Tuesday, March 18, 2008

back to college!

If you're reading this and know me, fear not. I have not lost my mind and decided to get another degree...

Oh, I'm so excited! Recently, a friend loaned me one of "The Great Courses" - honestly, they're called that - to listen to on CD in my car, as I've been doing a lot of driving lately from client to client, to teaching, etc. The course I listened to was on music appreciation, and it was absolutely gripping! Did you know that the name of the piece, The Well-Tempered Klavier has to do with the way it's tuned and the circle of fifths? If I did, I'd forgotten!

It turns out that "The Great Courses" are offered by The Teaching Company, and they have a course for every possible thing of interest under the sun. History, Philosophy, Science, the Arts, Language, Literature - it's amazing! My friend just lent me another course, this one on the history of the English Language, and I can't wait to dig in.

Am I getting commission for this? No (sadly). Luckily, my metropolitan library system has something like 159 of these courses for borrowing. (No, I certainly did not search for interesting courses when I should've been preparing to teach.) I have some on reserve now, just to give me something other than spring to count the days to.

I knew at some point my tastes would go from fiction ("candy" fiction, even) more toward nonfiction. Of course, I still love a good piece of candy, but I'm really excited to be learning about as many of these fascinating subjects as I can get my hands on.

3 comments:

Susan said...

Oh I can't wait to check with my library! We're in the car a lot, too.

Doug van Orsow said...

I agree with your enthusiasm and wish you all the best with the TeachCo product. You may find my Teaching Company user forum helpful, where all the lectures in their latest courses are reviewed, along with a few old favorites:

http://teachingcompany.12.forumer.com

I hope you enjoy it,
just ignore the obnoxious ads,

Doug van Orsow

Ambley said...

Well, hello, doug! I'm pleased to meet you.

Suz - enjoy!