in New York. This course will develop the principles
through which a world historian perceives and understands a certain
place and time. Once this groundwork is set, it will be applied to Tucson,
Arizona; New Orleans, Louisiana; Guatemala; Croatia; Greece; Thailand;
and other places. The most important goal of the course will be the
enhancement of travel by students, no matter where their travel takes
them.
Members of the Lifelong Learning Program at Regis
College in Massachusetts will be studying The Progress Era
this fall. The people and the struggles of that age of fierce discontent
a century ago, 1900-1920, still command our attention. Participants
will study The Progressive Era’s broad agenda ranging beyond the
control of big business, the eradication of poverty and the purification
of politics to embrace gender relations and the discipline of leisure
and pleasure.
The Lifelong Learning Society at Christopher Newport
University in Virginia is offering a program this fall entitled Generational
Differences in American Political Behavior. Why do some people
vote and others do not? Why are some people turned of by the political
process and others are not? They will examine these questions using
the behavior approach to politics and focusing on the differences and
similarities in the four active political generations in America.
The L.I.F.E. program at Mount Saint Mary College in
Newburgh, New York is offering its members a chance to study the Ladder
of the Beatitudes. This course will examine the teachings of the
Sermon on the Mount and its relevance to our lives today. This rediscovery
of an ancient tradition can sustain spiritual seekers today.
Members of the Lyceum Program at Binghamton University
in New York took a course entitled Semantics. They looked at
the roles and uses of language; persuasion and control, information,
and artistic expression. The course also dealt with the truth, adequacy
and degree of trustworthiness of statement, emphasizing the assumption
that cooperation is preferable to conflict.
Members of the Norton Institute for Continuing Education (NICE)
in Norton, Massachusetts recently enjoyed taking History of American
Women. Their roles, struggles and achievements from the colonial
era to the present were studied.
Members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor recently took a course entitled
Mindfulness and Health – Meditation as Medicine. They
explored the many aspects of this practice and learned techniques for
mindful meditation. Modern medicine recognizes the beneficial effects
of mindfulness practice for people facing a broad range of physical
illnesses.
During the summer, members of the OLLI program at
Yavapai College in Arizona took part in a course entitled How Much
is That in American? Working and Living “Over There.”
This class provided a
different speaker each week who shared their experience living and working
abroad.
The fall lecture series of the OMNILORE program at
California State University Dominquez Hills is focusing on Comedy:
An Interdisciplinary Approach. This six-part series provides an
overview of the experience, nature, and function of comedy and humor
in America and other cultures. Experts from disciplines of literature,
art, film studies, history, philosophy and social science will explore
broad and specific topics as they introduce various genres, models,
and traditions in comedy.
The Rose Institute for Lifelong Learning in Beachwood,
Ohio offered some delightful courses this past spring. One of them was
What’s Hot, What’s Not (In Science). An informative,
up-to-date and interesting explanation of some of the “breakout”
news stories in the world of science over the past year were discussed
by the participants. Topics include tsunamis, global warming and avian
flu.
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