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, James Brown, the Temptations, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, and B.B. King. You will also be surprised to hear some wonderful new music. 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

    This year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided an unusually large number of momentous and potentially divisive issues, including abortion, free speech, gun regulation, agency power and, of course, major cases involving former President Trump. 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? Are we undergoing a revolution in modes of constitutional interpretation? As one justice says, to answer these questions, we must “read the decision.” We will discuss eight of the court's 2023 decisions, as case studies raising a number of questions: Did the court's majority stay within its judicial lane in each case? Did it jump existing guardrails or put its thumb on the scales? For the last session, if time permits, we will address an additional case or topic relating to the Supreme Court, chosen by the class members. 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.

    This course will not meet September 30 or October 28.

    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 over 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.

  • Stories of Conflict as Seen Through a Narrator's Lens, Part XVIII

    We will discuss how narrators' perspectives affect our appreciation of works including Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

    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.

  • The Presidency Through a Cinematic Lens

    By all accounts, the fall of 2024 will be a politically fraught period. Rather than adding to the anxiety of the approaching election, we will examine how the presidency has been portrayed in American cinema, starting with classics such as State of the Union (1948) and All the King's Men (1949) and moving on to more recent depictions such as Primary Colors (1999) and The Ides of March (2011).

    Speaker: David Moore received his master's degree in American Studies from Boston College in 1966. He taught in the History Department at Newton North High School receiving the Charles Dana Meserve outstanding teacher award in 1993. His particular historical interests include classical Greece, American Studies, fin de siècle Europe, and the Holocaust.

  • WAIT A MINUTE! The Science of New England Weather

    Sessions 1 – 5. September 9 – October 7 From the Montreal Express to the Bermuda High, New England lies in a battleground of competing atmospheric conditions. Heat and humidity from the tropics meet bitter arctic cold directly above us. The result is our very interesting and unpredictable weather patterns. This 5-week program begins with a study of local conditions observed in our backyards, and moves to global conditions that influence our weather from far-off places. We complete the study with a closer look at the familiar regional quirks that influence us even further.

    Teacher: As a commercial pilot and instrument flight instructor, Frank Villa has experienced many of the challenges of New England weather first-hand. He combines this background with his enthusiasm for lecturing on natural phenomena of all kinds to help explain the fascinating and unpredictable world of New England weather.

  • Life with Father

    Maximum Enrollment: 8. Sessions 6 – 10, October 21 – November 25 Fatherhood carries many challenges which are often unforeseen when the process starts. It has been forever thus. Ved Mehta wrote Daddyji early in his writing career, which was mostly in the USA; his father had grown up in Partition India. Mehta's son turned blind at age 5 and went for schooling to the States but not to the Perkins School you might know. Germaine Greer's son grew up…well, there's the rub and the story as Greer wrote in Daddy, We Hardly Knew You. Greer also became a writer and academically famous for her feminist ways. Both books are engaging; let's read them together.

    Please read half of Daddyji for the first meeting. Seminar style.

    Teacher: Brooks Goddard has a BA from Williams college and an MA from Columbia University's Teachers College. He taught three years in Kenya and 35 years at Wellesley High School, retiring as English Dept. head. His personal academic interests are African history and literature, and the American Civil Rights movement. He is also an avid reader.

  • Writing Your Story: (Memoir, NOT autobiography)

    Maximum Enrollment: 20 If you enjoy writing and sharing stories of your life with a community of writers that will give you constructive feedback, this class may be for you. If you are writing a memoir or simply want to share your stories with your children and grandchildren, most writers find being part of the group inspires them to write more regularly. The best way to learn about memoir writing is to listen to other writers' stories. Everything shared is confidential. Writing is done at home and shared in class. For those who can stay, the class extends to 1 p.m.

    Leader: Sue Crossley is a retired Executive Director with over 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 until retiring in 2022. Sue was inspired by the incredible resilience of those 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.