Spring OWLL Courses
You are About to Flourish! How? By Taking Exciting Spring OWLL Courses with Your Talented Lexington Neighbors!
Much research tells us that we can increase the quality and length of our lives if we find human connection, meaning, and life purpose. So what a great way to enhance our lives by taking OWLL classes where we’ll be connected to both fresh ideas and smart Lexingtonian classmates! Register at LexRecMa.com or call 781-698-4840, with $25 per course for Lexington residents and $50 per course for non-residents. The courses are described below.
Bea Mah Holland, OWLL Committee Member
Maturation of the Human Brain: Origins of ————, ————, and ————-
Tuesday, May 13
11 AM-12:30 PM
In Person
Course: David Rose has taught several widely popular OWLL classes in the last few years, each of them focusing on exploring recent advances in neurosciences and their implications for the fu-ture of education or the arts. However, this spring’s class has been somewhat more problematic to finalize. Originally David had proposed a course on the biology–specifically the neurology–of aging, a topic of personal interest and recent experiential “expertise.” However, recent changes in the environment–including the US election–have made that focus outdated, even boring! So David revised the course to reflect a stronger emphasis on the role of environmental factors, such as education, to shape the human brain and its capabilities over the lifespan. The original course title, which appeared on previous posters, reflects the conversation the course seeks to elevate: Maturation of the Human Brain: Origins of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. However, in light of recent administrative purges of language and funding, that title now seems too intentionally pro-vocative–perhaps even dangerous!—so he has proposed a facetious new title: Maturation of the Human Brain: Origins of ————, ———–, and ———-. He hopes for and anticipates lively exploration and discussion of important changes in our culture, our educational practices, and our brains.
Instructor: Dr. David Rose is a developmental neuropsychologist and educator with significant diversity in both his teaching—from Head Start to Harvard’s Graduate School of Education—and in his learning (from delayed walking to intermediate juggling to advanced neuroanatomy at Harvard Medical School). In 1983, Dr. Rose co-founded CAST, a not-for-profit research and development organization whose mission has been to improve education for all learners – especially including those who are labeled “atypical” or “disabled” learners – through innovative uses of modern learning technologies. That work has grown into the field called Universal Design for Learning, which now influences educational policy and practice throughout the United States and the world. Dr. Rose also taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education for over 30 years.
The Road to Revolution: 1770-1775
Tuesdays, April 1 & 8
1:30–3 PM
In Person
Course: How do you hold together an empire? Do you use the arts of political compromise to make your subjects content with your dominion? Or do you exploit your subjects and rely on force to keep them quiet? These were the questions faced by George III’s ministers in the 1770s, and their answers amount to a textbook case on how to provoke a revolution. The upcoming anniversary of Lexington and Concord gives us a perfect opportunity to take a fresh look at a series of decisions made by key figures on both sides of the Atlantic that turned a political dispute into a bloody war. Beginning with the events leading up to the Boston Massacre of 1770 and picking up considerable steam with the calamitous reaction to the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the British government and its representatives in Massachusetts made mistake after mistake, culminating in the fateful events of April 1775. In this series of presentations, we will tell the story of missteps and missed chances that led to the outbreak of the Revolution and the consequent loss of Britain’s thirteen North American colonies.
Instructor: Dan Breen, PhD in American History at Boston College, Brandeis faculty, winner of Massachusetts History Alliance Star Award for excellence in local history in 2022, Taught OWLL courses on WWI, Space Race History, Boston Statues and Public Monuments. For a number of years, he has presented a series of very popular lectures at the Bedford Public Library on various topics of history.
The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner: An Astonishing Tale in Verse
Four Wednesdays
April 2, 9, 16, 23
10:00–11:30 AM
In Person
Course: Most of us have heard some variant of “water, water everywhere … but nor any drop to drink” and may remember it had something to do with a curse on sailors brought on by the killing of an albatross. In this class, award winning poet Cammy Thomas will help us unlock the myster-ies of Coleridge’s epic poem, which she states: “My history with Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is that my mother and I had measles together when I was ten…I first heard this ghostly, gorgeous, otherworldly tale when a feverish girl, lying cozily with my mother in her big bed…I think this bout of illness helped make me a poet.” The Ancient Mariner poem was written at a time when the Western world was in turmoil with revolutions and social upheavals, when all of the old beliefs were in question. Part adventure, part horror story, part psychological study, the poem asks how we assuage our guilt, and beyond that, how we cope with the uncertainties of life.
Instructor: Cammy Thomas’s most recent book is Odysseus’ Daughter (Parkman Press, 2023), poems written in response to The Odyssey. Three previous poetry collections were published by Four Way Books. Cathedral of Wish received the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Tremors received 2022 Poetry Honors from the Mass Book Awards. A fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation helped her complete Inscriptions. Her poem, Far Past War, was set to music by her sister, composer Augusta Read Thomas, and premiered with the Cathedral Choral Society in Washington D.C. in 2022. She teaches literature to adults and lives near Boston. For more information, please visit www.cammythomas.com.
History Through Rock: 1950s through 1980s
Thursdays: April 3, 10, 17, 24
1:00–2:30 PM
In Person
Course: This entertaining course explores through multimedia how rock music has been influenced by and has sometimes influenced history during the 1950s through the 1980s. We’ll hear artists as diverse as Elvis, Country Joe and the Fish, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Madonna, and Billy Joel. Videos and photos—of Sputnik, JFK, LBJ, musical artists’ performances, and more—will keep you engaged, evoke memories, remind you of things you might have forgotten, and teach you some things that perhaps you never knew. Singing and dancing are encouraged!
Instructor: Terrie Vincent is a lifelong Lexington resident. She and her husband raised three sons and now have three daughters-in-law and five grandchildren. She earned a B.L.S. in History and her Ed.M. in Higher Education at Boston University as an adult learner. She volunteers at her church and enjoys reading and playing word games. She loves sharing her love of history and rock music with others and has presented this class to enthusiastic audiences.
