Course Descriptions

Schedule

From its inception by George Washington in 1791 until the present day, the city of Washington has served not only as our nation’s capital, but as a potent symbol as well.  Unlike so many American cities which just “growed” in a haphazard manner, Washington was designed from the beginning, a brilliant and innovative plan which has, for the most part, been maintained down to the present day.  This 4-week, slide-illustrated course will examine the city’s tentative and uncertain beginnings, and then follow the successive periods of expansion and identity down to the present day.  While important buildings and individuals will be discussed, the emphasis will be on the success (or lack thereof) of the original design.
•  The Frenchman & the President – L’Enfant’s Plan for Washington’s City
•  From Cow Pasture to Champs Elysees – The Mall
•  Washington Replanned – From the Civil War to the Great Depression
•  The President & the Frenchman – Washington Today (and Tomorrow)

$100

Monday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting July 7, 2008

From an early age we are conditioned to believe in a world of struggle, competition, fear and scarcity. We live with a continuous narrative of lack, whether it is about time or money, love or safety, and more. Even when things are going well, we often find ourselves expecting the other shoe to drop. The media only seems to reinforce this fear-based view, with its daily scenes of poverty, violence, and struggle around the world. Upon close examination, scarcity mentality does not accurately reflect reality. Instead, it can be seen as a habitual way of thinking, formed by many years of familial and social conditioning. Many studies have shown that our thinking determines much of our reality, and that negative thinking can eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy for our health, well-being and more. We can approach situations that arise in life through the lens of scarcity or abundance, and the choices we make can make all the difference in our health, prosperity, and overall vitality. In this class, through discussion, film excerpts, practical real-world solutions, and more, we will examine our past scarcity conditioning, and in the process, learn new techniques to reframe our experience, past and present, in terms of a positive and vibrant abundance mentality. Class materials will be provided.
( A limited enrollment class)

$235

Tuesday afternnoons 1:00-3:00

Starting July 1, 2008

The following computer workshops, each of which will be two sessions in length, are hands-on and limited to six persons. The fee for each two-week course is $150. Participants may bring their own laptops if they so choose; please notify the office if you will be bringing your laptop.

Course Name	Description	Dates	Times
GRAPHICS GALORE I: WORKING WITH DIGITAL CAMERAS	We will learn how to use a digital camera, how to download the photos onto the computer, how to edit them, and how to send them as e-mail and attachments and create our own web albums that we can share with friends. Also included will be further tricks and tips on scanning, editing pictures, and correcting hue, brightness, contrast, and red eye on the computer using the free program we can download from Google called Picasa. (Please note that participants may use Ms. Weiman's digital camera or use their own; and, please bring your owner's manual if you are using your own camera.)	Monday mornings or Monday afternoons June 30 & July 7, 2008	10:00-12:00   1:00-3:00
CRAPHICS GALORE II: RETOUCHING PHOTOS	In this workshop we will change the settings on our digital cameras, examine the movie feature, cover more intermediate photo editing and enhancement techniques like cloning, re-coloring, and combining elements of different pictures into one composite using Photoshop Elements.  We will work with changing backgrounds and selection techniques on Photoshop and more. (Please note that participants may use Ms. Weiman’s digital camera or use their own.)	Monday mornings or Monday afternoons July 14 & 21, 2008	10:00-12:00   1:00-3:00

$150 per 2 week class

The 2008 presidential election started immediately following the conclusion of the 2006 midterm contests.  More than 30 credible contenders weighed entering the race, and twenty declared their candidacy.  By early April 2008 just three contenders for the major party nominations were left, and it was increasingly clear there would be no significant third party or independent candidacy in this cycle.  Senator John McCain had effectively clinched the Republican nomination, but the Democrats were still uncertain whether their nominee would be Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Barack Obama.  Either way, the 2008 general election is sure to be remembered as the concluding chapter in the longest, most expensive, and possibly the most surprising presidential election in American history.  This ten-week class begins just after the Democratic and Republican conventions in late August and early September and follows the contest through the November general election, with a concluding review of what the final election results tell us about the state of American politics as a new administration prepares to take office. 
(Please note that both Monday and Wednesday morning classes are filled; call for wait list status.)

