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Penobscot Valley Senior College
Penobscot Valley Senior College
450 Essex St.
Bangor, ME 04401
992-0118
Registration for fall classes is first come, first served. Registrations are accepted by mail with the payment of fees.
Click here for the registration form.
Most classes are scheduled to run from Sept. 24 through Oct. 29.
If you have questions, call our message phone at 992-0118.
All Senior College class registrations are accepted in the order they are received and must be accompanied by a check. Some classes fill quickly, which is the reason we ask you to list a second choice. Catalogs are sent first to Senior College members, and then to others on the mailing list.
Please register promptly! That will enable you to get your first choice, and it will facilitate the ordering of books and the reservation of classrooms.
Confirmation of your class assignment, with the room number, will be sent by postcard about two weeks prior to the beginning of the semester.
If you have questions about how to register for a course, please call our message phone at 992-0118. Someone will call you back.
If you have a class at the University of Maine in Orono, use the enclosed parking permit, even though there is no fee. Failure to use the permit may result in a parking ticket. No permit is required at University College in Bangor.
Click here to download the UMaine parking permit
If the weather is inclement, check local TV stations or call our message phone (992-0118) to see if classes have been canceled.
Classes on Fridays, Sept. 24 - Oct. 29 (unless otherwise noted)
Location: University of Maine, Orono, and University College of Bangor
Two new art classes are being offered on Thursdays.
OTHER SENIOR COLLEGES IN THE STATE
Partial scholarships are available. For information, contact President of PVSC, 450 Essex Street, Bangor, ME 04401.
Classes on Fridays, September 24-October 29
Thursdays, two art classes, September 23-October 28
Locations: University of Maine, Orono, and University College of Bangor; art classes at Aubuchon Hardware, Bangor
Morning classes, 10 a.m. to noon (unless otherwise noted)
Animal Behavior, Including People Watching; Orono
Dramatic Performance, Music, Opera; Orono
H1N1: Pandemic Flu and Your Immune System; Bangor
Mother Ireland: Introduction to Irish Goddesses; Bangor
Perspectives on the American Revolution; Bangor
Spinning a Yarn: The Story of Fiber in Maine; Orono
The Lure and Lore of Model Railroading; Bangor
Two Novels by Muriel Spark; Orono
Write Now; Orono
Afternoon classes, 1:30-3:30 p.m. (unless otherwise noted)
Art From Around the World; Orono
Behind the Scenes in Law Enforcement; Bangor
Hope: Life After Loss; Bangor
Music From the Ancients to Bach; Bangor
People and Plants; Bangor
War – Is It Inevitable?;Orono
SPECIAL OFFERING
Two art classes on Thursdays, September 23 through October 28.
Lola Bullion
How Not to Draw an Egg, 9:30 a.m. to noon. With pencil, pen, and conti (a type of charcoal), participants will learn how to create interesting art through the use of shadows, the same method explored in Lola’s class How Not to Draw an Egg last spring.
In the Shadows with Acrylics, 1:30 to 4 p.m. Class members will learn to use acrylics to approach the mediums of oil and watercolor.
PVSC members can sign up for either the morning or afternoon class, or both.
Classes will be held at Aubuchon Hardware Store in Bangor.
Maximum 10, minimum 5.
Lola Bullion studied art at the University of Kentucky, and her stone sculpture placed first at a three-state all-medium exhibition. Her skills are in pottery, drawing, clay modeling, and painting with oil and watercolor. A member of the PVSC Curriculum Committee, she was a coordinator for classes on environmental awareness and the Maine Legislature in the fall of 2009. She taught How Not to Draw an Egg in the spring of 2010.
Morning classes
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR, INCLUDING PEOPLE WATCHING
Lee Davis
We will look at the behavior of people with the same approach used in the study of other animals. Discussions will center on the ways we are the same or similar to our animal kin and ways in which we are different. How does our ancestry relate to the problems people face in today’s world?
Maximum 15, minimum 5. Morning. Orono campus.
