Getting Intimately Acquainted With Your Computer – It Wishes To Do Good Things For You!

C. Eric Frerking, Instructor. Learn to coexist well with your computer. Eliminate the fear – settle in to a standoff between the amazing usefulness of your tool, and the frustration it gives you. Learn how to use your expensive tool to enrich your life. You can use it to create and express, to talk with family and friends, to find information you can locate no other way, to play, as well as many other services. This course will introduce you to several of the many ways your computer can be useful to you.

Eric Frerking received his B.A. degree in physics at Sacramento State College, and his MA in physics at UC Davis. He spent his entire career as a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California – 1967 through 2001. He also spent many years in the program that diagnosed nuclear tests in Nevada where he programmed and used computers for many types of experimental data capture, data analysis and modeling of physical processes. During the later years, he worked on a web-based archival/retrieval system for data, documents, and general information about lab activities. Eric has also taught evening courses in computer programming. The syllabus for this course will be provided on request.Eric is a new faculty member to Senior College, and this course in the basics of computer use will be very popular, so sign up early!

Stars, Galaxies And The Whole Shebang!

Roger Ptak, Instructor. We will investigate many of the ideas of modern astronomy — the nature of the Sun and its planets, the life and death of stars, including exploding stars and black holes. On a larger scale we will consider the Galaxy, and then all the other galaxies, how it all began; how will it end. Of course, most of the matter out there does not shine at all, leaving us somewhat in the dark.

Roger Ptak earned his B.S. degree in Physics from the University of Detroit and received his Masters and Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University. During his academic career at Bowling Green State University he taught courses at all levels in physics and astronomy, introduced an astronomy program into the curriculum, directed an astronomy program from inception in 1975 until his retirement. Results of his research in astronomy have been published in scientific journals, and he was principal investigator for several NASA grants. Roger and his wife live in Northport.

The Use, Misuse, And Abuse Of Religion Throughout History

Ron Jarvella, Instructor. Belief systems intended to help people deal with the rigor and mysteries of life have too often been misapplied leading to conflict and suffering. Today's examples have countless historic models. We will examine some of them. We will review the progression of religious concepts from pre-history to our era.

Ron Jarvella has taught several course for Senior College. He has been a teacher for 45 years, and his academic background includes a B.A. in History from Ohio State University, an M.A. in History from Arizona State, and post-graduate work at several universities. Ron and his wife, Shirley, live in Northport.

Partners Or Codependents? Israeli-American Relations From Ben-Gurion To Olmert

Bob Rackmales, Instructor. This course will explore the dynamics of Israeli-US relations since the State of Israel was established in 1948. The contribution of government leaders in both countries to defining the relationship will be examined as well as the role of societal factors. With a view to the 2008 Camden Conference, the impact of religious groups will receive particular attention. Text readings will be supplemented with documentary film clips and declassified government documents. Please Note: This is a two-part course; the Fall Session will cover the period through the Camp David Accords of 1978, the Winterim Session will bring the account to the present.

Robert Rackmales has taught three previous courses at Senior College on issues relating to US foreign policy and diplomacy. He served 32 years as a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department. A member of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations and the Board of Directors of the Camden Conference, Bob and his wife Mary live in Northport.

Fairy Tales For Mid-Life And Beyond

Cheryl Fuller, Instructor. Of the various types of mythological literature, fairy tales are the simplest and purest expressions of the collective unconscious and thus offer the clearest understanding of the basic patterns of the human psyche. Using von Franz' book as a guide, we will explore the steps involved in analyzing and interpreting a selection of fairy tales especially appropriate for people at mid-life and beyond. Most of us have become familiar with those tales which are especially relevant to young people — Snow White, Cinderella and the like. In this course, we will study fairy tales which reveal a deep folk wisdom about the psychological tasks encountered in the second half of life. We will approach this exploration from a psychological perspective using insights from Jungian analytical psychology. No prior knowledge of Jungian psychology is necessary.

Cheryl Fuller, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychotherapist who lives in Belfast. She began her interest in Jung in college at Duke in the late '60s, an interest which continues unabated. She has her doctorate in Jungian Studies and many years of study and training at various Jung institutes and in Jungian analysis. She brings over 30 years of clinical experience, enthusiasm and humor to the study of Jung and fairy tales.

