Fall 2004 Courses and Leaders

(Just to see what has been offered)

The 19 courses for the fall '04 term are organized by the headings of Art, Music and Literature; Economics, Government & Public Affairs; and Personal Enrichment. They are followed by the Divertimenti. The fall '04 course list and the registration form summarize all the offerings by days of the week.

ART, MUSIC & LITERATURE

CITIES OF DESTINY

This humanities course showcases the artistic treasures of some of the great cities of the world and seeks to understand why they deserve to be called “cities of destiny.” We’ll explore the great urban center of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlán, with Mesoamerican archaeologist Jane Day; Prague between history and dreams through the eyes of artist Barbara Froula; and Vienna in its musical and geopolitical heyday with music lover Jim Kneser. Veteran traveler Jim Mingle takes us to the wartime London of Orwell, Churchill, and Greene and to the city of immigrants that contemporary novelist Zadie Smith calls home. We’ll tour Paris, queen city of nineteenth-century art, music, and literature, with pianist and music critic Robin McNeil. Clinical and forensic psychologist Sheila Porter guides us through Shanghai, Asia’s “sophisticated trollop.” Our last stop is Palermo, where recent visitor Barbara Young found “untold treasures”—a vibrant mix of old and new epitomized by a modern workshop for cinematography.

Required reading of a few chapters: Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs (Random House, 2004).

Recommended reading: Cities of Destiny, Toynbee, Arnold (Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1976).

Coordinators: In this moveable feast for the armchair traveler, Jane Yoder and Sally Kneser—both passionate sightseers of the imagination—serve up a rich stew of knowledgeable experts on each city.

Lifelong learner Jane Yoder (Cities of Destiny) seeks out mental challenges in all her undertakings and happily keeps exploring ideas to quell the pangs of ignorance. She has facilitated courses in Great Music, Ethics, and Ayn Rand. The latter inspired continuing independent study and activities.

During and after child rearing, return to school meant earning an M.Ed. then accepting various teaching posts in secondary schools. Work in education included a seminar in socialist education on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Clerical duties for a multinational construction corporation replaced teaching but not learning. Retirement has made possible seminars on Objectivist studies, an on-line course, and various writing from contributing to an academic journal and participation in five internet discussion groups of professional writers, professors and students.

Lifelong Learning consists of sharing. It is much more exciting with an academic agora. (Ah-ha! Time to pull out the dictionary?)

Bridge nut and art groupie Sally Kneser (Bridge, Cities of Destiny, Modern Art) is always ready to learn something new. "I have never approached a formal study of the Modern artists, I just love them. Now I'm learning the words that I’ve needed to express my feelings and understandings." She tackles learning with lists, flash cards, concentration and humor. Her enthusiasm is hard to resist.

Presenters:

Dr. Jane Stevenson Day (Cities of Destiny) received her B.A. in English (Magna cum laude) from Colorado College and her M.A in Anthropology/ Museum Studies and her Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of Colorado. She has been associated with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science since 1985. Honors over the past years have included membership in Phi Beta Kappa, The Louis T. Benezet Outstanding Alumni Award from Colorado College and The Robert Stroessner Award for Contributions to the Field of Latin American Art and Archaeology from the Denver Art Museum.

Jane is retired as Chief Curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and now serves the museum as Chief Curator Emeritus and is an adjunct curator in the department of Anthropology. She has lectured and published extensively on the archaeology of Central America and has been active in professional organizations in both archaeology and museology. In the Denver area she maintains professional associations with the academic and museum community. Over the years she organized and participated in numerous seminars and conferences and has developed and curated many successful exhibitions at the Museum including “Costa Rica: Art and Archaeology of the Rich Coast”, “Nomads of the Russian Steppes” and the enormously successful 1992 exhibit “Aztec: the World of Moctezuma”. In retirement she continues to be active as a scholar, a museum consultant and an educator for adult audiences.

American artist, Barbara Froula, (Cities of Destiny) was selected to provide the watercolor illustrations for a new book entitled Prague, Between History and Dreams, by Dr. Vaclav Cilek. Barbara Froula's paintings of the city reflect her background in architecture and her love for the urban landscape. Her work is among the most widely collected of any cityscape painter in the region. She has been commissioned to paint images for scores of posters by organizations including Historic Denver, the University of Denver, the Denver Performing Arts Center, and Central City Opera Association. Her work appears in 9 published books. Eight trips to Prague resulted in over one hundred paintings which are represented in the book.

"When I paint on site, I become a part of that place for a time, and the place becomes part of me. It is unforgettable, and when it is most
successful, the feelings translate into something universal."

