11:30 AM Course List

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Courses

• Bright Moments of Jazz & Rock

  This course celebrates the great bands and stars of pop, rock 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, Michael McDonald, Elvis, Beatles, James Brown, the Temptations, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, and some Doo-wop thrown in too. We will listen, watch and discuss the greats. We will take a look at what it takes for 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 bassist/vocalist who plays Soul, Funk, Blues, Jazz and Rock. In retirement he loves to play bass and make abstract art. He loves to talk about music so if you do too please join!

• Notable Supreme Court Cases of 2024

  Sessions 1 – 5. March 10 – April 7. Last year's extraordinary U.S. Supreme Court term wasn't just about gun regulation, abortion, President Trump and agency power (all of which we discussed in the fall). The Court also addressed free speech, cutting edge social media issues and voting rights, among other things. Already this year, it has decided the TikTok case, including free speech. We will read and discuss summaries of four or five 2024 cases that are significant in themselves or that hint at the justices' likely direction on important questions in the near future. While this course will start where our Fall discussion ended, it is self-contained and does not assume that you took any prior course. We will analyze one case per week and ask: Did the justices honestly try to determine what the constitution, precedent and facts require? Or do their decisions just reflect the majority's policy preferences or partisan behavior? Which judges provided "swing votes" and why? As one justice says, to answer these questions, we must “read the decision.” The instructor will draw on his experience as a recently-retired trial court judge and, previously, a lawyer who briefed and argued cases in state and federal appellate courts, including one U.S. Supreme Court oral argument.

  Teacher: Doug Wilkins recently retired as a judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court, where he served from 2010 to 2023. Before his appointment, he was a partner at the Cambridge law firm of Anderson & Kreiger LLP. He served in several positions with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office from 1983 to 1999, where he argued more than 80 appeals at all levels of the state and federal courts, including numerous briefs and one argument in the U.S. Supreme Court. After receiving his J.D. in 1978, he clerked in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and was an associate in the Boston law firm of Palmer & Dodge.

• Probing the Creative Universe

  Sessions 6 – 10. April 14 – May 19. Science has compiled a comprehensive and detailed natural history of our universe, our sun and earth, and life on earth, though there remain some gaps in our knowledge.

  Yet, the more we learn about the mechanisms of our creative universe, the bigger the philosophical and theological questions that result.

  In this five-week program, we will study the scientific creation story and explore some of the questions raised by theologians, philosophers and scientific discoveries about our human place in this mechanical universe. These questions include, among others, whether our human existence and consciousness have meaning or we're just a fortuitous formulation of atoms; whether there is a moral arc to the universe or primarily randomness and chaos: whether there is special meaning to human existence.

  In this program, we will study the science of the universe, but ponder the questions through discussion and interaction.

  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 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 as Seen Through a Narrator's Lens, Part XVIII

  We will discuss how narrators' perspectives affect our appreciation of works including two selected poems by Robert Frost. Our emphasis will be on selections from The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

  Speaker: 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.

• Unknown But Not Forgotten: A Social History of 19th Century America Through Women's Lives

  Women constitute 50 percent of the population, yet they rarely make up more than five percent of our historical narratives. This course will examine American history through the lens of seven lesser-known women whose lives exemplify the intricacies of American society and the evolving roles of women within it. Using diaries and secondary sources, we will explore the contexts surrounding the lives of women such as Martha Ballard, an herbalist and midwife from late 18th-century Augusta, Maine; Sara Ripley, an early 19th-century resident of Waltham, Mass.; and Harriet Ann Jacobs, born into slavery in North Carolina in 1813.

  Teacher: David Moore taught in the history department at Newton North High School. He received his master's degree from Boston College. He received the Charles Dana Meserve Outstanding Teacher Award in 1993. His particular history interests include classical Greece, American studies, and the Holocaust.

• 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 also will offer an opportunity to hear the intimate stories of others. Everything shared is confidential. The class regularly extends to 1 pm.

  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.