Great French Operas – One Per Week

Beaumont Glass, Instructor. This course features beautiful and exciting productions of French operas on DVD and VHS videos, with commentary, opportunities for discussion, and informative handouts about the composers and each week's opera, including Carmen (maybe the most popular of all operas, by Georges Bizet), Romeo and Juliet (by Charles Gounod, in a moving performance from London's Covent Garden), The Tales of Hoffman (a spectacular fantasy by Jacques Offenbach), Manon (the most French of all French operas, by Jules Massenet, in a Paris Opera production with superstar Renee Fleming), Samon and Delilah (by Camille Saint-Saens, a truly Cecil-B-DeMille production by the San Francisco opera, with Placido Domingo and Shirley Verrett), Pelleas and Melisande (Claude Debussy's only completed opera, a poetic masterpiece). Please Note: This is the first in a three-part series of courses that Beaumont will be offering during the 2007-2008 academic year. The Winterim Session will feature Great Mozart Operas; and the Spring Semester will present Great Russian and Czech Operas.

Beaumont Glass has spent more than 50 years in the world of professional opera, both as a stage director and as a vocal coach, including 19 years with the Zurich Opera in Switzerland, four summers with the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, and 18 years as Director of Opera at the University of Iowa. He calls himself "a missionary who wants to share the beauty of opera, to introduce people to its joys, and to show how it can greatly enrich our lives."

The Wild Side Of Midcoast Maine

Mike Shannon, Instructor. Let's rendezvous with Autumn…a season of change…a time to celebrate nature's bounty. This course will whet your appetite for things wild and natural. We'll connect with local places, learn to identify common species, sharpen our observational skills and arouse our kinship with all life. This is your chance to discover and explore the natural history of Midcoast Maine, and the possibilities will surprise and delight you. You'll learn how to connect with local landscapes…our woods, waters, and backyards.

Mike Shannon is a naturalist, educator, and a Registered Maine Guide. Whether in the forest prowling for owls or aboard ship scanning for pelagic birds, he continues to lead outings for local groups. He is recently retired from Unity College where he taught omithology and ecological education for ten years. A former director of the National Audubon Society's camps in Connecticut and in Maine (Hog Island), he has also served as Master Naturalist for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Mike has a long history of sharing his passion and enthusiasm for things natural. As many of you know, his former classes for Senior College were wildly popular.

Children's Literature: From The Classics To The 21st Century (Aka The Kiddy Lit Class)

Team Taught. If you need an excuse to re-read, or discover new, high-interest, imaginatively illustrated, LARGE TYPE, use-renewing literature, you may want to consider enrolling in this first-time offered course which will cover the following topics:

• Learning What Educational Researchers Have to Say About Early Literacy Development
• Remembering the Classics
• Partnering with Literacy Professionals in the Community
• Discovering Reading-Together Techniques
• Meeting some of our Local Children's Book Authors and Illustrators
• Taking a Field Trip to the East Belfast School to Read One-on-One with Pre-School to Grade 2 Children

Presenters will include:

• Dr. Susan Bennett-Armistead, Asst. Professor of Early Literacy, University of Maine
• Dr. Terry P. Gruener, Adjunct Professor of Children's Literature, University of Maine System
• Jane Thompson, Director of Youth Services, Belfast Free Library
• Ruth Holmes, MSAD 34 Literacy Specialist
• Linda Stec, Director of Starrett Children's Center
• Dr. Julie Della Matera, Assistant Professor of Early Child Development and Education, University of Maine
• Becky Mailloux, former Title I Coordinator and Liaison for MSAD #34
• Steve Costanza (Belfast), John and Ann Hassett (Waldoboro), Chris VanDusen (Camden), authors and/or illustrators of children’s books
• Jana Mailloux Howard, Waldo County Pre-School and Family Services Early Reading Teacher at East Belfast School

Playing Like A Pro

Sheila Nickerson, Instructor. Take note you fervent Bridge fans, this long awaited and demanded class is finally here! Sheila is offering advanced skill to advanced players. What do we mean by "advanced"? Anyone registering for this course must have at least three years or more of playing bridge on a regular basis. It would also be best if you and your partner sign up together to get the most value for your time. Topics covered will include: 2 classes on defensive play, 1 class on the art of leading and signaling, 1 on club bidding, and more on takout doubles.

Sheila Nickerson is a resident of Belfast and has been teaching bridge with great success for Senior College since the fall of 2004. She is a Bronze Life Master, a Director and Certified Instructor of adults. Sheila has also been a private bridge teacher for many years.

Galileo, Darwin & Herbert Spencer: Science Confronts Religion

Arlin T. Larson, Instructor. Today's clashes over evolution were foreshadowed by controversy over the heliocentric theory put forth by Galileo. The grand syntheses of knowledge by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas were giving way to specialized disciplines, turf wars were inevitable. The issues were not merely factual. The new science seemed to undercut deeply held moral, religious and philosophical positions. For example, if the earth was not the center of the universe, then it and the human race were perhaps not so specially favored in God's eyes. "Darwinism" is the byword in controversies ranging on two fronts. One is waged by religious fundamentalists who fear that evolution denigrates both God and humanity. The second controversy is over "Social Darwinism," the idea that evolutionary science "proves" such things as racial inferiority/superiority, the "White Man's burden," the necessity of eugenics, raw capitalism, female subordination, and the like. The opposition to this Darwinism comes primarily from the left. This course will attempt to sort out the often mixed-up and garbled issues (scientific, religious, philosophical and political) that arise.

