Registrations for Winter Courses at Coastal Senior College are being accepted until the beginning of classes on Jan. 14. Six of the nine courses will be offered on Zoom, making them accessible to all from home. In-person Courses will also be offered in Newcastle, Bremen and Rockland. 

Three of the Zoom courses draw our attention to the influence of the written word. On Thursdays from Jan. 16 to Feb. 20 (1:30 - 3:30 p.m.) Stephen Hahn will teach “Henry David Thoreau: ‘Gentle Protester’ or ‘Enemy of the State’?" Mr. Hahn says, “This course looks at [Thoreau’s] survival in memory and spirit … through his influence on Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and many other civil rights leaders in the United States, to the somewhat surprising context of debates about the responsibility to dissent among soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces and post-9/11 defendants in the U.S. This course will consist of readings of several essays on civil disobedience and rebellion … and passages from our own time emerging from fields of contemporary conflict.”

On Tuesdays from Jan. 14 to Feb. 4 (9:30 - 11:30 a.m.) Charisse Gendron will teach “Colette: the Claims of Love.” Ms. Gendron says, “Colette writes about the competing claims of love throughout a life span. She evokes the feelings of an adolescent girl being groomed to be the mistress of a man whom she calls ‘uncle’; the sensations of a young man and the courtesan who has been engaged to teach him the art of love; the conflicts of a newly married couple over his obsession with an exquisite Chartreux cat; and the struggles of an aging writer seeking peace in nature after a scalding divorce. As a class, we will follow Colette’s lead in considering the modalities and moralities of love.”

Also on Tuesdays, from Jan. 14 to Feb. 18 (1:30 - 3:30 p.m.) Carol Willette Bachofner will lead “Prose Poetry: Expansive Writing in an Age of Shortcuts.” Ms. Bachofner says, “Prose and poetry are not mutually exclusive. In this age of ‘scratch the surface’ where few words are supposed to represent the whole idea, prose poetry is a place/strategy for telling a deeper story. We will create our own prose poem drafts and look at how they work to tell the stories (and secrets?) that we hold.”

Robust class discussions in Coastal Senior College Courses offer an opportunity to learn and connect with other students who are primarily 50 and older.

Information about Coastal Senior College and the WInter Courses can be found at coastalseniorcollege.org