Froula exhibits her original work in her own gallery at 186 South Pennsylvania Street.

After a career in financial management, Jim Kneser (Econ 101, Critical Economic Issues, Smart People & the Costly Mistakes they Make with Money, Colorado Ballot Issues 2004) has turned his attention to educating adults about the workings of complicated economic principles in the real world. In the past few years he’s taught classes in microeconomics, macroeconomics, globalization, and public policy. Hardly a Johnny one-note, Jim indulges his lifelong interest in music by facilitating courses showcasing some of his favorite composers.

Robin McNeil (Cities of Destiny) has a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Indiana University and a Master of Music in Performance from the University of Illinois. He began a teaching career at the University of Illinois and continued at the University of South Dakota where he was Chairman of the Piano Department.

He has performed throughout the Midwest and East as soloist, duo pianist, a partner in four-hand concerts, and with chamber groups. He has also performed as soloist with symphony orchestras. Robin has written many music book reviews for Choice magazine of the American Library Association in addition to being an experienced music critic for newspapers. He is also a published poet and the Denver composer, David Mullikin, has used his poems for art song texts.

Outside the sphere of music, Robin has raced sports cars and flown WW II aircraft.

Robin now lives with his wife in Littleton where he teaches privately and continues to do research on the French composer, Théodore Gouvy, compiling a list of works and translating his biography. Robin is President of the Piano Arts Association and a member of the Institut Théodore Gouvy of Hombourg-Haut, France.

Jim Mingle (Literary Walks in Great Britain) has roamed the byways of Wales, Yorkshire, Cornwall, and Dorset throughout his professional life in higher education. He heartily endorses the idea that “the world is best seen at two miles per hour—with a knapsack on your back, a book in your pocket, and a pint at the end of the road.”

Sheila Porter PhD (Cities of Destiny) has an undergraduate degree in fine art, with a minor in African art history and a doctorate in clinical psychology which she has practiced for 30 years, first in Ohio, and now in Denver. In her diverse practice, she has treated dancers, artists, actors, rapists and serial killers, along with a host of other clients with less dramatic problems! She has always been fascinated by the reciprocal interaction between the individual and his cultural and social environment. She has been an international speaker since the 80's for The American Institute of Medical Education, a psychiatric group which studies the psychological makeup of artists and its impact on their work. Her lecture on Ben Shahn was solicited by the Ben Shahn Archives and is now a part of that collection which is housed permanently at Harvard University. Her most recent lecture was titled "Mao, the Cultural Revolution, and Why Despotic Leaders Need to Destroy Art".

Everything that Barbara Young (Cities of Destiny) does is done with gusto! She delights in learning new things and accepts challenges with glee. She is a dedicated learner and seems to have a background in every subject that comes up. Time with Barbara is time well-spent.

MODERN ART: THE SHOCK OF THE NEW

Does your knowledge of art stop with the impressionists? Love it or hate it, the art of the twentieth century is now part of our cultural heritage. Find out how innovative artists from Cézanne to Andy Warhol fractured tradition in the face of cataclysmic changes wrought by the industrial age, world war, Freud, Einstein, utopian ideals, the Russian Revolution, Fascism, and Disneyland. With wit and superb scholarship, Robert Hughes, long-time art critic for Time magazine, guides us through an eight-part video tour of masterworks that illustrate the kaleidoscopic rise and fall of the avant-garde. Hughes’s thought-provoking ideas will serve as a springboard for lively discussions of specific works.

Recommended reading: The Shock of the New, Hughes, Robert (Knopf, 1981), with 261 illustrations.

Facilitators: Karen Ringsby, a Denver Art Museum volunteer docent for ten years, teams up with art lover Sally Kneser, who facilitated the Academy’s class on impressionism last fall. Even if you’re not wild about modern art, you’ll find their enthusiasm contagious.

Karen Ringsby (Modern Art) has loved art for years. When she received her degree from CU in English Literature she also took the time to gather minors in Art History and Philosophy. A Master in Liberal Arts from DU also provided time to pursue her love of art. With a son who is a political artist and professor and another son who is an architect, she is surrounded by discussions of the arts.

ART MUSEUM ARCHITECTURE: YOU BE THE JUDGE

How will Daniel Libeskind’s addition to the Denver Art Museum and the new building in the works for the Museum of Contemporary Art /Denver stack up against the rash of museums springing up around the world? We’ll take a look at the changing role of the art museum in society and see how contemporary architects are meeting the challenge. We’ll explore the reasons for the museum explosion and set up some criteria for judging the relative success of radical museum buildings like Frank Gehry’s sculptural, titanium-clad Guggenheim Bilbao and Santiago Calatrava’s soaring bird/cruise ship/whale design for Milwaukee.

