The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Richmond: “dread, procrastination, exhilaration”

Back on March 18 and 19, 2024, Joe Vanderford and I taught a two-part class on Stevie Wonder for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Richmond.

On the evening of March 18, we screened the documentary the Summer of Soul.

Then on Tuesday morning, we offered a two-hour class with a focus on three of Stevie Wonder’s albums: Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, and Innervisions.

This was the seventh class that we have presented for Osher, and all of the classes have been linked to music.

Joe and I are lifelong friends. We grew up in Burlington, North Carolina, and quite a bit of our teenage years were spent listening to music, reading Rolling Stone, and occasionally attending a concert.

Our class format is to find a documentary that focuses on a band or an individual musician. We show the documentary the night before the class, and we use the film as the foundation for leading us into our presentation about the music created by the artist.

Clearly for Stevie Wonder, we had a deep catalog of options. But, we opted to target those three albums for a couple of reasons.

First, the transformation that was taking place with Stevie Wonder as a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer was significant. He was rapidly moving past his early billing as Little Stevie Wonder.

Second, these three albums were the beginning of a significant creative run for Mr. Wonder. From 1971-1976, he released six influential albums. Each was a progression that captured his emerging independence and maturity as an artist.

During this period, Mr. Wonder’s skills in the studio were enhanced by his collaborations with Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil. Known as Tonto’s Expanding Headband, these musicians were leaders in utilizing synthesizers and other keyboards to capture new sounds in the recording process.

Just as the documentary the Summer of Soul captures what is taking place in America socially and musically in 1969, Stevie Wonder begins using his music as a means to capture how he is feeling about the challenges America is facing too.

Our presentations are grounded in multiple layers of research.

The core of the research is usually tied to a biography or autobiography. For Stevie Wonder, we relied upon Mark Ribowsky’s: Signed, Sealed, Delivered—The Soulful Journey of Stevie Wonder. We supplemented our research with a dive into available materials on the web related to newspapers, periodicals, and writing from rock music critics and historians.

From this research, we develop a detailed, but compressed script to guide our presentation.

A Power Point is created from the script. In the Power Point, we work to align photographic content to match Mr. Wonder’s career time-line, performance videos, insightful quotes, and interviews that add perspective.

With this presentation, we found an informative interview from the Merv Griffin Show, stellar live performances with Tom Jones, “Blame It On The Sun,” and Ray Charles, “Living For The City,” Mr. Wonder’s eloquent acceptance speech into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a humorous clip from Carpool Karaoke featuring Mr. Wonder and James Corden from the Late Late Show.

For both the screening and the class, we work to establish an easy, open atmosphere, welcoming insights and questions from students. The sharing of those insights and questions only serve to enhance the learning.

Joe describes the preparation for presenting an Osher class as “ dread, procrastination, and exhilaration.”

When we learn that our proposal for a class has been accepted, we experience a tinge of dread. This is because we know what we expect from each other to develop the best class we can offer.

But, before we work hard, we procrastinate. At some point, we jolt each other with phone calls and emails, and we acknowledge—the clock is ticking, we better get busy.

In that getting busy, we push each other, we debate, we question, we plunge deep into the research, we wrestle to find gentle compromise in culling content, and we practice the presentation.

As for the exhilaration, it humbly hits us when the class is over.

We are excited that despite the impact of dread and procrastination, we pulled off another class.

But from our perspective, the kindhearted applause and insightful feedback from the Osher members who took the class mean the world to Joe and me.

Joe heads back to Chapel Hill, and I return to Sweetbriar Road.

And at some point, we’ll wonder if we want to dread and procrastinate again.

I sense exhilaration might impact that decision.

It will take a few days, but eventually the Stevie Wonder songs that we featured in our class will stop playing in my old brain.

And while those songs will quietly drift away, I still think about the remarkable life of Stevie Wonder. His skills as a songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist are well established. His recordings will stand the test of time. For Mr. Wonder’s songs capture life, they tug at our hearts, and they make us think.

In our research, we stumbled upon this Stevie Wonder quote: “Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.”

Mr. Wonder’s career showcases his vision—a vision that pushed boundaries in the recording studio, a vision to surround himself with very capable musicians in concert performances, and a vision to use his voice to address societal challenges.

Mr. Wonder’s unique vision parallels the vision of Bernard Osher who is responsible for the creation of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

In 2000, Mr. Osher began to construct the template for the program.

By 2002, the foundation had issued its first two requests for proposals from the California State University and University of California systems. Now, across the United States, there are 125 Lifelong Learning Institutes with one in every state. (Bernard Osher Foundation)

The Lifelong Learning Institutes are established to provide: A diverse repertoire of intellectually stimulating, non-credit courses and educational activities, specifically designed for people who are 50 years of age or older. (Bernard Osher Foundation)

I’ll turn 71 in June.

As I continue to age, my internal voice tells me that I need to keep moving mentally and physically.

The Osher program at the University of Richmond does both for me.

Preparation to present a class is a rigorous mental journey. Joe and I are challenged to read and research a wide spectrum of materials. This stimulus guides us in assessing information and making decisions that lead us to the core development of our class.

The commitment to teach a class pushes me physically too.

At some point in the preparation, I make visits to the University of Richmond’s campus to seek technical assistance from students in the Learning Center.

These students are essential in ensuring that critical features for our Power Point meet the approval and whims of our unpredictable technology gods.

And yet, there is another physical part— the actual teaching of the class. This requires logistical coordination with the Osher staff. Learning the lecture hall where we present, understanding the dynamics of the room for lighting and sound, and then the most critical part—footwork. This helps a presenter to avoid podium lock by moving around the lecture hall during the presentation.

As you continue to age, you owe it to yourself to keep pushing your mental and physical capacities.

The Osher Institute of Lifelong Learning, can help you with that pursuit. If your community offers this program, I encourage you to do your homework and check it out.

Don’t dread making the inquiry.

Don’t procrastinate making a visit.

Because if you do, you are going to miss the exhilaration of finding a whole new world for yourself.