Learning and Teaching with the Center for Life Long Learning

The Center for Life Long Learning (CLL) invites members of the Leisure World community who have an interest in teaching to consider joining us to give new courses or single lectures for the Leisure World community.

The topic for the course or lecture can be within the instructors’ areas of interest and expertise (perhaps something to do with their profession, hobby, or other interests). CLL instructors come from a very wide range of backgrounds – from college professors to attorneys to government officials to business people. As long as someone has an interesting topic and a desire to teach, CLL would be delighted to consider their becoming an instructor in the program.  

Presenters may give one-time lectures or longer classes presented weekly for an appropriate number of weeks. If you are interested in discussing the possibility of giving a lecture or class, or if you know of someone who might be interested, please contact JoAnn Gellman.

Please complete the form below, click on the submit button, and you will be contacted by someone from CLL.  Please continue reading about CLL below the form.  

 What Courses are Appropriate for CLL

CLL is open to courses on any topic that interests and excites potential teachers. CLL is, however, particularly interested in adding new courses in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) areas since, overall, they have been rather underrepresented in the past and these are some of the most exciting growth areas of the 21st century.  Moreover, since the number of women teaching CLL courses or lectures has been far fewer than their representation in the overall LW population, CLL particularly encourages women to become instructors.

CLL welcomes most any topic for its courses and lectures. The major “criterion” for selection of courses and lectures are those that are interesting and they are given by people with a passion to teach about the topic.  CLL has found, over the years, that almost any topic offered gets a highly receptive and interested audience.  

In thinking about a topic, possible instructors might reflect on a comment made by Don Eisen who said that “I almost always try to pick one that affords me an opportunity to explore a subject I haven’t had the opportunity to explore before, or to explore an old friend of a topic from a new perspective, or more in depth than previously possible.”  So if anyone at LW has something in the back of their mind they would like to explore, perhaps they could do so by teaching with CLL.

The “Level” of CLL Courses

People who have not taken CLL courses may be wondering about who takes the classes.  In fact, the students in CLL courses and lectures are highly varied, but they tend to be smart people from very diverse backgrounds – Accountants to Zoologists, and virtually everything in between.  As a consequence, courses are aimed at a broad audience and try to provide enough background to ensure that everyone gets as much out of the course as possible. 

In addition, courses can be in any format that best suits the instructor and topic.  Some people may prefer lecture style with slides (or, these days, PowerPoint), while others may prefer informal presentations.  However, a hallmark of CLL courses and lectures is that they do best when they include discussion, questions, and debate.