Required reading: Towards a New Museum by architectural historian Victoria Newhouse, (The Monacelli Press, 1998).

Buy one to share: Designing the New Museum, Trulove, James Grayson (Rockport Publishers, 2000). Museum Architecture, Henderson, Justin (Rockport Publishers, 2001). Building Type Basics for Museums, Rosenblatt, Arthur (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2001). Frank O. Gehry: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, van Bruggen, Coosje (The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1997).

Facilitator: Architecture buff Larry Duggan has an architectural engineering degree from the University of Colorado. Since retiring as a senior executive with a large building contractor, he has developed close ties with the Denver Art Museum as a volunteer docent.

Larry Duggan (Art Museum Architecture) has managed to combine several of his passions for his fall course. He has been an active volunteer docent with the Denver Art Museum for years; he participates in the Alliance for Contemporary Art, a museum support group; he worked for years as an architectural engineer with one of the largest building contractors in the west; he enjoys learning and using new computer programs. This summer he has been researching the subjects he loves in greater depth, building PowerPoint presentations, and lining up speakers. He believes that, “Lifelong learning can keep your mind active and keep you interacting with stimulating people.”

GREAT MUSIC: BEETHOVEN TO SCHONBERG

This is the final leg of a series of video lectures by Robert Greenberg of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, but newcomers to the series will have no trouble following his clear and lively explanations of the “grammar” of musical forms. We’ll start with a review of Greenberg’s tutorial on pitch, melody, motive, and texture before moving on to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, lieder and Chopin, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Italian Bel Canto opera and Verdi, German opera and Wagner, the concert overture, Russian musical nationalism, Debussy, Stravinsky, and Scho"nberg. You’re sure to leave class speaking the language of great music fluently.

Recommended website: www.allclassical.com/

Facilitator: Lead learner Keith Meagher’s enthusiasm is infectious, and Professor Greenberg’s total command of his subject and nose for the colorful detail make his energetic delivery mesmerizing.

A man for all seasons, Keith Meagher, (Great Music, History of Religious Fundamentalisms) has special interests centering on the connection between culture and history. On the face of it, religious fundamentalism and great music—the two courses he’s facilitating this semester—have little in common; yet both are the outgrowth of specific cultural and political conditions. Keith loves delving deeply behind the surface and finding ways to encourage fellow students to do the same.

JAZZ: AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL

If you don’t go for jazz by the time you’ve finished sampling its pleasures in this course, you’ll be stuck with Barry Manilow forever. Class content will include Armstrong, Beiderbecke, Ellington, Basie, Goodman, Ella, Brubeck, Gillespie, and Parker, among others. Such modern “giants” as Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane will not be covered.

Recommended reading: Visions of Jazz: The First Century, Giddins, Gary (Oxford University Press, 2000) and/or The History of Jazz, Gioia, Ted (Oxford University Press, 1998).

Facilitator: Trained in chemistry and mathematics, Jerry Printz is a chronic dilettante with a special interest in the evolution of American popular music. He says folks who have taken this class before have expressed surprise at how much variety the genre offers.

Jerry Printz (Jazz) is a retired Chemical Engineer and a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado. "During four years at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering, a subsequent course in advanced mathematics and over 40 years designing industrial water treatment facilities, I had virtually no time to devote to other areas of interest. I’m delighted that I now have that time and have tried to take advantage of it by facilitating a variety of courses over the last six years."

Jerry's Jazz course is a subjective mishmash of familiar and offbeat selections from his collection of records, CDs, and videos. Jerry has facilitated courses on many diverse topics. These include the reasons some countries are wealthy and others are not; ways to apply scientific methods to the humanities; various essays by the political philosopher, Isaiah Berlin; cosmology (the study of the physical universe from its origins to speculations regarding its possible demise); the failure of Communism; relativity and quantum mechanics; and the pleasures of mathematics.

A non-musician, Jerry promises to provide the kind of puerile commentary that will impel many to head for the recommended reading.

ENJOYING OPERA

Whether you’re just discovering the pleasures of opera or you’re a seasoned aficionado, this class is sure to awaken your ear, your heart, and your mind to a deeper appreciation of a musical medium that offers something for everyone. Focusing on Verdi’s La Traviata, Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Gounod’s Faust, weekly meetings alternate between “pre-concert” lectures and complete video performances. You’ll have a chance to “attend” each opera armed with new insights into the story, the dynamics of the libretto, the historical background, and the hummable highlights of the score.

