Brain food: Literature, geography and conversation

Think you are too old to learn? Not so, says David Donaghue, founder of Chautauqua New Orleans, a nonprofit that began offering a variety of “condensed” courses of learning in the fall of 2011.

Donaghue considers Chautauqua “a university without walls,” a place where learning is for learning’s sake, not for the sake of grades.

Chautauqua offers six-week courses and one-day seminars and lectures twice yearly at various locations around New Orleans such as Loyola University, Trinity Episcopal and Rayne Memorial churches. This spring, courses were given in memoir writing, French culture, fiction and Shakespeare, to name a few.

In the fall (beginning Oct. 1), expect such varied topics as “Geography of the Gulf”; “The Great Stories of the Bible as Literature”; “Psychology and Soul”; “French Culture” and, perhaps, the history plays of Shakespeare.

“My vision is that we have a loose liberal arts curriculum, balanced with some fine arts, science, literature, cultural studies, the social sciences and maybe even language,” Donaghue said. “I’m hoping students will have fun, make new friends and expand their universes a little and maybe feel a little awe for this amazing world we live in.”

Chautauqua course titles are flexible and based on student interest as determined by end-of-course surveys. For example, students studying Shakespeare plays wanted to learn more, so the course was expanded to six more plays over the next semester.

“We have students that love certain professors so much that they are likely to take anything that professor offers,” Donaghue said.

Well-rounded teachers

Professors come with a wealth of experience and knowledge. Donaghue says he seeks Ph.D.-level instructors, including retired Loyola University professors. Rev. William Barnwell, a retired associate pastor at Trinity Episcopal, taught “The Transforming Power of Fiction” with short stories by Flannery O’Connor this spring. He has a master’s degree in English, had taught at the University of New Orleans and was a friend of writer Walker Percy.

Rev. Barnwell met Donaghue when teaching a continuing education class “Faith and Fiction” at Trinity, and they realized they were kindred spirits wanting to engage other adults in learning.

 “I like to ask people to read engaging stories or narratives which are well written and we can discuss them,” Rev. Barnwell said. “I really like it when people begin relating their lives to the themes of the stories.”

Donaghue said he was inspired to create Chautauqua New Orleans by studying a similar movement he discovered in the late 1800s in New York. He had five principles in mind for the local institute: lifelong learning, “keeping curiosity and expansion of new possibilities alive in older people”; socialization, “ a place to make new friends and combat the isolation of being away from family or losing a spouse”; a brain gym, “keeping the brain active and flexible goes a long way to prevent mental deterioration”; democracy in learning – all are students and all are teachers in this nonhierarchical form of learning; life experience as a resource in learning new things.

Thirst for knowledge

Donaghue has been pleased with the thirst for knowledge he’s seen in the members of Chautauqua. Donaghue said 160 people have joined the Chautauqua movement, and approximately 100 have taken courses the past two semesters. The courses are geared to those over age 50, but not limited to that age group. Each course or one-time seminar is $30, and there is an annual membership fee of $40 (it’s $25 if registered by September for the upcoming fall semester).

“We see that there is a need for this sort of program here in the city,” he said. “We are delighted with our volunteers and the interest in teaching and ideas for classes suggested. The evaluations of the classes have been universally positive.”

Learn about upcoming classes at http://nolachautauqua.com, 473-7194 or nolachautau [email protected].

            Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarion herald.org.