On Tuesdays I usually write about the Osher Program at William and Mary, but today I’m going to write about the classes held at the Chautauqua Institute. Each year, the program offers hundreds of courses to Chautauquans. Here’s what the catalog says about this:
Whatever education experience you are seeking, Chautauqua continues to create distinct learning experiences for the 10,000 lifelong learners that enroll in classes each year, whether on the Institution grounds or online. With the addition of Chautauqua’s new CHQ Assembly Online Classroom, patrons can now enroll in master and enrichment classes from their homes year-round.
The 2023 experience offers classes for youth and adults in subjects ranging from art, music, photography, culinary arts, religions and philosophy to fitness, dance, history, literature and writing.
I’ve known about these course offerings as long as I’ve known about Chautauqua – which is 30 years. I’ve taken a couple of courses, but I have had trouble fitting them into a busy schedule full of concerts, lectures, long walks, and naps. But now I’ve started thinking seriously about teaching a course at Chautauqua, and I think it may be doable.
My thought is that I would take a course I’ve already taught for the Osher program, tailor it to a different time allotment, and teach it at Chautauqua, possibly next summer. I’ve skimmed the courses and looked at the credentials of the instructors, and, although many of the instructors are university professors with a long list of peer-reviewed publications, others have pursued their interests in different ways and decided to share what they know with a Chautauqua audience.
At this point, I’m thinking about offering a class on genealogy. I’ve taught this for the Osher program three times, so it wouldn’t be hard to tailor it to a new environment. There are a number of reasons why I think this class would be well-received:
Genealogy is one of the most popular hobbies in the US. In particular, older people flock to this hobby, so I think it would have broad appeal.
No one has a Ph.D. or a lifelong university teaching career in genealogy, so my credentials are pretty much as good as anyone else’s.
Teaching is rewarding in its own right, but teaching a class at Chautauqua brings with it considerable benefits. The program clearly values its instructors, so it makes it easy for instructors to decide they want to teach here.
Instructors are provided a complementary grounds pass for the week they are teaching. A grounds pass costs upwards of $500 a week, so that’s a considerable benefit.
Instructors are also provided a complementary parking pass for their week. This otherwise costs $75.
In addition, instructors receive 40% of the tuition paid by people who join the class. Tuition for a class runs in the neighborhood of $100, so if 20 people sign up for my class, I would be reimbursed $800. This would more than cover my living expenses for the week. To earn these benefits, an instructor has to teach at least four hours on at least three days of the week. Easy-peasy.
I’m going to give this serious consideration. I don’t think they’ve ever offered a genealogy class (at least not recently), so I think there would be a market for it. My prep for it would not be too hard; I’ve offered the course before, so I would need to do some strategic updating, pruning, and reorganizing for it to fit the requirements, but that won’t be hard. I talked with the people at the program office this morning and learned a bit more about the application and course approval process. I have found the course proposal form on the Chautauqua website, and I’ll turn my attention to this when I get back home.
This is a win-win-win; Chautauqua wins because they get money for my work, the people who take the class win because this class is always fun, and I win because I get a free week at Chautauqua. It’s kind of a no-brainer.
It would be their good fortune to have you as an instructor!
It was really fun to meet Marty and to see you again. I hope you find a way to make Chautauqua another place you feel at home.