Facilitators: Happy hummer Ernie Ficco and opera guru Tom Powers share their enthusiasm and knowledge in a class designed to enhance your enjoyment of five great operas. Powers has chalked up eleven years as lecturer for the Opera Colorado Guild and has appeared in more than one hundred of its performances.

Ernie Ficco (Enjoying Opera) has been collecting opera videos for several years. Although his degrees were in Philosophy and Psychiatric Social Work he took the time to pursue his music interests by studying piano independently for twelve years.

His lifelong learning interests? "At my age and health status--anything that will help me stay alive!"

As a past president and active member of the Opera Colorado Guild Tom Powers (Enjoying Opera) really knows his stuff! He served as part of the speaker's committee for eleven years and thus he's accustomed to explaining operas and picking out the highlights. He appeared in over one hundred opera performances and his love of the music shines through.

ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE: A SHAKESPEARE SAMPLER

What is it about Shakespeare’s reading of the human heart that has kept his plays in performance for four hundred years? Using modern film versions of Hamlet, Othello, Henry V, Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night, we’ll rediscover what Shakespeare’s characters have to say to us today and why his themes still have the power to resonate in our personal lives.

Facilitator: Connie Hyde describes herself as a “recovering lawyer” whose retirement has given her the leisure to return to her first love, English literature. She says she’s only interested now in exploring “those things that move me, provoke me, challenge me, and enlarge my understanding of the human condition.”

At one time, Connie Hyde (A Shakespeare Sampler) envisioned herself as the rising Shakespearean scholar of the east coast. After a year in the rare book room of Duke Library she realized that she needed more human contact in her life. She had taken her undergraduate degree from Wesleyan College and master’s degree from Duke University, both in English literature. After pausing for marriage and children, she returned to scholastics in order to earn a J.D. from Denver University. She has practiced commercial real estate law ever since.
Connie is a lively speaker. People who know her appreciate her wit and ready laugh. Because she is a deal maker, she is very inclusive. She is certain to provide an atmosphere where everyone in the group will become engaged in the conversation.
Connie is a passionate and messy gardener and is working hard to become a recovering lawyer.

LITERARY WALKS IN GREAT BRITAIN

With a focus on literature and place, this ramble through the pages of English literature offers a virtual tour of Britain’s intellectual and historical landscape. This term, we’ll revisit the Wales of Dylan Thomas, then move north to the windswept landscape of Charlotte Bronte’s Yorkshire and conclude with a portrait of love and hate in wartime London through the eyes of Graham Greene.

Required reading: Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices, Thomas, Dylan (New Directions Publishing, 1984). Jane Eyre, Bronte, Charlotte (Dover Publishing, 2003). The End of the Affair, Greene, Graham (Penguin USA, 1991).

Facilitator: Veteran traveler and Anglophile Jim Mingle has developed a style as gentle as the rolling British countryside that he has roamed throughout his professional life in higher education. He argues that slowing to a walking pace, whether figuratively or literally, opens new perspectives.

TITUS GROAN: THE ART OF THE NOVEL

Here’s your chance to hone your critical reading skills on a little-known twentieth-century masterpiece—one that Anthony Burgess described as “uniquely brilliant . . . with no close relative in all our prose literature . . . a rich wine of fancy chilled by the intellect to just the right temperature.” We’ll focus on the features of the novel that contribute to its emotional and esthetic impact and try to figure out why it defies easy description or pigeonholing. This course will be limited to 10 participants.

Required reading: Titus Groan, the first volume of The Gormenghast Novels Peake, Mervyn (Overlook Press, 1995 or 2000); plus some of the critical assessments included in the book. (Be certain to get the book that includes critical assessments.)

Also recommended: The Art of Gormenghast: The Making of a Television Fantasy, Daniel, Estelle (Harper Collins, 2000).

Facilitators: Between them, Marlene Chambers, who recently retired as the Denver Art Museum’s senior editor, and Becky Orr, who describes herself as a closet cultural anthropologist, will pose a weekly “food-for-thought” question and lead the discussions.

After thirty years as senior editor and head of publications at the Denver Art Museum, Marlene Chambers (Titus Groan) has escaped to the Academy, where she hopes to indulge her lifelong interest in literature, art history, and learning theory. She believes that "Learning is meaningless unless it opens your eyes to fresh ways of seeing."

All of Becky Orr's (Titus Groan) academic and professional work reflect her fascination with how communications work. She received an MS in journalism and mass communications from Iowa State University, then began a career with a small communications firm. She later worked for large corporations in cable, telecom, and consumer products industries. Through that, she became experienced in facilitating small groups. She is an energetic individual who adds spark to every group that she joins.

