People and Books was the title of a recent program at the Adult Learning Institute at Columbia-Green Community College in Hudson, New York. The group discussed the well-known novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Members of the Explorers Lifelong Learning Institute at Salem State College in Massachusetts recently studied The Hubble Space Telescope: Sixteen Years of Elegant Sites, Scenes and Science. There were treated to a summary of the NASA program as well as a discussion of the HST system and its useful discoveries.

Members of the Institute for Continuing Learning at Young Harris College in Georgia recently studied Musical Structure: Sonata Form. The explored how the sonata form is utilized in some of the masterpieces of the classical and romantic eras.

Over the summer members of MSU for Seniors at Minnesota State University, Mankato took two very interesting field trips. The first took them to Walnut Grove, MN where they enjoyed the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant. The second found members enjoying a Sunday afternoon at Morgan Creek Winery taking part in a celebration of the Celtic Heritage of Poetry, Song and Stories.

Members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University in Virginia studied Right Brain, Left Brain, Whole Brain: How Our Thinking Style Preferences Affect Our Lives. They analyzed their own preferred thinking style, discussed how various thinking styles impact and interact with opposing and complementary styles and played a bit with their own thinking style preferences.

One of the summer courses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Southern Maine University in Portland is entitled Evy Newlyn. Members will read in modern English the medieval lais (short verse stories) of Marie de France, who wrote of romance, the supernatural, a noble werewolf, and Arthurian characters such as Tristan and Iseult, and Lanival and his fairy mistress from Avalon.

Members of the Rose Institute for Life Long Learning at the Menorah Park Center in Beachwood, Ohio recently took a course entitled Oldies But Goodies. The class joined in the stimulating discussions following the reading of a variety of literary works. Some of the selections included The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck, My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, as well as selected poetry by Maya Angelou.

Members of the Senior Academy at the University of South Florida, Sarasota took a course this past winter entitled Daily Life In Dictatorships. This course provided insights, anecdotes and pictures regarding what life was like in Franco’s Spain, Pinochet’s Chile, the Argentina of the military dictators and Communist Germany; and what life is like today in Namibia, Cuba, Brazil, Russia and the former Soviet Republics.