$180

Monday mornings 10:00-12:00
or
Monday evenings 5:00-7:00 starting September 8
or
Wednesday mornings 10:00-12:00 staring September 10, 2008

It has become a commonplace these days to recognize that both Jesus and his first followers were Jewish.  But it still comes as a surprise to many people to hear that the earliest Jesus Movement remained a thoroughly Jewish sect for at least a century after his death.  In some areas, “Jewish Christianity” (as it is sometimes called) lasted for several more centuries.  In this four-part series we will explore current historical scholarship on the development of the Jesus sect during the first and second generations.  Special focus will be on a Jesus sect located in and around the Galilee, Jesus’s home region.  The community associated with the Gospel of Matthew continued to think of itself as fully Jewish and working within the social orbit of Homeland Judaism.  We will examine their struggles for self-definition and Torah piety in the turbulent period after the First Jewish Revolt in light of the cultural history and archaeology of the region.  Their experience and reactions will shed new light on some of the earliest aspects of Jewish-Christian relations.
•   Before They Were “Christians”:  The Earliest Evidence
•   The Jesus Movement as a Jewish Sect
•   A Galilean Trajectory:  The Matthean Jewish Community
•   Jesus and Torah:  Piety and Self-Definition in the Gospel of Matthew

$100

Monday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 8, 2008

In this course we will trace the past 200 years of European history, starting with the French Revolution which ended the era of absolute monarchical rule and introduced the idea of equal rights and people’s sovereignty.  We will look at Napoleon’s remapping of Europe, the awakening of nationalism, and the collapse of multinational empires as well as the creation of modern national states—Italy, Germany, Greece, etc.   We will follow the revolutionary impact industrialization had on society and explain the evolution of the ideologies of liberalism, socialism/communism, and fascism.  We will explore the causes and disastrous effects of two World Wars, both unleashed in the heart of Europe; America’s role in reconstructing western Europe after WW II; Europe’s tragic division into a democratic and a communist bloc; the founding of the European Union; and end with the collapse of communism in 1989.

$150

Monday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 8, 2008

$180

Monday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 8, 2008

Nowhere else in the world but England does one find the extraordinary convergence of hundreds of great country houses surrounded by equally glorious and historic gardens.  From the Tudor palaces of Henry VIII to the Edwardian mansions of the great 19th century industrialists—from the dramatic coastal properties of Devon and Cornwall, to the magnificent landscapes of the Lake District—from the gentle rises of the Cotswold Hills to the level countryside of East Anglia—much of the English landscape has been transformed over the centuries into a great park, often the setting for a splendid great manor house and its surrounding garden.  In this ten-week course we will survey this large and complex subject from the 16th to the 20th century, focusing each week on two or three particularly notable examples of houses and gardens surviving in sympathetic settings—some very well known, some perhaps not.  Chatsworth in Derbyshire, Stowe and Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, Shugborough in Staffordshire, Dunham Massey in Cheshire, Castle Howard in Yorkshire, Powis Castle in Wales are just a few of the well and lesser known properties we will consider in this comprehensive, slide-illustrated course.

$180

Monday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 8, 2008

“How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!"
                          ------“Julius Caesar”

This prophetic statement has certainly proven true.  More that 150 Shakespeare theatres and festivals in our country continually produce these master works for burgeoning audiences.  In this seminar we will examine a series of the plays from the perspective of a director and producer.  Included will be Shakespeare's textual clues to the actor and director, the very nature of Shakespearean verse and prose and how they inform the production team.  In essence, we will look at the reason these plays continue to enthrall ever-increasing audiences.

$125

Tuesday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 9, 2008

Surrealism, one of the major movements of 20th century art, is as captivating today as it was in Paris of the 1920s.  Revolutionary in cultural, political, artistic and literary circles, Surrealism continues to feed the ideas and impulses of post-modern art.  Beginning as an exploration into the subconscious, automatic writing and the rearrangement of surface reality, artists branched out to embrace cultures distant in place and time.  In this survey, we will view the philosophical manifestoes of Andre Breton and the early works of Marcel Duchamp, Giorgio de Chirico and Kurt Schwitters that were considered “artifacts” of the revolution.  Through the extensive careers of Max Ernst and Rene Magritte, we will track the progress of Surrealist ideas in painting and sculpture through the 1960s.  Our primary source is the premier collection of Surrealist paintings, sculpture and literary artifacts in The Menil Collection in Houston.  As one of the major holdings of Surrealist art, we will visit the collection’s offering of works by some dozen leading artists. And, finally, we will view contemporary works produced today as direct heirs of Surrealism.

