Chelsea Adult Learners Institute Announces Fall Classes
submitted by Joan Gaughan, Adult Learning Institute
Autumn in Michigan is football, raking leaves, storing the fishing poles, kayaks, and baseball gloves … and new classes from the Chelsea Adult Learners Institute (ALI). Once again, its fall session provides several alternatives to touchdowns and field goals.
If faraway places intrigue you, ALI offers splendid tours. You might want to experience the links between ancient Israel and its Biblical ties to present sites, or take a trip through Russia via the Orient Express. If you would rather stay closer to home, a tour through Ann Arbor beginning with its founding, or an unusual look at Detroit’s architectural “guardians” might be of interest. A course in Oceans—how they and the Great Lakes affect climate change will challenge your thinking about our environment. And an outdoor walk through Secret Gardens might not only take you to another world complete with perennials, garden rooms, and pergolas but also introduce you to a poison or two, a royal scandal, perhaps a Bible story and give you a look into an entirely unique world right here in Chelsea. The course in Oceans and how they and the Great Lakes affect climate change is guaranteed to make you sensitive to our environment.
And then, of course, there are journeys of a more inward nature. A course in Mindfulness, Meditation, and Movement and another in Stress, Sleep, Depression, and Aging will help you feel good enough to perhaps want to take the courses in how to do Genealogy and then studying Genes, your DNA, and Ancestry. Or you might wonder how Human Stories Shape Our Lives. After those classes, it might be worthwhile to consider writing the “Story Within You.”
We have music. Lots of it. A course in the Big Bands will bring back the music of Benny Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and others who dominated the dance halls of the 1930s and 1940s. And a course in Historical Stories will provide a look into how music reflected the Civil War as well as Paris Exposition of 1900.
Then, we have history. You might want to follow the course of abolitionism and the Underground Railroad in southeast Michigan. Or a class highlighting the experiences of a soldier from Chelsea, George Alfred Lindauer, as he went into World War I where he would be asked to fight against his own cousin. The class in the influence of art, architecture and humanism on patrons and collectors provides an unusual perspective on the Renaissance, while the course on Apron Strings may make you think of that article of clothing in a new way.
On a far more serious note is a class studying Mass Incarceration and Restorative Justice and the horrors of Antisemitism, a story which, sadly is “central to western culture and its main religion, Christianity.”
If you just can’t wait to get outside, try thinking about spiders. And for staying inside, we have a marvelous course in sauces that will make that post-football feast extraordinary.
Instructors will be on hand to provide more information about their classes at the ALI Kickoff, August 13 at 10 am at Silver Maples in Chelsea. Refreshments will be served.
ALI classes meet once a week from early September until late November at sites throughout the Chelsea-Dexter area, generally for a one to three- or four-week span. Tuition fees range from $10 to $30, depending on the number of meetings, and there is a $10 registration fee. Registration is accepted throughout the semester as long as space is available.
Catalogs were mailed in late July and are also available at several sites throughout the county, including the Manchester District Library and the Manchester Wellness Center. More information is available at www.adultlearnersinstitute.org, or call 734-292-5540.
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