ECONOMICS, GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

ECONOMICS 101: THINKING LIKE AN ECONOMIST

Find out why economics is now the most popular major at Ivy League universities. Free trade, budget deficits, off-shoring, minimum wages, and funding healthcare—how many of us really understand how these hot issues of the day affect our economic lives? This course—the first in a three-year series of six—will put you on the road to economic literacy, without putting you to sleep or giving you a migraine.
Required reading: photocopy handouts

Instructor: Retired, but highly enthusiastic, economist Jim Kneser promises a lively class, intellectually stimulating yet accessible to all—with a minimum of graphs and charts and a maximum of examples from current headlines.
CRITICAL ECONOMIC ISSUES

This free-form course is designed to help budding economists keep tabs on crucial international economic issues of the day. We’ll take an especially close look at the conflicting theories of fiscal and monetary policy that will be making headlines in this year’s national and local elections. Here’s a chance to apply all your accumulated economic savvy to real world issues in a stimulating and friendly peer environment.

Prerequisite: Three classes from the previous series of six given by Jim Kneser or his approval.

Required reading: photocopy handouts culled from the media

Instructor: With an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, economist Jim Kneser retired from a career devoted to mergers and acquisitions, speculative markets, and other lighthearted enterprises. His special interest lies in the way economic principles influence decision-making in both personal life and public policy.

SMART PEOPLE & THE COSTLY MISTAKES THEY MAKE WITH MONEY

What does buying a lottery ticket tell us about our attitude toward money? Why do we sell off rising stocks and stick with failing investments? How does our use of credit cards influence our buying habits? Why do otherwise smart people make foolish financial choices? We’ll find out how the new field of behavioral economics can help us make rational decisions about money. We all work hard to save for education, retirement, or a rainy day, but unless we understand how emotions can scupper our rational decision-making selves, we are in danger of putting our savings at risk. The first in a series on investment strategies and decision-making, this course is not about picking investments, but rather about recognizing our financial Achilles’ heels.

Required reading: Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them: Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral Economics, Belsky, Gary and Gilovich, Thomas (Simon & Schuster, 1999).

Facilitator: Economist Jim Kneser describes himself as a decision maker of boundless irrationality and promises to offer up plenty of examples of behaviors to be avoided from his personal experience. He says “learning to recognize financial decision-making traps is the first step on the road to avoiding them.”

Unless we make informed decisions at the polls, we get the public economic policies we deserve. To solve its fiscal problems, the state of Colorado has increasingly turned to ballot initiatives and referendums that take the form of amendments to the state constitution. This November we’ll face new ballot proposals claiming to solve the state’s budgetary problems. We’ll scour these proposed amendments to ferret out all their intended and unintended consequences before we have to decide how to vote. Our post-election session will assess the election results and their implications for state government.

Required reading: photocopy handouts

Facilitators: Legislative representative Toni Larson teams up with retired economist Jim Kneser to present an unbiased analysis of some of this year’s ballot issues. Larson is Executive Director of the Association for Independent Higher Education of Colorado (the governmental affairs arm of Colorado College, Regis University, and the University of Denver). Economist and public policy junkie Kneser now pursues these interests through his work with the Academy.

As executive director of Independent Higher Education of Colorado, the nonprofit agency responsible for public policy research and lobbying for Colorado College, Regis University, and the University of Denver, Toni Larson (Colorado Ballot Issues 2004) keeps abreast of state and federal issues, especially as they affect higher education.

FOREIGN POLICY DECISIONS

Does U.S. foreign policy weigh heavily on your mind these days? Based on the longest running world-affairs educational program of its kind, this class offers you a chance to study, exchange ideas, and formulate informed opinions on timely issues that affect us all. The video series brings together top experts to discuss the role of media in foreign policy; the U.S.-Philippine alliance; weapons of mass destruction; U.S. relations with Europe, Latin America, and the Muslim world; and the future for democracy in the Middle East. Their reasoned and differing points of view are sure to jump-start class debate.

Required reading: The Great Decisions “Briefing Booklet.” Includes historical context, maps, photographs, discussion questions, and annotated reading and website resources for each topic. Booklets will be mailed out September 1.

Moderator: Vee Sabel, who moderated a 2003 Great Decisions discussion group, says she can’t wait to get started on the 2004 program and share ideas with others interested in current events and foreign affairs.