With a master’s degree from Cornell University, Lee Davis has had 43 years of experience in biological science, including teaching in the Onward Program of the University of Maine and field work in such locations as Brazil’s Pantanal, Peru, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Acadia National Park. Her major interests are animal behavior, conservation of endangered species and biodiversity.
DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE, MUSIC, OPERA
Paul Bauschatz
This course is especially relevant to those who think they don’t like opera – but those who do like opera are welcome to enroll! Discussions will focus on Wagner and the Ring operas, and Mussorgsky and Russian opera, preparing for televised Metropolitan Opera productions at the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine: Das Rheingold on October 9 and Boris Godunov on October 23.
Minimum 10. Morning. Orono campus.
Paul Bauschatz is an expert in the history of English, which he taught for 30 years at the University of Maine, and he is also an opera fan. The author of numerous articles and papers, including The Well and the Tree: World and Time in Early Germanic Culture, he has taught two classes for Senior College – Beowulf (spring 2007) and About English (fall 2008).
H1N1: PANDEMIC FLU AND YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
Dee Virtue
We will discuss these questions: What are viruses? How can they be a threat to our immune system? How does your immune system protect you against flu and other illnesses? What exactly is pandemic flu and why is it such a concern? H1N1 turned out to be less dangerous than feared. Why were young people more at risk than older generations?
Minimum 10. Morning. Bangor campus.
Retired after more than 20 years as a biology and physical science teacher at Orono High School, Dee Virtue has generously shared her time and talent with Senior College. Her clear, informative and lively science classes have been offered at PVSC in the fall of 2004, spring and fall of 2005, fall of 2006 and spring of 2009, covering such topics as DNA, bacteria, evolution, and Mendel. She also has presented a workshop on the genetics of cats.
MOTHER IRELAND: INTRODUCTION TO IRISH GODDESSES
Kay Retzlaff
Ireland is female. She has many names – Eriu/Erin, Anu/Aine, Kathleen ni Houlihan, Macha, Medb, and Banba are just a few. Ireland’s great patron saint was originally a goddess. Bridget predated Patrick by many years. The goddess that is Ireland creates everything and oversees everything from beer making to butter making to horse racing to healing.
Maximum 25, minimum 5. Morning. Bangor campus.
Dr. Kay Retzlaff is associate professor of English at University College of Bangor, where she teaches Irish American, Native American, and 19th and 20th century American literature, as well as women’s studies. She is the author of Ireland: Its Myths and Legends and Women of Mythology. She edited Vietnam Memories: A Cookbook by local author Bich Nga Burrill. She is currently writing a book on the Potato Famine Irish of Belfast, Maine.
PERSPECTIVES ON THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Robert E. (Ned) Smith
The real history of this time period is more interesting than the popular myths found in books and movies. We will address such questions as: Why did the 13 colonies choose to fight for independence when the Canadians, just to our north, did not? Why did the British feel that it was entirely reasonable to tax their American colonies? Why did some American colonists advocate separation from England when many in this country did not? What was the true nature of the taxation without representation that so inflamed many? What was the role of the Sons of Liberty in stirring up rebellion? And what were the big decisions facing the new country, and how do they impact current events?
Minimum 5. Morning. Bangor campus.
A Bangor native, Ned Smith has taught on the high school level for 27 years. Semi-retired, he teaches history part time at Husson University and has worked as a volunteer guide at the Pejepscot Historical Society’s Chamberlain House Museum in Brunswick. His history of the 22nd Maine Infantry in the American Civil War is to be published later in 2010.
SPINNING A YARN: THE STORY OF FIBER IN MAINE
Mary Dickinson Bird
This course weaves together art, agriculture and history in an investigation of fiber production and processing in Maine. We’ll meet fiber artists, visit a fiber farm, explore the long and impressive history of textiles in Maine, examine ancient and modern fiber processing tools and try our hands at turning raw fiber into beautiful finished products through spinning, weaving, dying, and felting. First offered in the fall of 2009, this class will explore some new techniques. Classes will meet at the Page Farm and Home Museum at the University of Maine, except for the first class and a field trip on Oct. 15.
