The Academy for Lifelong Learning at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is offering an engaging and diverse group of classes, courses and discussion groups for its 2014 Winter Session. This season’s topics range from an exploration of the short stories of the recent recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature and classes on famous Supreme Court Cases to a Jonathan Edwards concert at the Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD.
ALL’s 2014 season begins with the Winter Social on January 9, from 4-6 p.m. at the Van Lennup Auditorium on the CBMM campus in St. Michaels, MD. Everyone with a passion for learning is welcome.
Master of the Modern Short Story, Selected Works of Alice Munro begins on Tuesday, January 14, 1 p.m. through 2 p.m., and meeting each Tuesday through February 4. The course will be led by John Ford, John Miller and Kate Livie, who have conducted popular literature classes in previous ALL seasons.
Peter Thatcher will lead Great Decisions on Mondays, January 27-March 17, 1:30-2:30 p.m. The eight-session course is developed by the Foreign Policy Association. The longest-standing and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind, it is designed to encourage debate and discussion of the important global issues of our time.
Margot Miller and Esty Collet will lead the ALL Book Club in discussions of two of Pulitzer Prize-nominee Jonathan Franzen’s novels. On Thursday, January 30, from 1-2:30 p.m., the group will discuss The Corrections, a sprawling, satirical family drama, which earned Franzen a National Book Award. At the same time on Thursday, March 6, the discussion will be about the author’s Freedom.
On Wednesdays, from January 15-February 12, 1-2:30 p.m., Al Kublelius will present Ideas Worth Learning and Spreading via TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design), a global organization that offers presentations by world-renowned people on such subjects as science, religion, philosophy, technology, health, politics, inspiration, athletics and wealth.
Mid-Shore Entrepreneurship Challenge: How to Succeed in Business on the Eastern Shore will meet for five Wednesday session, from February 5-March 5 at 10:30-noon. The course, geared for those both with and without experience in creating new businesses, will be led by Fred Smythe, Steve Dolbow, Michael Theilke and George Howie. The class will include case studies, processes and suggestions from marketing and new business development to reinventing an entire business.
Arthur (Otts) Laupus will conduct Major Supreme Court Cases: The Decisions and their Consequences on Thursdays, from February 6-27, 1-2:30 p.m. The course will examine many recent and past Supreme Court decisions, including the arguments, Constitutional issues, the spirit of the times and opposing philosophies.
Randy Welch will lead two sessions on Alaska, My Unintended Destination. From 10:30 a.m.-noon on March 25 and April 1, Welch will present his story, experiences, and travels from Maryland in1972 to Alaska, following in his Norwegian grandfather’s footsteps in commercial fishing for 12 years.
ALL’s Sheldon Goldgeier Lecture Series hosts authors with links to our community. On Thursday, January 16, 10-11:30 a.m., Robert Rich, Jr., share the stories and photographs he gathered while recording Captain Larry Smith’s reflections in A Waterman’s Hope – Restore the Chesapeake.
Barbara Lockhart will discuss her historical novel, The Language of the Fields: Elizabeth’s Field and the Underground Railroad, on Wednesday February 12, 10:30-noon. The author will give a brief reading as part of her presentation.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2-3:30 p.m., photographer and author Wilson Wyatt, Jr., will discuss his book Chesapeake View – Catching the Light, a collection of 82 photographic images. He will describe the images and how his hobby has become a pursuit of beauty in nature in its natural light.
Single-session courses include John Miller’s A Semester at Sea: Circumnavigating the Globe while Teaching Literature aboard a Student Ship on Wednesday February 19, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Anne McCormick Adams will conduct a day trip, All Aboard! The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum, on Thursday, March 6, from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Tom Hollingshead will lead A Folk Music Legend, a concert by veteran folk rocker Jonathan Edwards, beginning 4:30 pm Friday, February 7 at The Mainstay in Rock Hall Maryland. Edwards has recorded more than 20 albums of songs with insight and humor.
“To Discover and Gaine:” The Islands of the Upper Chesapeake will meet on Tuesday afternoons, 1-2:30 p.m., from March 25-April 15. Course leader Philip Hesser will explore several upper Chesapeake Bay islands, focusing on their history from early Indian settlements to planned communities.
Financing the War of 1812, led by Ron Lesher, will meet for two Thursday sessions, March 13 and 20, from 10:30 a.m.-noon. In the sessions, participants will examine the issues, taxes and artifacts involved in financing the war in a time when Alexander Hamilton maintained that the government should only resort to internal duties during times of national emergency.
Richard Wagner will conduct Mind and Cosmos: The Nature of Reality for five Monday sessions, from March 3-31, from 10:30-noon. The class will address what science and philosophy have said about the natures of the physical universe, of mind, and of reality. No prior knowledge of science is necessary to participate in these discussions, but curiosity is a prerequisite.
Vacation Planning and Virtual Vacations via Google Earth will be led by Al Kubeluis on Wednesdays from February 19 through March 19, from 1-2:30 p.m. The class will examine how to plan a real vacation or take a virtual vacation using Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Search. Tables or smart phones with GPS capabilities will help, but are not required.
Bob Springer will conduct Friends and Foes, a course on the economic and religious reasons for the establishment of English colonies in the New World. The class, which meets on Mondays from February 24-March 24, 1-2:30 p.m. will explore the contentious relationship between the mother country and the colonies in World Wars I and II and other topics.
Affiliated with The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD, the Academy for Lifelong Learning is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization committed to promoting the exploration of ideas, exchanging knowledge, and sharing experiences. For more information about these programs, to obtain a catalog for the full semester, or to register for courses, please call the Academy for Lifelong Learning at the CBMM at 410-745-4941. To download a catalog online, go to https://www.cbmm.org/all. ALL is also on Facebook.
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