[The final
papers are coming in and the blue books have entered the building, so it must
be the end of another semester. This week I’ll recap some inspiring moments
from my
Fall 2018 semester, and I’d love to hear some of yours in comments!]
On takeaways
from my continuing connections to three great adult learning programs.
1)
Beacon
Hill Seminars: This fall I connected for the first time with this adult
learning program, and had the chance to lead a seminar on America in the Gilded
Age. I can’t lie, perhaps the coolest part was getting to teach the class in the
neighborhood’s historic
William Prescott House! But as with every adult learning program for which
I’ve taught, I was also and especially struck by the amazing breadth and depth
of experiences and knowledge that the students brought. For example, we were
talking about the history of immigration laws and their effects, and a student shared
her family’s story of immigrating after the 1920s
Quota Acts, and of having to move first to South America as a result of
that more restrictive era. Each student in a class like this brought equally
compelling such stories to the mix, and the result was another amazing adult
learning experience for their professor.
2)
ALFA:
My latest Adult Learning in the Fitchburg Area (ALFA)
class is ongoing as I write this, and in any case I’ve written a great deal
in this space over
many years about how much ALFA means to me. So here I’ll note more generally
the ways in which adult learning classes and programs force us to rethink how
we teach and talk about familiar topics. In this case, the class topic, Voices
of Resistance in American History, is very close to the focus of my forthcoming
book, so much so that I thought about just giving them chapters of the book as
readings. But then I realized that a class isn’t the same as a book, and that
shared readings to discuss aren’t the same as my individual voice and writing;
so I had to step back and think about ways to present some of the same
histories and topics for this kind of audience and conversation, and to draw
out their voices and ideas. It’s working well so far, and a good skill to keep
practicing in any case!
3)
BOLLI:
After the initial connection to Brandeis’ adult learning program that I
highlighted in that post, I had the chance to teach
one class for them, and enjoyed it very much. Our respective schedules have
made it difficult to find room for a second such class, but I’ve managed to
keep the connection going by giving a couple of one-off lectures for them. This
fall I gave such a talk on contemporary African American fiction, highlighting
and contextualizing works by Tayari Jones, Jesmyn Ward, Paul Beatty, Imbolo
Mbue, Attica Locke, and Colson Whitehead to discuss different threads and
trends in both current American literature and the long tradition of African
American lit. The talk forced me to both read and think about works outside of
my regular range of classes, books that I greatly enjoyed but might not have
had time or space in my schedule for without this prompting. One more reason to
celebrate and continue my connection to these adult learning programs!
Spring preview
this weekend,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Semester reflections you’d share?
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