Maximum 15, minimum 5. Morning. Orono campus.
Mary Bird has been a science and environmental educator for 30 years, working with youth and adults in public schools, universities and community settings. Her recently published article, “The Pin Is Mightier than the Sword,” explores the role of ladies’ needlework magazines in conveying social and political messages during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
THE LURE AND LORE OF MODEL RAILROADING
Bill Soule
Electric trains have come a long way since Joshua Lionel Cowan’s creations circled Depression-era Christmas trees. This course tracks the history and development of toy and model trains through today’s astonishing examples of realism in appearance and operation. Demonstrations, audio-visuals and some hands-on activities will reveal the variety of artistic and technical disciplines applicable to this hobby. Each participant will receive a voucher for free admission to the annual train show and auction of the Eastern Maine Model Railroad Club (EMMRC) in Brewer on November 20.
Maximum 25, minimum 6. Morning. Bangor campus.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Bill Soule taught statistics at the University of Maine for 30 years and took a number of Senior College courses before teaching this course in the spring of 2010. He has played with toy and model trains since the late 1930s and is a life member of the National Model Railroad Association. He’s also a long-time member of EMMRC.
TWO NOVELS BY MURIEL SPARK
Nancy MacKnight
Muriel Spark published five novels before The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1961, the novel that would become a best seller and be made into a play in the West End with Vanessa Redgrave and a movie with Maggie Smith. She went on to write 16 more novels before her death in 2006 at 88. Her distinctive style uses irony and satire, and draws on her Catholicism for her short, witty, and sometimes cruel texts. She once said that she loved her characters “like a cat loves a bird.” She was awarded many prizes and is considered among the foremost of British authors. We will read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (as well as see the movie) and the novel written 20 years later, Loitering with Intent.
Maximum 20. Morning. Orono campus.
Nancy MacKnight’s literature classes have been popular with Penobscot Valley Senior College members since PVSC began in 2002, and, given every fall, have been a mainstay of our curriculum. Retired as associate professor of English at the University of Maine, Nancy has served on the boards of the Maine Humanities Council, the University Press, and Friends of Dr. Edith M. Patch.
WRITE NOW
Barbara Wicks
Is it time to record your special memories or interesting experiences? Do you have information or opinions to share? Would poetry or short fiction convey your insights and emotions? If so, welcome to Write Now. In this informal writing workshop, participants share drafts of their works in progress; conversations about development, revision and editing; and celebrations of effective word choices and sentence structures, evocative images, and unique perspectives. Returning and new participants are welcome.
Maximum 15, minimum 5. Morning. Orono campus.
Barbara Wicks has taught writing and literature at the University of Chicago Lab Schools, the University of Maine, Husson College (now University), and local secondary schools. She has been generous in sharing her talent with PVSC, teaching Write Now every year from 2003 to the present and Best American Short Stories in 2009 and 2010. She has helped edit three volumes of Passages, a publication of writings by PVSC members, and serves on the PVSC board of directors.
Afternoon classes
ART FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Gretchen Faulkner
Explore the collections of the Hudson Museum, focusing each week on a specific artistic tradition: basketry, textiles, wood carving, pottery, metal working and jewelry, and bead working. The museum’s holdings feature a world-class collection of Pre-Columbian ceramics, Native American work from the Northeast, Southwest, Arctic, Pacific Northwest and Plains, and art from the Pacific Islands. Each session will give participants a chance to try their hands at creating their own art.
Maximum 15, minimum 5. Afternoon. Hudson Museum in Orono.
Gretchen Faulkner is director of the Hudson Museum, where she has worked since 1988. Among articles she has written or co-authored is “Tree and Tradition: Maine Indian Brown Ash Basketry” in American Indian Art, spring 2010.
