Locations

Kansas City, Kansas

Courses & Events

Who and where are America's indigenous descendants now, and how are they faring? Topics will cover Kansas Tribes, including the Wyandot Nation; the 2012 Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Pottawatomie Prairie Band Nation and the historic Cobell v. Salazar case, alleging the U.S. government's mishandling of Indian trust funds (filed in 1996 and settled for $3.4 billion in 2009); and the Doctrine of Discovery (will it ever  be repudiated?). And, finally, with visits by Native American tribe members, we will discuss current tribal issues and also learn about the Native Americans recently elected to government positions.


April 11-25, 2019, Kansas City Kansas Community College Technical Education Center, Room M118
Three strands of Scottish culture braid themselves together in a class that celebrates the essentials of Scotland. We'll learn to appreciate the life and poetry of Scotland's greatest poet, Robert Burns. Then we'll examine the kilt (inside and out), and enjoy a demonstration of bagpipe tunes from different pipes. Finally, we'll "taste" Scotland itself with a lesson on single malt whisky regions, flavors and lore.

February 20, 2019 to March 6, 2019, Roeland Park Community Center
This course will focus on selected creation stories from around the world. We will explore origin myths from ancient Egypt and Babylonia,and compare them to current stories in the living religions of India and other parts of Asia, and among indigenous peoples of North America. And, of course, we will examine the story of Genesis and its role as the foundation of Judaism and Christianity. Each story will be considered in terms of its view of the world and nature,its understanding of humans and their manifold relations, and its conception of the powerful agent,or force, that gave rise to it all.

This course contains no sessions
This course will focus on selected creation stories from around the world. We will explore origin myths from ancient Egypt and Babylonia, and compare them to current stories in the living religions of India and other parts of Asia, and among indigenous peoples of North America. And, of course, we will examine the story of Genesis and its role as the foundation of Judaism and Christianity. Each story will be considered in terms of its view of the world and nature, its understanding of humans and their manifold relations, and its conception of the powerful agent, or force, that gave rise to it all.

February 12-26, 2019, McCrite Plaza at Briarcliff

This course examines three historical disappearances,one in 17th century, and two in the 19th century: The Roanoke Colony, the Franklin Arctic Expedition and the Mary Celeste. Although the sites where they vanished are widely distant from one another, they have one thing in common: no one knows for sure what happened to the people involved. There are many theories, some reasonable and some quite mad. We will set the stage, analyze the known facts and try to answer the most important question of all from these perplexing mysteries - what really happened?

Please note the dates and location for this course are different that those published in the catalog. The dates are Mondays, April 15, 22 & 29 at the North Kansas City Public Library, 2251 Howell St., North Kansas City, Mo. We apologize for the change and any inconvenience.


April 15-29, 2019, North Kansas City Public Library
Have you ever wanted to play the game of Ba', walk the Ring of Broghdar, sit in a Black House, smell a peat fire, speak Orcadian or sail Scapa Flow? If the answer is yes, come aboard the ferry departing from the Scottish mainland on October 27 for Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides. We will explore the physical, economic and cultural geography of these fantastic islands. After an introduction to the geography of Highland Scotland, we will discuss topics such as archaeology (why Orkney is the "Egypt of the North"), land tenure (clans, crofts and clearances), ecology (the machair) and economies (sheep and oil) of each of the three island groups.

March 14-28, 2019, Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center

Imagine a day without space-based capabilities. What would happen to television? How would we forecast the weather? Global finance would grind to a halt. The stock markets would crash.Credit cards would be useless. Air travel would stop. These capabilities touch your daily life in ways that are unperceived. This course will examine the American and global dependency on these systems: Where are the satellites? How do they orbit? Do solar flares really cause problems on earth? How does GPS really work? How critical are satellites to national security and commerce? And in all of those movies, what is fact versus fiction?


April 9-23, 2019, Townplace Suites, Jayhawk Room

In this course we will explore the music and lives of some of the great composers of classical music. We will track their careers from their early work, through influences that impacted their musical styles, to the late work that culminated their careers. Each class will explore one or two composers in detail, with many musical examples. Composers will range from Johann Sebastian Bach to Philip Glass and several in between.