$125

Tuesday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 9, 2008

A major task in life is choosing whom to be.  This is accomplished through self-exploration and values clarification.  The starting point is usually one’s culture, which a person may adopt or rebel against.  At some point, we may transcend culture and develop a unique amalgam of personal traits, habits, and values that provide a coherent sense of personality.  Fear interrupts, distorts, and shapes this process.  In this course we will explore healthy personality development as well as examine what happens when personality development becomes flawed or arrested.  This course will differ from the usual lecture format; instead, it will involve a seminar format led by Dr. Cubberly.  (A limited enrollment class)

$450

Tuesday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 9, 2008

In this six-weeks course, we will study two Jane Austen novels and movie versions made from them.  In Sense and Sensibility, her first published novel (1811), Austen begins her exploration of love, deception, misunderstanding, money, and manners, focusing on the complications of love that is either misdirected or misunderstood until all at last—though not without a great many intervening difficulties—is happily resolved.  The wonderful film of this novel, made in 1995 and authored by Emma Thompson, who also plays the lead, won an Academy Award for best screenplay that year.  Many Austen scholars believe that Emma (1816) is her finest novel, partly because the character of its heroine is so fully and brilliantly conceived.  For Emma is very rich and very bright but not nearly as bright as she thinks she is, because her understanding is too often limited by what she wants to happen, by misunderstandings, and by her own blindness to the deceptions around her.  The novel, then, deals with the theme of self-delusion, for when the heroine interferes in other people’s lives, partly because as a young woman of wealth she has little else to do, her good intentions regularly produce results very different from the ones she intends.  The work also contains Austen’s most mature and interesting hero, Mr. Knightly, who is Emma’s closest friend and who never hesitates to lecture her when she has done wrong.  There are two fine film versions of the work, both made in 1996, one with Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, the other with Kate Beckinsale in the lead.  We will view séances from both of these works as we make our way through the novel.

$125

Tuesday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting October 21, 2008

Few cities boast so many famous and identifiable landmarks as Paris: the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Bastille (in memory, at least), the Champs-Elysées, and the Eiffel Tower.  Yet the Parisians have been rough on their own monuments; the Louvre has been demolished and rebuilt a number of times; the Bastille is gone; Notre-Dame was ransacked during the Revolution; and the Eiffel Tower, much maligned at the time, was supposed to have been only a temporary structure. When Baron Haussmann laid out many of the wide and splendid boulevards of the city in the 19th century, he was lambasted for having destroyed “the charms of medieval Paris.”  These six lectures will trace the history of Paris from its humble beginnings as a crossing station in the marshes along the Seine, to its foundation as a fortified capital city, to its rise as a center of learning, to its role as exporter of revolution, and finally to its position in the vanguard of the avant-garde.  The lectures will not only focus on the surviving monuments of the city, but also on some of the more flamboyant characters who have graced the pages of the city’s history.  (Fee includes course material)

$130

Tuesday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting October 21, 2008

How do you know whether a script can become a great film—or even make some money?  Screenwriter William Goldman’s famous remark, “Nobody knows anything,” referred to Hollywood studio executives’ inability to predict what will work either as a film or at the box office.  In this class we will discuss in detail a few films from 1997-2007 that did succeed in both popular and critical acclamation, often unpredictably.  All either were nominated for or won Academy awards for best picture or for best script.  Take the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” as an example.  What combination of politics and aesthetic judgment led to an Oscar win for this brilliant, dour film over another dour film, “There Will Be Blood”? Or indeed, why was the upbeat and sparkly “Juno” the most unlikely candidate to win for best picture?  In an over-heated, competitive market, with frantic escalations of production costs and fewer patrons in movie houses, the big question is how did so many “small” films of high artistic ambition and seriousness of purpose manage to make it at all?  After an introductory survey of the decade, we’ll choose five films from this list for further scrutiny and discussion.
•         L.A. Confidential (1997)
•         Election (1999)
•         Gosford Park (2001)
•         Gangs of New York (2002)
•         The Hours (2002)
•         Sideways (2004)
•         No Country For Old Men (2007)
•         Juno (2007)

$125

Tuesday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 9, 2008

Through the centuries, sages from such diverse traditions as Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity have used poetry, parable, and metaphor to point to a permanent shift in consciousness known as Enlightenment.  This transformation has been described as the ultimate fulfillment of our life purpose, an awakening from the “dream” of life, and a liberation from the “concepts” of mind, body, and personal identity.  Despite surface differences, these traditions have all described a luminous “ground of being” hidden from our everyday senses, a unity within the appearance of multiplicity, and a divinity within us that is immanent as well as transcendent.  In this class, we will explore the meaning of Enlightenment, using film, poetry, literature, excerpts from spiritual texts, and class discussion, focusing on such subjects as unity within diversity, free will, karma, predestination, illusion versus reality, the pathless path, and more.  We will read selected passages from classic texts including the Hindu Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, Buddha’s writings, the works of LaoTzu and Chuang Tzu, ecstatic Sufi poetry, and writings from modern spiritual sages.  In addition, we will experience specific techniques that we can bring into our lives that will enhance our own awakening journey, including mindfulness, living consciously within the present moment, meditation, accessing the inner witness, self-inquiry, and more.  As our main text, we will use Mystics, Masters, Saints and Sages by Robert Ullman and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman and Consciousness is All by Peter Francis Dziuban.   (A limited enrollment class; fee includes course materials)

