Preparing a Class

It's been a while since I conducted a class for anything.  At one time I did this professionally, some semi-formal like topic reviews for residents, other times highly structured like Medical Grand Rounds.  For a few years I ran weekly sessions on Jewish topics for teens.  But once retired, these largely evaporated, except for two sessions over a few years for my congregation's dedicated adult learning day. And I've given two sessions for a group of senior physicians.  A small cluster returns.

My congregation has a movie series where people watch a designated film, then a few days later people discuss what they saw.  My turn to lead the discussion, which I see more as what I might do on resident work rounds.  Question and response format, with me generating the questions and maybe prodding responses.  A few short PowerPoint items, perhaps.  Maybe half a dozen slides to give some background to the film.  All done the day before.  Goal:  interactive, perhaps even Socratic.   And on Zoom.

Later I anticipate a more formal presentation to the congregation, a return to the day of adult learning.  Based on my professional background, the committee that arranges this asked me to pursue a topic.  This one will be powerpoint.  This one live.  The topic itself did not strike me as particularly exciting.  A list of diseases that people of my ethnicity might inherit.  Monogenic, a small straightforward list with a little science.  I've seen some, but most never will.  But it is the offshoots that generate interest.  What about common polygenic disorders and how prejudices among the medical community distort what we really encounter?  What about our sister community, geographically and genetically a little different but from a medical genetic outcome more diverse?  And how we address the problem.  In America a few advocacy groups handle a limited number of conditions.  In the other place, a concerted and systematic approach by a national health service.

Then many months from now, I move past the synagogue to conduct a session at OLLI.  My synagogue has largely excluded me from its creative process.  OLLI values this much more.  A Zoom course I have taken prepared its approach to the coming semester.  I thought a different set of lectures would be better so I sent a proposal.  Everyone else in the class will discuss a famous person who happens to be from and shaped by NYC.  My presentation will be the outlier.  No famous people.  Just the unique people who have historic legacies.  The Bowery Bums, the city workers, the chefs, the nobodies who thought they could make it there, pushcarts and newsstands now found nowhere else, the Chefs, the diplomats. Few famous, all recognizable.  But importantly, unique.

While I prefer to be reflective rather than having the limelight shine on me, I do tend to think in an analytical way that should be offered to others.  I kinda look forward to each of the upcoming efforts.