SRJC classes cater to seniors

Adult students over 55 have two new courses to choose from this month as part of Santa Rosa Junior College’s Older Adults Program. Michael Fontaine’s beginning acting and ethics courses join classes taught by about 35 adjunct faculty members in 34 locations throughout the county.

For more than 28 years, the state-funded program for Sonoma County’s seniors has provided free, noncredit courses at senior centers, retirement communities and other easy-to-reach gathering places. Content ranges from creative arts to autobiographical writing, fitness, balance, musical experience and discussion groups on topics such as politics and consumer issues. Conversational Spanish classes also are offered in Cloverdale and Healdsburg.

“Sonoma County has a disproportionate percentage of older adults,” said Abe Farkas, dean of curriculum and educational support services at SRJC. “The college recognizes it’s a very important part of the community that we serve.”

The program is one way to keep seniors active, said Coordinator Kelly Mayes. “It’s a great opportunity for personal growth, development, community involvement and skills for physical well being. It also has built quite a sense of community.”

Farkas said they hope to expand the program 5-10 percent each year for the next several years, with courses on elders and their finances on the drawing board.

Dani Burlison teaches four autobiographical writing each semester, with about 20 people in each class. Most of them have been with her for three semesters, “some writing things they don’t want anybody to read, and others writing for their families or pieces that will ultimately be published,” she said. “They hold all of this information, like a slice of history,” and often write about events they haven’t talked about for years.

“The relationships that people are building are really important,” Burlison said. “A lot of people are getting together outside of class. This is their family.”

Fontaine has found a way to blend his experience as the former managing director of the 6th Street Playhouse and his doctoral work that focused on the ethical responsibility people have for those around them.

“The common underlying theoretical foundation serving as a basis for these courses was the basic premise that we, as caring, thoughtful human beings living in a greater international community, have an ethical responsibility for those around us,” Fontaine said. “These ‘others’ inform who we can become as we move through our lifetimes.

“I proposed the Everyday Ethics discussion class because I wanted to continue my practical exploration of this topic in my daily life, and wanted to be joined by other collaborators with some experience and accumulated wisdom, namely senior students.”

Fontaine taught acting in the SRJC Theatre Arts Department during the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s before earning his doctorate from the University of San Francisco. His research explored the concept that the performing arts could serve as a vital service to the greater community, including those he met while traveling in Southeast Asia and central Europe.

“I truly loved teaching acting and directing earlier in my career, but I now have a more multi-layered reasoning for pursuing it once again,” he said. “I want to expand my experience of working with seniors. I see them as eager to embrace learning.

“Their reasons for being in the classroom are different than those of younger students,” Fontaine said. “They are going back to school to enrich their lives and improve who they are.”

More information about Fontaine’s classes, “Senior Moments: Beginning Acting for Baby Boomers” and “Everyday Ethics,” is available at mfontaine@santarosa.edu.

Information about Dani Burlison’s Autobiographical Writing for Older Adults classes is available at danisavestheworld@yahoo.com.

Learn more about the Older Adults Program at 527-4533 or view the spring course schedule at http://pd2go.net/h9gIu5.