HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton/Hodgdon Adult and Community Education Program is teaming up with the Maine Humanities Council to once again offer a free program entitled, New Books, New Readers.
This read and discuss program will take place at the Houlton Higher Education Center from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Oct 4, 19 and Nov. 2 and 16. This is a free program and the public is invited to attend. Those who are interested in learning more about the program, call or register at 521-3100 ext 5. Books and snacks will be provided.
This year’s theme for New Books, New Readers is Pioneers and Frontiers and is a timely one as political topics and a presidential election is drawing attention from around the world.
Pioneers and Frontiers, a New Books, New Readers series, has been developed as a part of the MHC’s council- and state-wide emphasis on the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: A Broad and Sure Foundation: the 14th Amendment in American Life and Imagination. The series has been designed to provide a basic understanding of some of the issues dealt with in the 14th Amendment through the reading and then to move on to discuss the Amendment’s effects in our own time and in our own lives.
In the session that introduces the series, the group will read together a single book, “Lillian’s Right to Vote”, which provides an overview of the development of civil rights through the years from slavery to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In subsequent sessions, participants will come having read (on their own or with help) three books. The books for Session 1, “Yearning to Breathe Free”, focus on immigration.
In Session 2, three stories from the American South in the 1960s and ‘70s ask the question, “What Does Freedom Mean?” “Moving Mountains”, Session 3, is comprised of stories of individuals or families who have, through great effort, succeeded in overcoming barriers to rights which many in the twenty-first century have come to assume are ours.
For each NBNR series, we develop a brief group of questions labeled “For Discussion,” to show those who may see the series on our website or in an exhibit that, while they read children’s literature, NBNR groups have serious adult discussions.
The questions for Pioneers and Frontiers are:
– What does freedom mean to us?
– Is equality essential?
– Why is it important to challenge accepted assumptions that inequality is “just how it is”?
– What avenues of thought and action can lead us to change?
– How do the courageous actions of our forebears affect our own actions?
– What role do patience and persistence play in achieving a goal?
