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This course provides a supportive and creative learning environment for older adults to create inexpensive, handmade needlework projects. Older adults will learn knitting and crocheting techniques, as well as cabling and blocking.

This course furthers older adults -- consumer knowledge about home gardening techniques; older adults learn what to buy, what to avoid, and how to get the most pleasure out of home gardening. Older adults also discuss gardening choices and techniques to compensate for difficulties brought on by aging, living in an apartment, or being on a fixed income. In addition, older adults study a wide variety of plants used in homes and gardens around them and learn about plant selection, care, and maintenance. This course emphasizes hands-on instruction in ornamental and edible gardening techniques, native plants, and water conservation.

This course helps older adults select and maintain a small garden or group of plants in an indoor environment. The course is designed especially for older adults in residential or daycare facilities, and helps older adults get the most pleasure out of gardening while socializing with others and using as many life skills as possible.

IGETC AREA 3B (Humanities)

• Prerequisite: English 1.

In this introduction to the humanities students will survey literature in conjunction with great works of art through the ages (painting, sculpture, music, architecture, dance) exploring how, at widely separated points in time, artists and writers have expressed and responded to cultural, political, and intellectual concerns of their day. In doing so, they will see literature in the context of other art forms.

Humanities 26 is the same course as English 26. Credit may be earned for one, but not both.

• Prerequisite: None.

This course offers an introduction to the social, cultural, economic, and political patterns of life in today’s People’s Republic of China. Study tours to local centers of Chinese culture or to the People’s Republic; plays; seminar discussions; readings; and other cultural opportunities will be utilized to understand contemporary China.

Please see “Independent Studies” section.

Please see “Independent Studies” section.

IGETC AREA 3B (Humanities)

Satisfies Global Citizenship

• Prerequisite: None.

This course explores popular and traditional cultures and civilizations of South Asia through an interdisciplinary perspective. The course examines the characteristic qualities of the region with a focus on its religious and linguistic traditions, music, art forms, and literatures.

This course assists older adults in finding valuable and significant volunteer opportunities in their community. The course also emphasizes ways that older adults can become successful volunteers and how they can make the most of a volunteer association, and provides general information about local volunteer agencies. Older adults can socialize with peers who are also interested in volunteering, and may receive some skills training as part of their preparation for a volunteer activity.

This course helps older adults review and discuss their life with peers in order to understand the past more fully, give new meaning to their present life, and validate the lives of older adults through shared experiences. Older adults will discuss major life events, achieve greater insight into their personal history, and share their experiences and thoughts with others.

This course familiarizes older adults with the aging process, including physiological, psychological, and sociological aspects. Older adults become more comfortable with changes in themselves and others over time, and learn to celebrate the benefits of a longer life. Older adults also learn new coping strategies and explore issues facing adults of all ages, including conflicts, stereotypes, age, bias, loss, and change.

This course helps older adult Latino/Hispanic immigrants become an integral part of their community. Older adults learn about differences and similarities in the behaviors, processes, and practices in the culture in which they were raised and segments of the surrounding American culture. Older adults also learn about entitlements and social services for seniors, and interact with other older adult immigrants.

This course helps older adults learn effective coping skills to use in a variety of situations that occur in later years, including dealing with health practitioners during health crises, working with different generations during health crises, working with service providers such as repairmen or business representatives, and ensuring equal status as people in other age groups. Older adults learn to communicate their wishes clearly, insist on their right to say “no,” help their peers and others understand their needs, and consider other peoples’ needs and desires.

This seminar provides a supportive environment for older adults to discuss with their peers a variety of topics of interest to seniors, including the study of aging, public policy related to older adults, philosophy, literature, music and musicals, or religion. The course is designed to allow older adults to relate any of these topics to their life experiences and socialize with others in similar stages of life. Specific topics may vary from semester to semester and may include the history of comedy, the great American songbook, etc.

This seminar provides a supportive atmosphere for discussions about a variety of topics of interest to older adults. Topics may include philosophy, music, laughter as good medicine, legislation that affects older adults, and others. For example, in a seminar focused on philosophy, older adults might explore philosophical sources and connections between ideas, values, and concepts that are relevant to older adults’ life experiences. In a seminar focused on musical performance, older adults might be exposed to different performers, composers, and musicians and engage in stimulating discussions about music, performers’ lives, the ways in which music and art can enrich one’s life, and so forth. Regardless of the specific topic, this seminar provides a space for older adults to socialize with their peers and validate their life experiences while gaining exposure to mentally stimulating content.

This course assists older adults in evaluating their lives and starting a positive life review process. Older adults will look back at their accomplishments, failures, and satisfying life experiences, and will share these memories with their peers in a constructive and supportive atmosphere.

This course is designed to help older adult students learn about Jewish culture, from the historical backdrop of the 19th Century’s worldwide advances, pogroms, and immigrations, to the flowering of Jewish art, culture and entertainment in 20th Century United States and beyond. The course aims to improve older adults outlook on life, stimulate their minds and imaginations, improve peer group interaction and communication, and increase their sense of positive aging and cultural identity with particular attention to Jewish humor and tenacity as survival mechanisms in the face of adversity. Older adults will engage with their peers in a positive and up-lifting manner while learning about the use of art and humor through the last century. They will learn about Jewish theater, literature, film, art and music, and how American culture has flourished as a result of the Jews’ contributions. We will discuss: changes in stereotypes such as comedic images of older adults and other subgroups of the community; different types of art, self-expression and humor; and/or popular trends in all aspects of culture and entertainment.

This course helps older adults in the resolution of grief and toward a more positive view or reaction to the death of a loved one. The course provides older adults with a variety of alternative methods of dealing with loss in a small group setting. Older adults share their grief with others, receive encouragement and moral support, and learn about the natural grieving process, as well as how to heal and rebuild their lives.

This course helps older adults with hearing impairments improve their communication skills and adaptive techniques and increase their levels of sociability and self-confidence. Older adults learn the study of speech, lip reading, body language, and auditory clues.

This course assists older adults in minimizing anxiety when memory behavior patterns change. The ultimate goal of the class is to stimulate thinking and to exercise the brain. Older adults learn the latest information on the causes, symptoms, and treatments of memory loss in older adults, as well as practice skills to enhance memory retention and retrieval.