$235

Tuesday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 8, 2008

When it comes to classical music, it never hurts to know more about the background of the music.  One can surely enjoy Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” without knowing about the poems that inspired them, or the captions that Vivaldi wrote in the score.  But it’s so much richer when you do know!  Many people can recognize the melodies of Handel’s “Water Music,” but what is the title really about?  Bach wrote the Brandenburg concertos trying to impress a potential employer.  It did not work.  Why not?  In addition to harmonies and rhythms, the stories and drama behind each piece of music have to be explored in depth when a conductor prepares for rehearsals and performances.  Using that point of view, we will study some of the baroque period’s most beautiful music, discovering the context and content of four masterworks.  The in-depth approach will allow for a real understanding of what’s behind the notes on the page!
•        Vivaldi—Four Seasons
•        Bach—Brandenburg Concertos
•        Lully—Armide, Tragédie Lyrique
•        Handel—Water Music and other orchestral works

$100

Tuesday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 30, 2008

“Three Rules of Work:  Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”—Albert Einstein

Our lives can be cluttered in so many ways.  Our closets, garages, and storage facilities can be bulging with boxes of memorabilia and "must-keep" items from years past.  Our minds can be filled with stored-up "tapes" from what we were told as children.  Our days can be stacked with back-to-back appointments that become a constant source of stress.  We may feel that the entire world is an obstacle course through which we have to make our way, surrounded by the clutter that we have created around us.  Over time, small events like waiting in line or being stuck in traffic can cause major adrenaline spikes, which can have an impact on our health.  The things we hang onto, both in our physical environment and within our mindsets, can lead to melancholy, isolation, shame and more.  In some traditions, clutter is seen as a blockage of normally free-flowing energy that can cause stagnation, depression, and even disease.  There are many wonderful books and television shows devoted to cleaning clutter; however, often they often do not address the core, underlying issues.  Writings and teachings from the world's major spiritual traditions over the years have focused on the issue of both physical and mental clutter, pointing out numerous spiritual techniques to simplify our lives through the principles of non-attachment, living in the present, understanding our true nature, energy releasing, and more.  In this class, through discussion, film excerpts, practical real-world solutions, spiritual journaling, and more, we will continue the exploration started in our initial class to look at the deeper issues, explore the practices and principles of overcoming mental and physical clutter, and in the process, discover new ways to simplify our lives and clear our mental and physical space for renewed energy.  Class materials will be provided.  (A limited enrollment class; fee includes course materials)

$235

Tuesday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting October 7, 2008

This is an exciting moment in the history of scholarship:  Using archaeology, literary analysis, and detective work that would make Sherlock Holmes proud, we can now reconstruct decisive moments in the making of the Hebrew Bible, the so-called “Old Testament.”  In this course, we will read and discuss critical moments in the biblical narrative, looking at how decisions made by authors and editors in ancient times resulted in the Bible we know today.  In particular, we will examine the two stories of creation, the interweaving of stories to make up the Noah tale, the crafting of the Sinai-Horeb story, the relation of the Golden Calf to the division of Solomon’s domain into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and the mystery of the “Book of the Torah.”  We will also see how the detective work was done and how scholars recovered the inner workings of the Bible after 2,800 years.  Our text for the course will be The Torah: Portion-by-Portion by Rossel (Torah Aura Publications: ISBN-13: 9781891662942) available from the author on the first day of class or from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