BEHIND THE SCENES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
Paul Reagan and Tom Reagan, coordinators
This class, which made a big hit when it was first offered in the fall of 2009, will show you how police officers work in the real world, not TV land. Topics include drugs and how they affect the normal population, explosive ordinance devices and use of a robot, tactical weapons used by the Bangor SWAT team, crime scene investigation and forensics, jails, police technology, and the training of police at the Criminal Justice Academy.
Maximum 32, minimum 8. Afternoon. Bangor campus, but two classes to meet at police headquarters on Summer Street in Bangor.
Paul Reagan is former president of the board of directors of Penobscot Valley Senior College. His son, Tom Reagan, is a lieutenant in the Bangor Police Department, a 20-year veteran in charge of robots. He travels frequently to teach drug recognition techniques.
HOPE: LIFE AFTER LOSS
Robin K. Sprague
As human beings capable of love, we all must face loss in our lives. This course will focus on the many faces of grief, and our ability to cope at such times. Topics will include theories of grief, serious illness and trauma, aging and loss, and support for the bereaved. The text, A Healing Touch, a collection of stories by hospice professionals in Maine edited by Richard Russo, lends a local perspective.
Maximum 14, minimum 5. Afternoon. Bangor campus.
Robin Sprague, MA, LCPC, is an interfaith chaplain and bereavement coordinator for Beacon Hospice. She has been able to blend her long-time interests in spirituality and psychology in her private psychotherapy practice in Bangor.
MUSIC FROM THE ANCIENTS TO BACH
Robert Gallon
Journey through the history of music from Sumerian and ancient Greek times up to Bach. Along the way we will listen to the oldest known composed song, music of the Crusades, motets and madrigals, and the works of Bach (the greatest composer of his age and perhaps any age). We will explore the life and times of some wonderful composers known and unknown (to many), exposing you to a great deal of delightful and profound music you have never heard before.
Maximum 20, minimum 7. Afternoon. Bangor campus.
Bob Gallon is a clinical and forensic psychologist who happens to play tuba in the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. He has taught at Vassar College and Thomas Jefferson Medical School. More recently he taught at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. He also has taught many courses on music (including this one) and psychology for Acadia Senior College.
PEOPLE AND PLANTS
Riva Berleant
Our becoming human is inseparable from plant life, starting 60 million years ago with the earliest proto-primate fossil ancestor, a tree dweller. Topics in this course about a long relationship include world plant domestication; the influence of plants on art; plants and magic, myth and religion; plant medicine, from the local herb doctor to big pharma; plants and empires; and, of course, gardens.
Maximum 20, minimum 5. Afternoon. Bangor campus.
Riva Berleant has a doctorate in anthropology and a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She taught anthropology for 20 years (1980-2000) at the University of Connecticut, Torrington Campus. Recently she was guest curator for an exhibition of French Paleolithic tools at the Wilson Museum in Castine, and she’s currently studying the history and use of rice and beans in the eastern Caribbean.
WAR – IS IT INEVITABLE?
Christina Diebold, coordinator
The history of humanity has been marred by incessant warfare, and the development of annihilating weapons could bring that history to a virtual end. Are we irretrievably warlike? Can we learn to cooperate? Five presenters will examine this vital issue: September 24, Paul Roscoe, Darwin and the Origins of War; October 1 and 8, Bob Whelan, The Cost of War (using The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien); October 15, Larry Smith, The Psychology of War; October 22, the Rev. Lorna Grenfell, A Faith Perspective: No War; October 29, Ilze Petersons, Choosing Peace Activism.
Minimum 10. Afternoon. Orono campus.
Christina Diebold is chair of the PVSC Curriculum Committee and taught a class on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for PVSC in 2006. Paul Roscoe, a member of the University of Maine Anthropology Department, participated in the Darwin class at PVSC in the spring of 2010. Bob Whelan, of the UMaine English Department, has taught classes for PVSC on literature of the Vietnam War. Larry Smith, of the UMaine Psychology Department, participated in the Darwin class. Lorna Grenfell is pastor of the Church of Universal Fellowship in Orono. Ilze Petersons is program coordinator of the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine.
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