The Rev. Dr. Arlin T. Larson is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church in Searsport. "Religion and science is a long-standing interest of mine. My theology teacher, Langdon Gilkey, was the principal theological witness in the Arkansas Creationism trial of the 1980's. Last year I hosted a seminar on Religion & Evolution at my denomination's convention. The main speaker was Francisco Ayala, a prominent evolutionary biologist who is also theologically trained. Nathan Dinces, a molecular biologist who has taught Senior College classes on Judaism, will be guest lecturer."

The Worlds Of Johann Sebastian Bach

Henry Wyatt, Instructor. For almost two centuries, musicians and audiences have considered Johann Sebastian Bach the summit of musical perfection, and the most profoundly spiritual of composers. Bach's music contains everything he knew about the art of musical composition, including sacred and secular styles, ancient and modern compositional practices, vocal and instrumental writing, Classical rhetoric and Baroque poetics, liturgical traditions, Christian symbols and images in sound—everything music was about. There is a further dimension to Bach: his sense that his was the last generation of polyphonists whose art reached back through the centuries to Dufay and Josquin. As a working musician, he had a profound knowledge of the physics and mechanics of instruments and was a much-consulted authority in the building and repair of great organs. He was amongst the most brilliant keyboard performers of his age, and a competent violinist as well. This series will explore the rich and fascinating worlds of Bach, and our discussion and listening will focus on the Brandenburg Concertos, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the cantatas and the Mass in B minor.

Henry Wyatt taught for Senior College in the Spring semester of this year, and now is back to offer another course for the true lover of music! Dr. Wyatt earned his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in Music History and Theory. He has studied, lectured, taught, and performed music over his career and his performance training and experience was as a horn player. In addition to his concentration on and love of music, Dr. Wyatt has served as music director for various theatre companies, has a working knowledge of German, Italian and French, and is working on the initial draft of a book length naval command study on the Pacific during World War II. (We anticipate a future course in this area of his expertise.)

History Of Art – Part IV: "What Dark Ages?"

Baird Whitlock, Instructor. The history of art course continues, starting with the height of the Roman Empire in the 2nd Century, A,D. and continues through the fall of Rome and the spreading of Greco-Roman art throughout Europe and Asia. Then comes Byzantine art, both in Constantinople and eastern Italy, Gupta art in India, Nara period architecture in Japan, Visigothic art and Mohammedan art in Spain, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic art in the British Isles, and Carolingian art in France, and the great temple complexes of Angkor in Cambodia and the Maya in Central America. The course will end just as Romanesque churches begin to appear in Venice and Florence. The point of the title is to make clear how near-sighted historians of the western world have been in judging artistic development on the limited scale of our own direct ancestors (note the PBS program of this year in which the traditional western view of the “Dark Ages” is taken for granted as an accurate description of the years between 500 and 1000 AD.)

Baird Whitlock, host and moderator of the Belfast Library Foreign Film Series, has degrees from Rutgers University and the University of Edinburgh. After a career as Professor of English, Humanities, Art History and Music, with teaching and administrative posts at Middlebury College, Colby College, Case Western Reserve, San Francisco State and the presidency of Simon’s Rock College, he retired from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, where he was Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor of Art and Chair of English and Humanities. Baird now resides in Belfast with his wife Joan.

One-Day Workshop – Introduction To Watercolor

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 9:30 AM - 3:00 PM. A complimentary lunch will be provided for this course. Class limit is 20. Nancy Blatz, Instructor. If you have always wanted to try to create art using water-color, this is your chance. This one-day workshop will be geared to students who have never painted with watercolor. We will supply all of the materials – no need to buy a thing.

In the morning we will explore the techniques used for all types of watercolor – flat washes, graded washes, dry brush, wet into wet, and glazing. We will learn to remove paint if, heaven forbid, we make a mistake. You can fix watercolor! After lunch, we will work together to paint a picture. Note: students who complete this primary course in watercolor will be prepared to take Nancy's regular watercolor classes usually offered in the Winterim and Spring sessions. It is her hope to limit her regular classes to students with some watercolor experience so the entire class may proceed at somewhat the same pace.

Nancy Blatz taught high school math for 33 years in New York. During that time she attended Adult Education painting courses and took four watercolor classes from the Huntington Township Art League. When she retired to Maine, Nancy became a member of the Midcoast Art Guild. She is an accomplished artist, an inspiring teacher who works easily with the beginner as well as the accomplished. This is Nancy's third year of teaching for Senior College.