Adult Learners Institute: A Magnanimous Month

submitted by Joan Gaughan

Ah, the generosity of Mother Nature. Whatever shade of gray you fancy — light gray, dark gray, gray with fog or without fog, gray with snow or rain, gray with mud, gloom, or all of the above — Mother Nature kindly bestows it in February.

The largesse of Chelsea’s Adult Learners Institute is also expansive but much different. The Winter/Spring semester opens with a four-part Zoom course beginning on Wednesday, February 15, when Moe Bidgoli examines US-Iran Relations. Beginning with missionary activities in the early nineteenth century and continuing into the aftermath of the termination of the nuclear deal in 2018, Moe will consider how the country of Omar Khayyam and Cyrus the Great that once fascinated Americans and with whom we had a warm friendship became America’s so-called “state sponsor of terrorism.”

Moe Bidgoli is new to Chelsea’s ALI but not to adult learning since he has also been involved with Ann Arbor’s OLLI. For 35 years, he was a professor of computer science and information systems and enjoys reading history, traveling, gardening, and pickleball.

Last semester, when Peter Van Hoek showed us how our courts work, the reaction drew comments like, “It was interesting and fun! I learned things that I never knew … Clarified facts vs. what we hear on TV law programs… A clear description of how our court system operates…” This semester, beginning on Tuesday, February 21, his two-part In-Person and Zoom class on the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution will show us how cases related to those amendments are actually adjudicated.

Peter received his J.D. from Wayne State Law School and has served as Staff Attorney at the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office, as well as serving as Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, Wayne State, and Cooley Law Schools. He has also argued a case before the United States Supreme Court. 

So you thought Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, and Belle Starr were typical of the women who settled the American West? Susan Nenadic’s three-part In-Person class on 19th Century American Women, beginning on Thursday, February 23, will offer an entirely different perspective that may more closely resemble the more prosaic but possibly more significant experiences of your great-grandmother. She will cover the criminals but also women in legitimate occupations and consider women’s physical as well as mental health. She will also stress the importance of education to opening up professions to women.

Susan is known to ALI for her enlightening vignettes of cemeteries in Paris and Chicago. She has published two books and is working on a third, and also heads a nonprofit, Friends of Amoru, which she founded to build a school in Uganda.

Registration for ALI classes is by mail only. The catalog with registration form is available for download on the website, www.adultlearnersinstitute.org, as well as at local libraries and various other locations in the area. Mail completed registration forms to: Adult Learners Institute, P.O. Box 134, Chelsea, MI 48118. Registration fee is $10 per semester and the class fees range from $10 to $35.

If you have questions, please call the office at (734) 292-5540 or visit the ALI website —www.AdultLearnersInstitute.org.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.