Fall classes are now in full swing!
None of us can be at every class, so here's a quick look at what went
on this first week.
Marvin Ouwinga's A History of
Classical Architectural Styles began on Monday with an
introduction to the basic building blocks of architecture and the
pyramids of Egypt. Rosemary McLean says that “Marvin is as usual a
fount of knowledge. He rounds out his comments to make architecture
understandable, simple, interesting and easy to remember what he's
told us.” Marcia Foster-Austin adds, “I took the course because
I know very little about architecture. Marvin was using words I'd
never seen or heard before, but now I know what they mean.”
The first session of Great
Decisions, facilitated by Jim McLean, dealt with the Internet and
keeping your computer safe, and led to a discussion of the
possibility of all-out cyber-war. Saranne Taylor says, “I find the
course quite challenging, and the people in it are terrific.” Dan
Johnson was a guest at this session, his first. Dan had this to say,
“It was good, and very frightening. It makes me want to consider
taking this course.”
Pat
Stewart began the first class of Charles Dickens: Mystery
and Hard Times by asking students what experience they've have
with Dickens. Many had read A Christmas Carol, David
Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, the ones we had to read
in high school, but no one has read Hard Times or The
Mystery of Edwin Drood. Jackie Cressy, who is really enjoying
the class, says that “Pat is such a great facilitator and asks good
questions.” She is sorry that fall is such a busy time and that
she may need to miss the next class. Amy Davis compares reading when
she was in high school and reading now. She says that back then “it
seemed that Dickens just went on and on, and I felt like asking, when
are you going to set the plot? When are you going to start the
story? But now it's a lot more fascinating.”
It seems that last Thursday some of the
students in Suzanne Taylor's Drawing and Painting class were
rather too talkative, and Suzanne couldn't hear herself think! But
as Jackie VanLeuven says, “The camaraderie of the group is so good.
We all seem to relate to one another, and I look forward to our
meetings every week.” Sara Wright is “just enjoying the
opportunity to work in a medium I'm unfamiliar with – as a writer
and a poet this is a new exploration for me.”
Creative Writing, also
facilitated by Suzanne Taylor, rounded out the week on Friday.
Suzanne had students reach into a bag and pull out a cookie press.
They were to write about what they saw. Scott Hynek commented, “The
interesting thing to me was that for no particular reason I wrote the
first sentence without thinking of what the second sentence would be,
and then the second without thinking of the third. The place I was
at the end of 20 minutes was not where I thought I'd be at 15
minutes.” Barb Dion, who has been in the Creative Writing class
for years, says the class “is lots of fun, and everyone is very
non-judgmental. It's interesting to see the different writing
styles. Some are very introspective when they write, others are more
fun-loving. My style is more the macabre. Everyone is waiting to
see who is going to die.”
Our fall term is definitely off to a
good start!
For more
information about Western Mountains Senior College visit our website
at http://sad44.maineadulted.org/western_mountains_senior_college