$150

Tuesday afternoon 1:00-3:00

Starting October 21, 2008

This course is designed for both novice investors who want to understand how to invest in the stock market and for longtime investors who want to sharpen their investment skills.  We will cover several successful long-term investment strategies to help participants understand how to invest in the popular exchange-traded index funds, how to analyze dividend and growth stocks and mutual funds, and how to build stock portfolios for retirement and pre-retirement.  We will examine what variables are normally present at great buying opportunities and at market heights.  We will also discuss attractive investments in U.S., foreign, and emerging markets based on recent activity and current economic outlooks.  This course will be helpful for those who want to do their own investing and for those who want to work with an advisor.  Topics will include the following:
•   Index Funds:  The S&P 500 & Small, Mid, and Foreign Indexes
•   Evaluating Price/Earnings Ratios and Other Variables Affecting Income and Growth Stocks
•   Analyzing Stock Mutual Funds:  Value, Balanced Growth, Aggressive Growth, Foreign, and Emerging Markets
•   Impact of the Elections, Budget Deficits, Interest Rates, Inflation, and Terrorism on the Stock Market
•   Proper Asset Allocation for Retirement and Pre-Retirement
•   Attractive Investment Strategies
•   Techniques to Reduce Risk & Volatility in an Investment Portfolio
•   New Tax Laws and Their Impact on the Investment Portfolio
•   Evaluating Dividend Stocks That Provide Retirement Portfolio Income
•   Examining Stock Market Cycles—Market Bottoms and Tops
(Fee includes course material)                
              

$130

Tuesday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting October 28, 2008

"Abundance Mentality flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security.  It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody.  It results in sharing of prestige, recognition, profits, and decision making.  It opens possibilities, options, alternatives and creativity."—Stephen R. Covey

From an early age we are conditioned to believe in a world of struggle, competition, fear and scarcity.  We live with a continuous narrative of lack, whether it is about time or money, love or safety, and more.  Even when things are going well, we often find ourselves expecting the other shoe to drop.  The media only seem to reinforce this fear-based view, with its daily scenes of poverty, violence, and struggle around the world.  Upon close examination, a scarcity mentality does not accurately reflect reality.  Instead, it can be seen as a habitual way of thinking, formed by many years of familial and social conditioning.  Many studies have shown that our thinking determines much of our reality, and that negative thinking can eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy for our health and well being.  We can approach situations that arise in life through the lens of scarcity or abundance, and the choices we make can make all the difference in our health, prosperity, and overall vitality.  In this class, through discussion, film excerpts, and practical real-world solutions, we will examine our past scarcity conditioning, and in the process, learn new techniques to reframe our experiences, past and present, in terms of a positive and vibrant abundance mentality.   (A limited enrollment class; fee includes class materials)

$235

Tuesday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting October 7, 2008

In this course we will study the most notable aesthetic theories produced in Western Civilization.  These are theories that address two profound and elusive questions: what is beauty and what is the significance of art?  These questions are, of course, related to numerous others of great importance.  What is creativity?  What is artistic genius?  What is inspiration?  What is the difference between fine art and the merely pleasant?  What is an aesthetic experience?  What is artistic interpretation and what are the limits of interpretation?  What is the relation of art to such things as truth, power and religion?  What role have the diverse arts played in society in the past?  And, finally, what role should they ideally play in society?  We will trace the unfolding of these ideas in a chronological order starting with Plato in ancient classical times and ending with the study of a diverse group of authors belonging to our present post-modern world such as Nelson Goodman, Martin Heidegger, Stephen Pepper, E. D. Hirsh Jr., and Arthur Danto.  The lectures will be accompanied by visual images as a means of providing examples and illustrations pertinent to the theoretical work of the authors being studied.

$200

Wednesday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 10, 2008

This course is a conversation class designed for the student who speaks Spanish but wishes to perfect it.  It will be conducted in Spanish only.  Topics for the class will be determined from materials dealing with current affairs, oral recordings in Spanish, and short videos from Spanish TV.  Dr. Urrutibéheity will explain the meaning of words participants may not be familiar with and lead a conversation on the contents of the day's topic, encouraging discussion and clarifying questions.  Dr. Urrutibéheity will “gently” suggest ways to improve pronunciation and solve grammar problems.  The format is not a fixed one and once students feel comfortable in the class, they may act as leaders of the initial conversation, suggest topics and/or materials, etc.  The goals for the class are to understand Spanish when spoken at a normal pace; to increase participants’ vocabulary and general command of the language; and provide the opportunity to develop fluency. (A limited enrollment class)
                                                                       

$350

Wednesday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 24, 2008

In this course we will follow the evolution of painting in Venice from the Renaissance to the early 20th century.  Of all the great centers of Italian art, no other city produced such an unbroken line of great art than did Venice—from the early days of the Venetian Republic to the destruction of the Republic by Napoleon Bonaparte.  For the following 100 years Venice attracted many great artists who perpetuated the magic of the floating city.  Many of the greatest Venetian artists such as Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto , Guardi, and Tiepolo will be familiar, while others such as Feti, Strozzi, and Pellegrini, less so.  The course will end with non-Italian artists—Turner, Corot, Manet, Renoir, Monet, and others—who painted scenes of Venice.
                                                                       

