Class Meets:
Tuesdays: 2-Apr, 9-Apr, 16-Apr
Thursdays: 4-Apr, 11-Apr, 18-Apr

I love mankind - it’s people I can’t stand. - Charles Schulz

Why can’t we just get along? Because we are human. Fortunately, the humanities, including poems, short stories, essays, cartoons, legal documents, and songs give us insight into civility and the navigation of group life, whether the group be two or two billion. Civility isn’t the same as civics, but it informs it, and, like any other skill, can be improved with insight and practice. Each session will have a theme introduced by a brief seed lecture and review of terminology. We will then share what we see in the assigned texts/artifacts, not diverging to argument or persuasion, thus affording the challenge of practicing civility while discussing it.
Themes include:
• Respect: seeing and being seen, or not
• Connection and response, or not
• Status and worth: where someone stands and how they are valued
• Tolerance: allowing humanity, loosening the herd
• Patience: finding a spot you can hold to
• The company you keep: traveling farther vs. traveling faster.

The course is in kin with my previous courses, including “Literature and Medicine,” but these readings are new. The course is for active learners at an intermediate to advanced level; some topics and selections are challenging and some discussions may prove difficult. Required readings of one to three hours weekly. An optional second section of this course follows after a 12-day break.