Continuing Education

After being out of the classroom scene for a while, I realized I actually missed being in a learning environment. Recently I’ve been taking some continuing education classes (or non credit) at St. Louis Community College to get my learning fix.

After loving my ballet class my last semester at Missouri State, I signed up for a ballet class in St. Louis. This lead to me becoming a regular student at ADIVA Dance for almost three years now.

My mother and I signed up for a Saturday class about the 1904 World’s Fair not too long ago. This ended up being a day of traipsing through Forest Park with strangers while listening to cassette tapes explaining when and where events took place. The day ended with a 1904 World’s Fair feast including ice cream cones, iced tea, and hot dogs; all of which were invented at the 1904 World’s Fair. This class kept my interest for most of the day. Did you realize that Forest Park used to house 1000’s of buildings but were demolished after the fair was over? Insane!

Last month I took at class on haunted castles in Ireland. Because I can’t turn down a good ghost story, I knew I had to take this class. I learned that I want to visit Ireland and that I want to stay the night in a haunted castle.

My most recent STLCC experience involved a class about Christmas during the Civil War. I love history and most importantly I love learning about the Civil War. I think watching Gone With The Wind at an early age sparked this interest. My mother was originally going to take this class with me, but I ended up going alone.

So on a cold, rainy night in November, I wandered through the Meramec campus of STLCC, pepper spray in hand (just in case), and tried to fit in as a student who knew where they were going. I was headed to a science building so I wouldn’t fit in for long.  Science and I never got along. Once I was in the “Science West” building, I was beginning to think I would never find my classroom when I saw a room filled with older adults with their eyes fixed on a 70-something-year-old man dressed in a Civil War (Union) uniform. Great. This must be it.

I cautiously made my way into the classroom where I signed in, took my information packet, and made my way to the desk in the very back on the room, all while trying not to hit people in the side with my giant oversized purse. I quickly realized I was the youngest one in the room by a good 30 years. As the “instructor” rambled on about the Civil War (all of this information I either already knew or could easily read about on the internet), I was thankful for the grande peppermint mocha I had previously consumed that afternoon; without it I would have no doubt fallen asleep. While the “Union Officer” was a very sweet, knowledgeable man, he was also very boring. He didn’t really start talking about Christmas during the Civil War until almost 45 minutes in. The other adults in the room seemed mesmerized and hung on his every word. It must be a generational thing. I doodled in my notebook for what seemed like forever, sketching a detailed drawing of the Civil War soldier before me. After an hour we were dismissed for a short break, after which we would resume for another hour. Unfortunately I couldn’t take it anymore and dismissed myself from the building.

While I miss the hustle and bustle of the college campus, I do not miss the boring lectures. At least I didn’t have to take a test on it afterwards.