$200

Wednesday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 10, 2008

What stands in the way of a long-term solution to peace between Palestine and Israel?  For nearly a century there has been some sort of conflict between these combatants—from minor skirmishes to all-out war.  In this course we will look at the factors that have perpetuated this struggle with an eye towards resolution.  The Palestinian-Israeli struggle gives us an opportunity to consider the variables of conflict.  At a general level, we can learn the reasons for the “fight.”  What role does religion play, how is hate passed from generation to generation, is conflict inevitable?  More specific to this conflict we will examine the political, social, and historical forces that have fanned the flames of war.

$150

Wednesday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting Sepember 10, 2008

This course is especially designed for those who realize the value of sharing their individual and family stories, but lack the time to write a complete autobiography or family history.  We will focus on occasionsof interest to class participants such as birth/christening, engagement/wedding, travel, holidays, reunions, kindergarten, college, new homes, retirement, or memorials, to name a few.  Discussion and lecture during the first hour will address ways to connect with our “target audiences” whether they are small family groups or wider business and community circles.  We will also cover characteristic elements of the memoir genre with examples from published works.  During the second hour, participants will write “on the spot” short personal narratives that might be presented for specific occasions or used as building blocks for a longer work in the future.  Students who wish feedback can e-mail their narratives to the instructor.  Ideas and options for finalizing manuscripts as printed works will be discussed.  (A limited enrollment class)                                                                      

$450

Wedneday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 10, 2008

In his congratulatory statement to the victor of Taiwan's presidential election on March 22, 2008, U.S. president George W. Bush declared, "The maintenance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the welfare of the people on Taiwan remain of profound importance to the United States."  Interestingly, of utmost importance to the leaders in Beijing is their desire to return Taiwan to the Chinese state, a proposal that poses real challenges to American foreign policy interests in Asia.  One wonders why such a small island is larger than life in global affairs.  How many of us understand why Taiwan is of such importance to the United States and China, let alone the origins of Taiwan's "profound importance" to our country, Asia, and the world?  Often referred to as a "quasi-state," Taiwan is not diplomatically recognized by the American government or any other major world power.  It is, to this day, considered a breakaway province by the government of the People's Republic of China—which has never ruled the island.  Its people have no seat in inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations or the World Health Organization, yet it has consistently been ranked in the top 20 economies in the world and has been held up as a beacon of democracy in Asia.  In this course, we will seek to understand why Taiwan is a "quasi-state" and the degree to which this has historically been internally and externally imposed.  We will discuss the origins of Taiwan's status and the implications for the U.S. and PRC.  We will also discuss why most citizens of the Republic of China consider themselves to be Taiwanese rather than Chinese, and what impact this will have on the triangular relations between Taipei, Washington, and Beijing.  We will look at present sociological, economic, and political perspectives on Taiwan in an attempt to better clarify the Beautiful Island's (Ilha Formosa) fuzzy place in global affairs.

$100

Wedneday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting November 5, 2008

In this course we will explore the wonders of classical music’s repertory that is often “buried” because we so frequently limit our study and listening pleasure to the “great hits” of classical music.  We will look at some of these lesser known works of famous composers, the composers themselves, the time and place of composition, and of course, briefly mention and listen to some of the “great hits”—all in an effort to place the music in context and reference to the composers, the compositions, and the performances.  There will be visual illustrations in addition to the aural.  Among the many examples we will examine are the following:
•      Beethoven:  Symphony no. 4
•      Richard Strauss’ concertos
•      J. S. Bach
•      Rachmaninov:  Piano Concerto no. 1
•      Leonard Bernstein
•      Tchaikovsky
•      Mendelssohn:  Symphony no. 2
•      Claude Debussy
•      Brahms:  Symphony no. 2
•      Franz Schubert
•      Falla:  Nights in the Garden of Spain
•      Mozart:  Symphony in E flat Major

$200

Thursday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 11, 2008

Our families profoundly influence who we are and how we experience life.  They provide us with our greatest joys, deepest sorrows, and most intense frustration.  How can one group of people hold such sway over us?  In this six-week class, we will study the dynamic inner world of family life, examining theories about how families work and what causes them to break down.  Dr. Diddel will present new ways of looking at families: as small, human ecosystems, whose whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.  We will consider how the family of origin effects our personality and lifelong styles of relating.  We will look at how families change, resist change, and options for changing the dance in your own ecosystem.  The format will allow students to apply concepts discussed in class to their own lives.  Over the six weeks, we will cover the material in the book, The Family Crucible, by Napier and Whitaker; students have the option to purchase the book and follow along as we discuss the concepts and the family as addressed in the text.