Vee Sabel (Foreign Policy Decisions) is a confirmed foreign policy junkie and world traveler. She loves to hear the opinions of others and gain new perspective on issues. She is a skilled facilitator having been trained by and worked with Michael Doyle and Peter Strauss in their worldwide consultancy, Interaction Associates. While with them she specialized in issues involving information flow and management structure. She has also worked with nonprofit boards throughout the United States on similar matters. Locally she is a member of the Institute for International Education, the Englewood Rotary Club, the Museum of Nature and Science, the Denver Art Museum and numerous other nonprofit groups. Vivian is also a Designer with the Allred Architectural Group and often lectures at Arapahoe Community College.

THE SUPREME COURT AT WORK

Nine lawyers hold in their hands one-third of the governing power in our federal system of checks and balances. We’ll take a close look at the highest court in the land from the time the founding fathers first dreamed it up to recent controversial decisions on free speech, school prayer, and gay rights. We’ll have a chance to see the human side of justices like John Jay, Stephen Breyer, John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Earl Warren, and Thurgood Marshall as they struggle over decisions that pit the interest of the community against the freedom and rights of the individual.

Required reading: A People’s History of the Supreme Court, Irons, Peter H. (Penguin, 1999).

Facilitator: Former lawyer Charles Hall thinks Irons’s book will provoke an interesting exchange of ideas between those who believe (with Robert Bork and Justice Antonin Scalia) in a narrow reading of the Constitution and those who agree with Irons that the Constitution must be interpreted in the context of an evolving nation.

Charles Hall (Supreme Court at Work) keep active both mentally and physically. Bike trips along the highline and cross-country skiing offer opportunities to enjoy Colorado's beautiful outdoors. Reading, leading classes, and chatting at coffee group keep his mind sharp.

CURRENT EVENTS

This is a sure-fire way to vent your opinions, learn what others are thinking, and increase your brain-cell count. We’ll focus on news events that impinge on our personal lives, now or in the future, as well as those that are just plain compelling because they involve crazy people doing crazy things. Heated discussions are fine, but we’ll steer clear of personal attacks, ancient history, and personal story telling. Everyone shows up armed with one or more news items from newspapers, magazines, television, and/or the internet—with questions and opinions to kick off class debate.

Facilitator: As a teacher, counselor, and avid student of human nature, Joseph Kandel thinks talking about current events with others always sheds new light on our own mindsets and habits of thought.

Joseph Kandel (Current Events) has lead a current events group for several years and has taught more than two hundred classes in aging, interpersonal relationships, stress/time management, and death and dying at Denver-area colleges.

THE HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISMS

As the values of fundamentalist religious groups come to dominate public life more and more, it becomes increasingly important for outsiders to understand the principles and objectives of various religious fundamentalisms. We’ll trace the development and influence of Islamic, Judaic, and Christian fundamentalist movements from their roots in the Middle Ages to their present-day florescence. Discussions will offer the opportunity to see how our views stack up against alternative readings of this history and its impact on societal change. This course will be limited to 15 participants.

Required reading: The Battle for God, Armstrong, Karen (Ballantine Books, 2000).

Further reading: The Fundamentalism Project (5 vols.), ed. Marty, M. E. and Appleby, R. S. (University of Chicago Press, 1991-95); Strong Religion, eds. Almond, Gabriel A., Sivan, Emmanuel, and Appleby, R. Scott (University of Chicago Press, 2003); Religion in Nineteenth-Century America, Wacker, Grant (Oxford Univ. Press 2000); and Religion in Twentieth-Century America, Balmer, Randall (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001).

Facilitator: History buff and lead learner Keith Meagher is particularly interested in exploring the underlying social and cultural factors that affect public affairs. His earlier Academy class on religious fundamentalism took an analytical, rather than historical, approach.

PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

MIND-BODY-SPIRIT CONNECTIONS IN HEALING

How do the mind and spirit contribute to our overall health? Modern medicine can work wonders fixing the body when it’s broken, but it has its limits. Optimum health and well-being may benefit from alternative and integrative concepts, and some of these ideas, often dismissed by Western science, deserve our consideration. We’ll discuss these approaches, look at different treatment practices, and touch on environmental and political influences on health. Not a therapy group, this course is designed to stir up a sprightly exchange of viewpoints and offer some good ideas about taking responsibility for your personal well-being.

Required reading: Spontaneous Healing: How to Discover and Embrace Your Body's Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself, Andrew Weil (Ballantine Books, 1995).

Facilitator: Always on the lookout for new ideas that shed light on everyday human problems, Milt Lepkin is a retired professor of social and clinical psychology who brings a lively, interdisciplinary approach to every topic. “What exactly,” he asks, “is the spirit anyway?”

