Co-facilitators:  Carolyn Hopkins, Amy Stewart

NOTE:  Classes will be held on 11/13, 11/20, 12/4 and 12/11.  NO class on 11/27.

Facilitation is more than presenting content—it’s about creating meaningful learning experiences. This course will provide practical guidance and tools to help you succeed, whether you’re just getting started or looking to grow your facilitation skills. We’ll cover the skills needed to encourage meaningful discussion, choosing topics, and create a course outline, as well as practical experience with forms, tech equipment, and resources.

-THIS COURSE IS FREE-

There will be no class on 11/27/26.

Critical Thinking for Everyday Life 1 covers claims, cognitive bias, media literacy, scientific thinking, persuasion, and manipulation. It presents critical thinking as a disciplined method for judging claims fairly and minimizing the chance of falling for and acting on misinformation, disinformation, and scams. It helps attendees recognize fallacies, decode statistics, evaluate sources, spot manipulation, and navigate AI-generated content.

This is the first of a two part series.

Co-facilitator:  Carl Hays

Boys and young men are struggling. Struggling young males face educational, economic, and social setbacks in a rapidly changing world. A new book author highlights declining school performance and identity challenges. Society must address these issues with empathy and practical reforms so boys and men aren't left behind in modern life. Self doubt has broken through the supposed imperiousness of masculine self belief.

Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling by Richard Reeves (NOT REQUIRED)

Explore non-violent actions as an alternative to violence in politics. Consider how you define non-violent action, using Gene Sharp as a guide. Review the possible non-violent techniques that Sharp suggests as well as how Americans have used non- violent resistance in the past and how are they using it today. In summary, discover the discipline required in waging nonviolence

The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp (NOT REQUIRED)

“Isola” is historical fiction based on the true survival story of Marguerite de la Rocque, a 16th century French noblewoman who, orphaned at the age of three, is subject to the management of a guardian. A distant cousin, Roberval, is granted guardianship of Marguerite, her lands and her fortune. Roberval is a “speculator” who gradually squanders her estate on his various naval adventures. Commissioned in 1542 by the King of France to establish colonies in New France (Canada), Roberval brings Marguerite along. When they fall out over her infatuation with his young male secretary, he cruelly abandons Marguerite, her lover, and her nurse on a barren island in the Gulf of St Lawrence.

Required Reading.  Isola:  A Novel by Allegra Goodman

Co-facilitator:  Ann Hastert

Aurora, Illinois in 1929, the “Roaring Twenties” were hastily coming to a close and Prohibition was in full swing. An illegal liquor raid, an innocent young mother killed in her own home, victim of a shotgun blast delivered by an overzealous Kane County Sheriff’s Deputy. Her husband Joe lay on the floor, unconscious from a blow to the head by the same deputy. Their twelve-year-old son Gerald picked up a gun and defended his family and their home. Thirty-eight-years-old, Lillian DeKing was just one of the many victims in a Noble Experiment gone awry. Lillian was the first woman to die as the result of a Prohibition liquor raid. Join us as Katharine DeKing Johnson, Gerald DeKing’s daughter, tells Lillian’s story including personal anecdotes, facts learned through extensive research, highlighting questionable activity in the legal processes and investigation into Lillian’s death.

What comes first? Legal change, cultural change or hum-able songs? American musicals are ripe with messages of social justice. “America” from "West Side Story, " “Ole Man River” from "Show Boat," “You’ve got to be taught,” from “South Pacific” are only a few examples. In this closer examination of Musical Theater, we will look at some of our favorite Musicals and see how they have intersected with social issues that continue today: Racial discrimination, poverty, environmental injustice, inequitable health care and education, gender inequity and discrimination. The list is exhausting. Is it a coincidence that most of the composers and lyricists of these musicals are Jewish? Once more, we are faced with more questions than answers, and once more we will have the joy of that discovery together. Karaoke will be encouraged!

Co-facilitator:  Donna Monti

Emily Dickinson says, “Hope” is the thing with feathers …That perches in the soul … And sings the tune without the words.” This two-week class will engage in group discussions focused on what hope means to each of us - including exploring hopeful activities and the benefits of hope. A variety of short readings and self-directed activities will allow us to have meaningful conversations and articulate our concept of hope.