$125

Thursday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting September 11, 2008

This course is designed for those who wish to express themselves in writing.  Participants are encouraged to write in the genre most comfortable for them— poetry, fiction, or non-fiction.  They are also encouraged to experiment in new forms in order to build a stronger writing foundation.  Participants will have regular assignments, critique each other's work in a receptive atmosphere, and receive written critiques from the instructor.  Publication opportunities will also be discussed. ( A limited enrollment class)

(Both classes are filled; please call 713.529.7123 for wait list status.)

$450
Thursday mornings 10:00-12:00
or
Thursday afternoons 1:00-3:00 Starting September 6, 2007

People who never been to Texas often imagine this state looks like a John Wayne Western covered with cacti, tumbleweeds and desert plains, and with horses tied up in front of residences.  The Big Bend Country is the perfect place to fulfill this vision.  Most of the area’s landscape is covered by the Chihuahuan Desert and is filled with that desolate type of landscape.  Amazingly, with a little rain, it can blossom with startling beauty.  Bordered by Mexico to the south and New Mexico to the west, the region is filled with history, culture, and infamy.  It is home to a huge national park, one of the world’s largest telescopes, Texas’s highest peak, and its oldest mission.  Our study will be varied, covering Judge Roy Bean, Apaches, Roy Orbison, the Marfa lights, Hallie Stillwell and her book, I’ll Gather My Geese, and forts like Bliss, Davis, and Stockton.  Conditions were hostile and life was colored by outlaws, bank robberies, Indian raids, and gun fights.  El Paso is the largest U.S. city on the Mexican border and it combines the past with the future and the cultures of both sides of the Rio Grande.

Our Texas history study of the regions of Texas will conclude with the Panhandle Plains.  Here we find more rugged beauty with vast expanses of fertile farmland, scenic lakes, and water-carved canyons.  Palo Duro Canyon State Park has 18,000 acres of majestic scenery and is the historic site where General MacKenzie finally forced Quanah Parker and his band of Comanches to surrender.  We’ll visit Lubbock, home of Buddy Holly and the National Heritage Ranching Museum; Albany, home of the Fandangle, Watt Matthews and his mother Sally Reynolds Matthews who wrote Interwoven; great ranches such as The 6666, The XIT, the Waggoner, and The Matador; forts like Griffin, Phantom Hill, and Concho; and Midland, center of great oil exploration and one-time home of two presidents.

6 weeks

$125

Thursday mornings 10:00-12:00

Starting October 23, 2008

We now realize that Wordsworth’s long autobiographical poem “The Prelude” is more like Joyce’s autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist than it is like Wordsworth’s model “Paradise Lost.”  In the 19th century poetry lost its pride of place to the novel, but the best poets also absorbed the novel’s example and reformed the nature of poetry.  By looking at these interactions between the major novelists and poets in England and Europe, we can get a sense of the 19th century’s great urgency to define a new world, one that, in many ways, we live in still today.  You will notice this a syllabus that can contend for the heavyweight championship of the world.
•   Introduction and Wordsworth
•   Wordsworth             The Prelude (selections)
•   Dickens                   Bleak House
•   Browning                 Browning's Selected Poems (selections)
•   Dostoevsky             Notes from the Underground
•   Baudelaire               Paris Spleen
•   Flaubert                   Madame Bovary
•   Pushkin                   Eugene Onegin
•   Tolstoy                    Anna Karenina

$200

Thursday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 11, 2008

In this course we will focus on the life and work of Alfred Stieglitz and the many artists whose works he exhibited and supported over a long period of time.  Stieglitz was a pioneer in bringing both American and European modernism to the American public.  An important photographer, he founded the Photo-Secession group in 1902, the influential magazine Camera Work, and the “Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession,” also known as the “291,” which, from 1905-1917, exhibited the first modernist works seen in the United States.  Stieglitz showed works by Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Brancusi, along with Americans such as Marin, Hartley, Dove, Weber, and later, O’Keefe, who was to became his wife.  Untiring in his advocacy of American modernism, he ran “An American Place,” an exhibition space dedicated to bringing a distinctly American vision to the public, from 1929 until his death in 1946.