Milt Lepkin (Mind-Body-Spirit Connections in Healing) loves synthesizing insights from various disciplines to illuminate the nooks and crannies of every challenging new idea that comes his way. A retired professor of psychology, he’s especially interested in applying its principles to everyday human relationships.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AVIATION

Always been fascinated by aviation, but not by the technology of flight? Here’s your chance to explore the myths of aviation and sort out fact from fiction. We’ll discuss history, weather, navigation, communication, instruments, and luminaries like Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and Chuck Yeager. We’ll take a field trip to Wings over the Rockies Museum or Centennial Airport.

Required reading: Great Aviators and Epic Flights, Von Hardesty, 2002. This is a $40 “coffee-table” book that you can find online for about $25.

Facilitator: Peter Luce, a lifelong general aviation pilot who’s logged thousands of hours since earning a license in 1947, admits he’s “evangelistic” about aviation. He’s put together a class that’s sure to be entertaining and informative.

Peter Luce (Aviation) received his Private Pilot License in 1947. Since then he has earned Instrument, Water, and Multi-engine Ratings, as well as his Commercial License. The Water Rating (for seaplanes) isn’t one that he uses here in Colorado. He flew a series of three Mitsubishi MU-2 twin-engine propjet aircraft for 22 year. During that time he accumulated over one million miles of piloting. Peter has given this course previously and received enthusiastic reviews from both pilots and participants with no previous aviation history knowledge. In addition to the interesting book, Great Aviators and Epic Flights, Peter has created a (newly revised) notebook of information.

DIVERTIMENTI

Between the heady academic and cultural courses are tucked some delightful Divertimenti. Think of them as recess!

JUST FOR FUN

WINE & CHEESE KICK-OFF

Meet new friends and greet the old at this wine and cheese kick-off for the fall term. Scope out our new headquarters, get to know facilitators and fellow Academics, and pick up any hand-outs you’ll need before your first class sessions. (Can’t make it? We’ll mail anything you miss.) Bring your friends and neighbors to join in the fun and find out what the Academy is all about. They’re sure to want to sign on for one of our great fall offerings.

RED HAT SOCIETY

The Academy chapter of the Red Hat Society—AWOL for Academy
Women on the Loose—convenes to reenact a Beatnik Coffee House
experience. Bring whatever will make the event more fun for you and others: a guitar, a favorite poem, an original work, hippie beads, etc. (and don’t forget your red hat!) There will be plenty of time for chatting, and everyone who wants time at the microphone will get it.

All will bow down to Dorothy Babcock, (Red Hat Society) the newly elected queen of the AWOL chapter of the Red Hat Society. Last spring the group selected the name AWOL for Academy Women On the Loose. This summer the group elected Dorothy because of her delightful story about herself as an "original" flower child.

SKILLS & FRILLS

BEADING

Now you can make your own high-fashion bead jewelry or craft custom gifts for family and special friends. Turn that broken string of beads from Aunt Lilly or the wonderful piece of jade you brought back from China into wearable art. Course fee includes supplies for the first session at the Academy site, where you’ll learn about techniques and tools and complete two projects. Session two meets at a bead shop, where you can see inspiring examples, discuss design ideas, and buy anything you need for your final week’s masterpiece.

PHOTO MEMORIES

Create a CD slide show featuring your family tree or vacation, honoring a special person, or recording a lifetime of events for an Alzheimer’s patient. The CD can be viewed on any PC. You can use your digital photos, old slides, prints, or negatives. You’ll learn how to scan, crop, edit, create photo CD’s, and make multiple copies so you can share the slide show with others. If you want to create an entirely new set of images, digital cameras are available on loan. This workshop is offered through the generosity of Carl Peterson and meets at Accelerated Schools, 2160 S. Cook (at Evans). Each class is limited to six.

MEDITATION

Learn about and practice meditation with Frances Dahlberg, an instructor from the Boulder Shambhala Center. She’ll cover both sitting (shamata or peaceful abiding) and walking meditation in the first two sessions, which include physical exercises followed by discussion of the experience. The third session features a CD entitled Journey to Abundance by Barbara Monsler, who holds a Masters in family and child counseling. The final meeting offers an opportunity to examine positive or negative aspects of your life through guided imagery.

Frances Dahlberg (Meditation) has been meditating for over twenty years. For over eight years she has studied Tai chi and Qi kung. She completed the meditation instructor training several years ago with the Boulder Shambhala Center. Her volunteer time during the last four years involves teaching meditation at the Boulder County Jail.

