ElderCollege 2021 Spring Course Listing is now available. Registration starts May 17th

Course Listing (PDF file) is attached below this message from the ElderCollege Director...

Canterbury ElderCollege has in some often very subtle ways proven to be of immense value and importance to many of us. Many of our ElderCollege participants enjoy the casual ‘lite’ learning. Many others, myself included, enjoy the challenge of taking an idea and developing a course–sometimes in an entirely new area of interest! And, of course, almost all of us enjoy that warmth of social contact and conversation over tea or coffee and cookies or other goodies. Indeed, it is the social side of ElderCollege which offers so much of that which is positive in our collective ElderCollege courses. We enjoy learning and we enjoy socialising and so far, Covid-19 has stolen that latter enjoyment from us.
 
Yet sometimes one must make sacrifices and undertake things that really you would prefer not to do. I am still not a fan of online learning whether it is for our schools, universities or ElderCollege. Fortunately, in respect to ElderCollege, our efforts to offer a bit of online learning comes in non-threatening packages. We don’t have tests and we don’t have assignments and we probably take courses simply for the sheer pleasure of learning in a casual environment. After all, what could be more casual than some of you relaxing at home while taking online courses?
 
On an experimental basis with support from the Government of Canada’s Emergency Support Fund (ESCF) through the WindsorEssex Community Foundation (WECF) we undertook just over a dozen online courses in Autumn 2020. We did it in order, first, to ensure that the concept of ElderCollege did not vanish as we certainly would much prefer the Covid-19 virus to vanish– permanently! Second, we felt an immense sense of obligation to all those wonderful people who have supported Canterbury ElderCollege in our first ten years of providing opportunities to people aged 55 and better. We owe all of you a debt and we thought that in order to bridge the gap perhaps some of the courses might work in this pandemic emergency as an opportunity for all of us to escape, however briefly, from lock-down and concern about our aging health. Third, having seen these online courses as an experiment we offered more courses in our Winter 2021 semester. They were well received and, thus we are again offering a limited range of courses as a late Spring 2021 semester.
 
Well we think that for many people the experiment worked. And we had course participants from across Canada, the USA and northern Ontario. This is exciting for ElderCollege and it is keeping the ElderCollege concept thriving.
 
So, and until we are able to resume some semblance of safe and healthy normalcy, we are offering another set of online courses. We still plan and hope to retrieve our central ElderCollege purposes–interactive and social education but until some serious normalcy returns here is our third online set of course offerings for late Spring 2021.
 
We are now moving forward with several new and innovative courses for this short late Spring 2021 Semester. Marilyn and I will take some of you along on a sea voyage with archeological stops as we travel the Frankincense and Myrrh trail through the Suez Canal and on to the Land of Cyprus. We will see how the future unfolds as we probably may need to continue online for awhile and that may include our Autumn 2021 Semester.
And please extend your gratitude for all her hard and valuable work ElderCollege’s Programme Manager Catherine Fettes and please, don’t forget Laura Macmillan (who has added a new little team member while on leave) but who also did some hard work putting the first experimental courses together. Both colleagues took on the challenge of preserving ElderCollege through online course offerings. They worked the technology and brainstormed the means whereby courses can be offered. Me, I just sat at home writing nasty Opinion columns for The Windsor Star and struggling to learn all about ancient Canadian political mythology.
Welcome to Canterbury ElderCollege Online & may the full Vaccination be with you as we all really want to get back together for cookies and tea...Eh!
 
Cheers,
Lloyd Brown-John
Director & Founder of ElderCollege