College, Days 4 & 5

June 20

Youth is to wander! Adult is to act! Age is to assimilate the beauty of thoughts. ~ Debasish Mridha

There were approximately 450 students in this year’s class. There were 74 classes available in these desciplines: The Arts; Business, Computing, and Technology; Domestic Issues; Education, Health, and Human Development; Humanities; International Affairs; and Science. From Monday through Thursday, we had one class each morning and two classes each afternoon, with an evening class on Tuesday and Thursday, and a morning class on Friday. You sign up on-line for the classes you want, just like your college days . . .

Today, 8 million adult Americans, more than the entire population of Michigan, have not finished 5 years of school. Nearly 20 million have not finished 8 years of school. Nearly 54 million – more than one-quarter of all America – have not even finished high school. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

[This year’s professional photos are not yet available. But here we are with the graduating class of 2017 – I’m in the back row, far right; The Biddies are in the front row, far right . . . ]

[Where our classes were held – and yes, just like high school, we had to pick up and change rooms after each class . . . ]

[Where our classes were, part 2]

June 13

The sentiments of an adult are compounded of a kernal of instinct surrounded by a vast husk of education. ~ Bertrand Russell

[The first day of classes day began with an opening convocation in Alumni Hall . . . ]

An adult friend of Lincoln’s: Life was to him a school. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

[Here we are convocating . . . ]

[Jumping into the learning process. My first class was great fun. And Professor Weinberg was quite knowledgable and entertaining . . . ]

[I wanna get his book. Creationists are anti-evolution on a morality basis: it’s against the Bible, it’s bad science, it’s the root of all evil (why yes, I did take notes) . . . ]

[Then another superstar professor for my next class . . . ]

[Slavery was very profitable and was the largest system of forced labor in the history of the world. Great replacement theory isn’t new – it began in 1923. The KKK was essentially dead by 1930. The confederate flag became the white supremacist flag long after the Civil War . . . ]

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death. ~ Albert Einstein

[I told Professor Madison I didn’t understand the white supremacy argument when 9 out of 10 people on this planet are people of color. He gave a wry smile and shrugged . . . ]

[Now even more fun with Caty Pilachowski . . . ]

[The universe is 68.3% dark energy, 26.8% dark matter, and 5% ordinary matter. The James Webb telescope is in the L2 orbit (one of 5 Lagrange Points) a million miles from Earth.  “L2 is ideal for astronomy because a spacecraft is close enough to readily communicate with Earth, can keep Sun, Earth and Moon behind the spacecraft for solar power and (with appropriate shielding) provides a clear view of deep space for our telescopes” (solarsystem.nasa.gov).

[Mauna Kea is the best land based site for telescopes. The first stars formed 560 million years after the Big Bang. Bloomington will experience a solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 – order your porta potty now!]

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. ~ Andy McIntyre

[That evening, a taste of Mini U in Alumni Hall . . . ]

The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has – I’m not kidding. ~ J.D. Salinger

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. ~ Will Durant

Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. ~ John R. Wooden

[Senior citizens letting their hair (if available) down . . . ]

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. ~ Ben Franklin

[The outdoor temperature was a “feels like” over 100. What a nice time to gather round the fire . . . ]

A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall. ~ Vince Lombardi

Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated. ~ Lou Holtz

It’s kind of hard to rally around a math class. ~ Bear Bryant

The Biddies at the Biddle . . .

June 14

One of the greatest gifts adults can give – to their offspring and to their society – is to read to children. ~ Carl Sagan

He who opens a school door, closes a prison. ~ Victor Hugo

The Arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important. ~ Elliot W. Eisner

[This was our only ZOOM class, which was fine on a large screen. P. David Polly on National Monuments in Utah: Dinosuars, Science, and Politics. Grand Staircase – Escalante (established by Pres. Clinton) and Bears Ears (established by Pres. Obama) were both significantly downsized by Pres. Trump but then restored by Pres. Biden. Both are important research centers for paleontology. I suggested they were probably brought to Trump’s attention by Orrin Hatch, who hated all the federal lands in Utah. The professor would neither deny nor confirm my postulation . . . ]

[The Minneapolis StarTribune had a major story on these two national monuments in today’s paper (June 21, 2022) . . . ]

Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives. ~ Andy Rooney.

[In the Indiana Memorial Union garden . . . ]

Winston G. Shindell was hired as director of the Indiana Memorial Union in 1981 and served 23 distinguished years in that capacity before his retirement in 2004. In 1995, his title was changed to executive director of the IMU and the IU Auditorium to reflect his additional responsibilities for the oversight and programming management of the IU Auditorium. As someone who was dedicated to the cause of education, he served as an adjunct lecturer in the School of Education from 1995 to 1997. (honorsandawards.iu.edu)

[Ruthie & I met Winston and Sue on our Miami to Los Angeles cruise in January 2018 . . . ]

[The Indiana Memorial Union garden . . . ]

[The Biddies in the garden . . . ]

There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. ~ Oscar Levant

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic. ~ Oscar Wilde

[Allegedly pointing at some insects . . . ]

[Always nice to discover the geography building . . . ]

[The Biddies lead me off campus for lunch during an excessive heat warning . . . ]

[I call the area across the street IU’s Dinkytown . . . ]

[Enjoying a sandwich at Potbelly . . . ]

Indiana, our Indiana, Indiana, we’re all for you!

[Above and below . . . ]

[Heading back to class . . . ]

[It was hot! Damn hot!]

[Fortunately, as alums, The Biddies knew the shaded route back . . . ]

Christianity may be OK between consenting adults in private but should not be taught to young children. ~ Francis Crick

[We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it . . . ]

[Rising to great heights . . . ]

[I had some background in this as the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division covered:

• The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) protects migrant and seasonal agricultural workers by establishing employment standards related to wages, housing, transportation, disclosures, and recordkeeping. The MSPA also requires farm labor contractors (FLCs) and farm labor contractor employees (FLCEs) to register with the U.S. Department of Labor and to obtain special authorization before housing, transporting, or driving covered workers.
• The H-2A visa program establishes standards related to recruitment, wages, housing, transportation, and recordkeeping for employers of temporary non-immigrant agricultural workers admitted to the country under section 218 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.]

[I thought I was sitting too close in class to take a photo so I grabbed this shot of Professor Mora off the internet . . . ]

[I thought this class was going to be about water shortages brought on by climate change. Actually, it was about how water is distributed in specific localities . . . ]

[Like Flint, Michigan stuff . . . ]

[As usual, it’s a black-white, have-have not issue. Many cities or communities have issues of equal distribution, where water lines will go right through have not neighborhoods to hook up to farther out wealthy neighborhoods . . . ]

[The census used to include questions such as running water in the house, indoor plumber, et al that provided useful information for planning purposes. That stopped in the 1990 census?]

[Wrapped up the day with an evening class on From Dixie to Swing: Traditional Styles Anchoring Jazz’s Mainstream . . . ]

One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz. ~ Lou Reed

If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know. ~ Louis Armstrong

Jazz stands for freedom. It’s supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don’t be a perfectionist – leave that to the classical musicians. ~ Dave Brubeck

[With Detroit Lakes, Minnesota native Tom Hustad who graduated from Edina (recognizing he is a “cake eater”) . . . ]

As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction. ~ Stan Getz

Though the Jazz Age continued it became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children’s party taken over by the elders. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

[Red Nichols and His Five Pennies, 1929 . . . ]

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Look. Art knows no prejudice, art knows no boundaries, art doesn’t really have judgement in it’s the purest form. So just go, just go. ~ k.d. lang

Up Next: More college . . .

Addendum: June 22