KNIT WITS

Last year’s knitters had so much fun that they’re coming back for more. This companionable group welcomes newcomers at all skill levels. The first session meets at Showers of Flowers knit shop, 6900 W. Colfax Avenue, for inspiration, pointers on the latest trends and yarns, and help in choosing a new project if needed. Other sessions meet at the church, where you’ll get plenty of advice when you get stuck. Work on your holiday gift projects, or make a felted purse or fluffy scarf for yourself.

INTERMEDIATE BRIDGE

You’ll be in good hands with Sally Kneser as you work on your skills in 1) Basic Bidding, 2) Planning the Play, 3) The Negative Double, 4) More Doubles, and 5) Leads. These are hands-on sessions, with lots of opportunities to make the concepts instinctual—just like a workout with the tennis-ball machine after a lesson from the pro. If you have a regular partner or bridge group, it's best if you can attend together.

MAHJONG FOR BEGINNERS

Engage your mind while learning how to play this ancient Chinese game. Once Lee Williamson explains the basics of the simple Wright-Patterson Air Force system, you’ll be off and running—picking up new vocabulary and exploring the niceties as you go along. The class is limited to five players, so sign up early. Note: This system is slightly different from American Standard, simpler and more fun. If you’re planning to play in a group with friends, be sure to find out which system they use before signing up for this class. Class size is limited to 5. Call Lee, 303.471.5251, if you have other questions.

Experienced Mahjong instructor Lee Williamson first fell in love with Mahjong as a service wife and now enjoys passing on her enthusiasm to newcomers to the game.

BOOKNOTES

PEACE LIKE A RIVER

To the list of great American child narrators that includes Huck Finn and Scout Finch, we can now add Reuben "Rube" Land, the asthmatic 11-year-old boy at the center of Leif Enger's remarkable first novel, Peace Like a River. In a voice that perfectly captures the poetic verbal stoicism of the northern Great Plains, Rube recalls the events of his childhood in small-town Minnesota circa 1962. Mayor John Hickenlooper selected Peace Like a River as Denver’s One Book/One Denver for 2004. The story provides plenty of opportunities to think about what you would do in the same situation as the characters and to experience the benefits that reading a good book can bring to your mind, your imagination, and your spirit.

A retired teacher, Glenda Sadler (Peace Like a River), has newly found interests in hiking in the mountains and Italy, exercise classes, Mah Jongg, and taking life-long learning classes. She loved Leif Enger's descriptions of situations and places in Peace Like a River which reminded her of her own childhood in northern Montana."
LIFE OF PI

Yann Martell’s fanciful and seemingly simple tale has enough ambiguity and complexity to touch off endless discussion. This tale of adventure and survival focuses on the title character, the precocious 16-year-old son of a zookeeper, who finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Although this is a quick read, it is open to many interpretations. Share your insights with others, and find new depths of meaning in this compelling story.

Whether Marlin Barad (Life of Pi)is instigating, organizing, or participating in an educational event, her point of view is always original.

THE DA VINCI CODE

Dan Brown’s intelligent and lucid thriller marries the intrigue of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoterica plucked from two thousand years of Western history. This page-turner makes it tough to separate fact from fiction, so come prepared to compare your “could be true” list with others and duke it out with Academy experts in art, religion, history, symbology, cryptology, and architecture in support or rebuttal of Brown’s “facts” and conclusions.

Jan Melson (The DaVinci Code) is the perfect person to facilitate The DaVinci Code: she is a volunteer with the art museum and is active with several cultural groups. When reading the book just for her own pleasure, she enjoyed yanking out her travel brochures to compare her memories with Tom Brown's.

PLANNING AHEAD

CREATE-A-COURSE: SCIENCE

Whether you’re a scientist, a wanna-be scientist, or simply one of those folks who likes to figure out how things work, we need your input to plan a winter-term course that could well launch a continuing series. We’ll team up video lectures with people who can add information from their areas of special interest or expertise. We might focus the course on current issues like Big Bang theory, DNA, or ozone depletion. We could explore fundamentals like electricity, chemistry, plate tectonics, or nuclear reactors. Or we could take a look at the big picture by reviewing the history of scientific ideas, especially those of the twentieth century, which saw many nineteenth-century theories overturned or revamped. But we need to hear where your interests lie. Come and help put together a class that’s truly “out of this world.”

Russ Haskell (Create-a-Course: Science) is a business and oil and gas attorney, with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering (back when vacuum tubes were in vogue). His interest in science almost got killed by his love of the law, but the science germ is multiplying at an astounding rate!

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( categories: Fall 2004 )

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