$200

Thursday afternoons 1:00-3:00

Starting September 11, 2008

The following computer workshops, each of which will be two sessions in length, are hands-on and limited to six persons. The fee for each two-week course is $150. Participants may bring their own laptops if they so choose; please notify the office if you will be bringing your laptop.

Course Name	Description	Dates	Times
THE BASICS: UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER	Banish "computer anxiety" in this fun-filled informative hands-on class. We will cover the issues of usiing computers, learn about the desktop environment, icons, menues, programs, cutting and pasting, and creating, saving, and locating documents on the computer.	Monday mornings September 8 & 15, 2008	10:00-12:00
THE BASICS: CREATING, LOCATING, & ORGANIZING DOCUMENTS	As we work with our computers, we have to know where documents are located, how to open them, delete them, and attach them to the e-mail format, and more. We will work files and folders, learning how to create, store, locate, rename, attach, and delete them.	Monday afternoons September 8 & 15 , 2008	1:00-3:00
COMPUTER BASICS: INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT WORD	We wll learn the basics of Microsoft Word starting with setting up our page, changing fonts, setting margins, and more. We will learn how to create letters, invitations, and announcements. We will learn about labels, envelopes, and more.	Monday mornings September 22 & 29, 2008	10:00-12:00
PUTTING YOUR COMPUTER TO WORK: LISTMANIA	In this workshop we will learn how to set up all manner of lists--such as address books--in the correct fashion so we can take advanage of the easy sorting, filtering, and merging features in common programs to produce the results we want including printouts, labels/envelopes, or reports.	Monday afternoons September 22 & 29, 2008	1:00-3:00
INTERMEDIATE MICROSOFT WORD	In this workshop we will learn how to have more control over our Word documents. We will create tables, set tabs and indents, work with labels and envelopes, and create invitations among other functions.	Monday mornings October 6 & 13 , 2008	10:00-12:00
INTERMEDIATE LISTMANIA	We will learn to work with mass mailings using Word's easy, step-by-step "mailmerge" feature and create labels from a large list. We will continue working with Excel, learning more intermediate features such as setting up lists, creating a spreadsheet, and working with simple formulas.	Monday afternoons October 6 & 13 , 2008	1:00-3:00
GRAPHICS GALORE I: WORKING WITH DIGITAL CAMERAS	We will learn how to use a digital camera, how to download the photos onto the computer, how to edit them, and how to send them as e-mail and attachments and create our own web albums that we can share with friends. Also included will be further tricks and tips on scanning, editing pictures, and correcting hue, brightness, contrast, and red eye on the computer using the free program we can download from Google called Picasa. (Please note that participants may use Ms. Weiman's digital camera or use their own; and, please bring your owner's manual if you are using your own camera.)	Monday mornings or Monday afternoons October 20 & 27 , 2008	10:00-12:00   1:00-3:00
CRAPHICS GALORE II: RETOUCHING PHOTOS	In this workshop we will change the settings on our digital cameras, examine the movie feature, cover more intermediate photo editing and enhancement techniques like cloning, re-coloring, and combining elements of different pictures into one composite using Photoshop Elements.  We will work with changing backgrounds and selection techniques on Photoshop and more. (Please note that participants may use Ms. Weiman’s digital camera or use their own.)	Monday mornings or Monday afternoons November 3 & 10, 2008	10:00-12:00   1:00-3:00
GRAPHICS GALORE III: SETTING UP A WEB ALBUMS & CREATING PHOTO BOOKS	In this workship we will explore how to use such online services Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Kodak to upload our pictures to a web album of our own design. We will learn how to organize our picture online, how to put captions on them, and how to share the albums with family and friends. We will learn how to "publish" our own photo books by undertsanding how to ick out the cover, lay out our photos, and preview the finished product that can be ordered to be sent to us.	Monday mornings December 1 & 8 , 2008	10:00-12:00
CRAPHICS GALORE IV: SELF-PUBLISHING YOUR PHOTS WITH TRAVEL SKETCHES, MEMOIRS, AND MORE	We will explore the technologies and techniques of using online services to self-publish our photos with our writings, whether they are travel sketches, poetry, memoirs, or any other genre. We will learn the technology of getting our information on the page, the art of designing our own layout or using templates, the way to insert pictures, work with page numbers, and ultimately, to upload our creation to one of the inexpensive and easy online services to creagte as few or as many copies of our book as we choose.	Monday afternoons December 1 & 8, 2008	1:00-3:00

$150 per 2 week class