Acadia Senior College

Mellon Room in the Northeast Harbor Library, 1 Joy Road, Northeast Harbor.

As America rolls toward the November 2020 elections, good citizens ask: What are the possible futures of American politics and society? This course explores that question. The first class will assess the challenges and opportunities before us through analyzing the 2016, 2018 and pending 2020 elections. The second class will envision American political parties post 2020 based on four distinct outcomes in 2020 and the 2021-2025 scenarios that could unfold from each. The core of the course will explore the prospect of building a better America by envisioning a political path through six dimensions of a progressive future: Democracy, Funding Public Good, Resilience, Healthcare, Education, and Becoming a Harmonious Minority Majority Country.

Neighborhood House, 1 Kimball Road, Northeast Harbor.

It’s never too late to learn how to dance or refresh your dance steps. This class will cover Waltz, Foxtrot, American Tango, Swing, Cha Cha and Rhumba. No prior experience needed and dance partners not required. (Dance shoes strongly suggested - see note in detailed description.)

Mellon Room in the Northeast Harbor Library, 1 Joy Road, Northeast Harbor.

In 2020, as America celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution granting women the right to vote, this class will celebrate what a female student in my last civil rights class called “the other half” of the civil rights story. So we will leave the stories of MLK, Abernathy, Lewis and Korematsu and focus on the stories of the heroines of the civil rights movement, those named Freeman, Tubman, Wells, Paul, Roosevelt, Murray, Parks, Johns, Hamer, Bates, Spiker, Abasheikh and others. Would the civil rights advances of the past 240 years have happened without their leadership and sacrifices? Let’s find out together.

ArtWaves Studio, State Route 102, Town Hill (next to Town Hill Market).

In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn the fundamentals of dyeing with fiber reactive dye, a permanent and versatile room temperature dye for plant-based fibers. We will work on cotton, exploring different methods of dye application and experiment with printing and stenciling techniques. Each student will have the opportunity to create a variety of fabric samples. Absolutely no art experience is necessary to participate.

Clark Room in the Southwest Harbor Public Library, Southwest Harbor.

This course will explore how women demanded more social and economic freedom by using the automobile to assert their social and economic independence and transform their role in American society, communities, and households. Driving allowed women to try things traditionally closed off to them, thus creating a foundation upon which to fight future battles for equal rights, voting rights and pay equity. We will learn about female cross-continent automobile and motorcycle drivers as well as women race car drivers, adventurers, suffragists who visited more than 100 cities, and others who contributed to positive change and took “mobilization” to a whole new level.

Birch Bay Village Inn Library, Village Inn Road, off Crooked Road, Hulls Cove.

This experiential course provides tested approaches to maintaining a healthy lifestyle regardless of medical crises, caregiving challenges, or the aging process. It offers strategies for employing five pillars that enhance wellness: engagement with the natural world, visualization, volunteerism, interaction with others, and fitness of body and mind. One adventure into the natural world will be wheelchair accessible.

Mellon Room in the Northeast Harbor Library, 1 Joy Road, Northeast Harbor.

Why do we sometimes fail to act in our own best interests? Traditional economic models of decision-making assume that people make decisions in a “rational” manner. These models work well – until they don’t. This course provides an introduction to a relatively new field – Behavioral Economics – that draws on the fields of economics, psychology, and neuroscience, to provide a better explanation of what influences the choices we make. Governments and companies the world over are now using behavioral insights to design/improve their policies (often called “nudging”). We will examine these efforts – successes, lessons learned, and ethical issues. No math prerequisite.

Birch Bay Village Inn Library, Village Inn Road, off Crooked Road, Hulls Cove.

This course will cover a selection of operas of particular interest to the instructor. Each week Bob will pair two operas for listening and discussion - one old and one new. Some of the operas to be covered include: "La Juive (The Jewess)" by Fromental Halevy; "Les Troyens (The Trojans)" by Hector Berlioz; "Abduction from the Seraglio" by Wolfgang Mozart; "Europa Riconoscuito (Europa Revealed)" by Antonio Salieri; "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" by Dmitri Shostakovich; and "Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City)" by Erich Korngold.

Wendell Gilley Museum, 4 Herrick Road, Southwest Harbor.

Eastern Maine is unique on the U.S. Atlantic coast in that forest still meets the sea. Efforts to preserve the natural qualities of woods, wetlands, and ponds stretching from the Gulf of Maine shores at Schoodic Point north to Schoodic Mountain in the Tunk Lake area and beyond into the North Woods is one of the great conservation stories of Maine. This course will explore the people, the land and seascape, corridor ecology, and the system of government and nonprofit conservation programs that have made extraordinary progress in preserving a region important for fauna and flora habitat, scenic beauty, outdoor recreation, and resilience in the face of the warming climate. The May 6th class session will be a field trip to Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park.

St. Mary’s Episcopal Chapel, 5 Kimball Road, Northeast Harbor.

The course title “Writer and Region” is taken from an essay by Wendell Berry, and is based on Berry’s definition of community, "common experience and common effort on a common ground to which one willingly belongs". This course will explore rural community life through Berry’s eyes and the eyes of several classic and contemporary Maine writers, including Sarah Orne Jewett, Ruth Moore, Edward Holmes, Carolyn Chute, John Keller, William Carpenter and others, based on the interests of the class. There will be field trips to Swan’s Island and Cherryfield, Maine, to talk with residents about “the heart of community life” as they experience it.