April 11-25, 2019, Roeland Park Community Center

June 6, 2019, marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France. The largest military operation of the war, Overlord was the high point of the Greatest Generation's campaign to rid the world of Nazi tyranny. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower led thousands of Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen in an operation that witnessed extraordinary acts of courage, heroism and determination. We will discuss the planning, preparation and personalities of Overlord, highlighting the airborne and amphibious forces whose extraordinary accomplishments made legendary Pointe du Hoc, Ste.- Mère-Église, and Utah and Omaha beaches.


February 12-26, 2019, Townplace Suites, Jayhawk Room
John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald are notorious for their assassinations, but who were Charles Guiteau and Leon Czolgosz, and why did they murder Presidents Garfield and McKinley? There have been 28 documented assassination attempts on 22 sitting or former presidents or presidents-elect. In Milwaukee, Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest, but finished his campaign speech. In Miami, Guiseppe Zangara fired five shots at FDR, but killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. And we'll discuss attempts to assassinate Presidents Obama and Trump. We'll uncover them all and closely examine the men...and women...who killed (or tried to kill) the president of the United States.

March 22, 2019 to April 5, 2019, Matt Ross Community Center
Do you remember the Cold War? Did you ever worry about Soviet spies? Did you participate in civil defense drills? Did you feel a sense of relief that the federal government built nuclear missile silos throughout the middle of the country? This class will explore the early Cold War period, when Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist crusade captured the attention of the nation, when more than a million Americans watched the skies looking for Russian bombers, and America and the Soviet Union pointed thousands of nuclear missiles at each other.

March 12-26, 2019, North Kansas City Public Library
March 14-28, 2019, Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church

This course will explore the historical development of the U.S.-Mexico border from the perspective of both Mexico and the United States.Together, we will explore how the border evolved and hardened through the creation of the Border Patrol, the Mexican Revolution and the effects of Prohibition. We'll review personal accounts, photographs and songs of"borderlanders," along with government officials providing crucial context to today's current debates. Finally, we will examine how to negotiate the border in the age of nationalism.

Please note that while the dates for this course are correct (March 21, 28 & April 4), the Osher spring catalog incorrectly lists this course as meeting on Tuesdays; it is actually meeting on Thursdays.


March 21, 2019 to April 4, 2019, Kansas City Kansas Community College Technical Education Center, Room M118
Want to understand the common spiritual bonds shared by the three great religions that claim Abraham as their patriarch? Throughout time the adherents of these three faith groups have tended to their souls through the same spiritual disciplines: fixed-hour prayer, sacred day, sacred meal, fasting, giving, pilgrimage, and the observance of sacred seasons. Each faith group believes that through these disciplines they become the persons God called them to be. Class sessions will focus on specific spiritual disciplines and how they are understood and practiced in each faith group.

Please note that this course will be held at North Kansas City Public Library, although our spring catalog listed the site as Maple Woods Community College. We apologize for any inconvenience.  

February 13-27, 2019, North Kansas City Public Library
During the mid-19th century, the Underground Railroad was a critical network of routes and safe houses that provided escaped slaves a pathway from plantations in the South to freedom in the North or Canada. In this course, we will closely examine the important role Northeast Kansas played in the Underground Railroad. We'll meet the heroic men and women who risked their lives to aid those desperate fugitives whose only road to freedom ran through Kansas. We'll also meet those brave refugees, hear their stories, and visit the local routes and safe houses that were critical to their perilous journeys to freedom.

February 11-25, 2019, Village Shalom
February 12-26, 2019, Mission Square
February 14-28, 2019, Kansas City Kansas Community College Community Education Bldg., Conf. Room A
The Holocaust has so many told and untold stories that show us more of what humans are capable of at our worst and our best. This class investigates the stories of multiple victims and survivors, focusing most on what survivors show us-after losing their families, communities, and whole way of life-about making and finding resilience, courage, and meaning. We'll also learn more about Jewish life in Europe before WWII, the incremental evolution of the Holocaust (including ghettos and concentration camps), and-drawing from memoirs, films, and interviews-we'll learn about survivor legacies.

February 15, 2019 to March 1, 2019, Matt Ross Community Center
Rock music during the 1967-69 countercultural era started with the Summer of Love and ended tragically just two years later. We will explore cultural and political events of the time from the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, through the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, and ending at the Altamont Speedway Festival. While Monterey introduced the world to many soon-to-be famous performers, Woodstock gave its name to a generation, and Altamont brought the era of love and trust to a sad end. Join the conversation as we recall this seminal time in American history.

March 7-21, 2019, Townplace Suites, Jayhawk Room
April 2-16, 2019, Regnier Hall 153