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-- Programs and Services -- Contact Information Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning announces fall classes
“The Great Triumvirate and the Civil War: Calhoun, Clay and Webster.” “Celebrating Genius: Einstein 100 Years Later.” “The Sea in Prose and Poetry.” “Mayan Culture: 1500 to Now.” “Pharmaceuticals, Science and Policy.” “Early Christian History.” “Critical Issues in the U.S. Economy.” “Uses and Abuses of Our Forest Resources.” These are just some of the 23 courses being offered this fall by Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning (BILL), the educational organization co-sponsored by Williams College, Berkshire Community College (BCC) and Simon’s Rock College of Bard.
“This semester’s broad range of offerings in areas of social sciences, natural sciences, the arts and music, and literature represent the largest such program in the 10 year history of BILL,” said Mona Sherman of West Stockbridge, BILL’s new president.
The courses are offered throughout Berkshire County at BCC, Canyon Ranch in Lenox, the Lenox Library, Simon’s Rock College of Bard, the Clark Art Institute, Williams College, and the Berkshire Music School in Pittsfield.
Sherman noted there will be at least one class and Distinguished Speaker Series in the evening, and there will be seminar discussion groups in addition to lecture format.
Many BILL lecturers are retired faculty and educators. For example, Paul Flaum, a retired Superintendent of Schools in Long Island and resident of Becket, is teaching “The 20th Century: Great Men, Challenging Times,” an examination of such leaders as Lenin, Gandhi, and Roosevelt in the context of the times in which they lived. Phyllis Jaffe, who resides in Lenox and is an award-winning teacher and lecturer, is presenting “South African Writers," a course dealing with the impact of apartheid. Other instructors include professors from Williams College and Simon’s Rock College of Bard, the principal bassoonist with the Albany Symphony and fellow at the American Institute of Economic Research, and a licensed Massachusetts forester and smoke jumper.
Courses begin on Sept. 7. Visit www.berkshirebill.org or call 413-499-4660 ext. 456 for course catalog and membership information.