11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Courses

  • Bright Moments of Jazz & Rock

    This course celebrates the great bands and stars of pop, rock, soul and jazz. We will listen to recordings, watch videos, and talk about a wide variety of musicians and bands. Social, historical, and musical context will be provided. Examples of the artists who will be included are Aretha Franklin, Doobie Brothers, Vulfpeck, Beatles, California Honeydrops, Temptations, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Weather Report, Jon Cleary and some Doo-wop thrown in too. You will likely discover artists you like that are new to you along the way. We will listen, watch, and discuss the greats. We will take a look at what it takes for new bands to be successful in the Internet era. You will expand your jazz and rock music appreciation and have fun doing it. Come and share your bright moments!

    Teacher: Tom Doran is a retired bassist/vocalist who played Soul, Funk, Blues, Jazz, and Rock. In retirement he loves to make abstract art abstract art. He loves to talk about music, so if you do too, please join!

  • Science and the Amazing Universe: The Wonders of Creation and the Amazing Human Body

    In this 10-week course, we will explore the discoveries of science that have led to an amazing picture of a universe that created itself from a burst of pure energy 13.7 billion years ago and made gradual changes resulting in the amazing structure of our human body. We will discuss the latest developments in science, while asking the profound question of why it happened.

    Weeks 1 – 5: Setting the Stage: A discussion of the remarkable events by which the universe transformed itself from pure energy to solid matter and created life and ultimately humankind.

    Weeks 6 – 10: Amazing Wonders of the Human Body: Once Earth was formed and life evolved, the universe created the most complex object ever discovered: the human body. We will explore some of the wonders of this amazing complexity.

    Teacher: Frank Villa has a lifelong interest in the natural sciences. An award-winning lecturer, he is a natural teacher who finds great joy in explaining complex principles and processes, and bringing in the latest quests and discoveries of science to a general audience. He has developed curricula and taught courses in many settings on topics as diverse as the formation of the universe, human genetics, and how to make moonshine.

    In addition to his degrees in the sciences, to explore his interest in the “big questions,” Frank achieved a master's degree in Religion and Theology from Andover Newton Theological School in 2004. Frank led the Science and Religion Program at the Boston Theological Institute for many years.

    Frank is a former teacher of high school physics and earth science, a fully rated commercial pilot and flight instructor, and was a small business owner whose company specialized in the design and outfitting of science laboratories.

  • Stories of Conflict Through a Narrator's Lens, Part XXI

    We will discuss how narrators' perspectives affect our appreciation of works, including selected sonnets by Shakespeare. Our emphasis will be on The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

    Teacher: Helen Smith has taught at the Winsor School, Newton North and in Armenia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Georgia, Romania, and Zambia. A Smith College graduate, she edits texts about writing and journalism. She is the president of the New England Scholastic Press Association.

  • War and Fiction

    5 weeks. April 13 – May 18. Arising out of a recent course, the issue of “what is fiction/what is real?” emerged as an elusive if intriguing topic. This seminar will use two well-known books on war to agitate your minds: how does one write about such horrors and how “real” can an author be? The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien reconstructs the Vietnam War and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut looks at the Dresden bombings of World War II in particular, war in general. Both writers have strong ties to Massachusetts. It should be dynamic, trust me.

    Teacher: Brooks Goddard is a career teacher who began teaching in 1963. He has taught in many schools, most notably in Kenya and Wellesley, where he was English Department Head for 20 years. He has travelled extensively internationally, reads eclectically, and gardens to exhaustion.

  • Western Gunslingers

    This course consists of ten PowerPoint seminars on the life and times of gunslingers who lived in the American West in the late 19th century and are well known in American popular culture. They are broken up into two series: five on the “Good Guys” and another five on the “Bad Guys.”

    The American West has been portrayed extensively in westerns and other media and subjected, on the one hand, to broad exaggeration, and, on the other, to a more recent tendency to uninformed debunking. The intent is to present the unvarnished truth as far as it can be ascertained from historical records.

    Note: On average, the class will run about 75 minutes (to 12:45) to provide enough time for Q&A.

    The Good Guys series consists of the following five seminars:

    • Wild Bill Hickok
    • Wyatt Earp
    • Bat Masterson
    • Buffalo Bill Cody
    • Annie Oakley

    The Bad Guys series addresses the following:

    • Jesse James
    • Billy the Kid
    • Belle Starr
    • Black Bart
    • Butch Cassidy

    Teacher: Daniel Seligman is a retired computer engineer with a lifelong interest in the American West, dating from his days as a small child watching B westerns on a 7-inch TV screen in the 1950s. Over the years he has indulged his interests in extensive readings and travels and in the publication of magazine articles and the presentation of seminars on western historical figures.

    He has published in True West, Wild West, and America's Civil War magazines and on the Legends of America website.

  • Writing Your Story: (Memoir, NOT autobiography)

    Maximum Enrollment: 14 If you enjoy writing and sharing stories of your life with a community of writers who will give you constructive feedback, this class may be for you. During each class, participants take turns reading their stories aloud while the class listens and writes thoughtful responses that are shared with the writer. This class will not only inspire you to write, but it will also offer an opportunity to hear the intimate stories of others. Everything shared is confidential. The class regularly extends to 1:00 p.m.

    Teacher: Sue Crossley is a retired executive director with more than 40 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. During this time, she founded a nonprofit in PA supporting people with disabilities and led Family Promise Metrowest in Natick, serving families facing homelessness. Sue retired in 2022. During her tenure, she was inspired by the incredible resilience of the families served and wrote extensively to share their personal stories with others as a means of education and outreach to the community. Having come from an Armenian family of storytellers, she now enjoys writing her own personal stories in reflection of a life of gratitude.