A cure for stress

by Phil Houseal, Feb 9, 2011


What would you say if I told you Club Ed had a cure for stress?

It’s no secret more of us are stressed in this economic climate. So I went back to reread Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.

Those who have read Carnegie’s books know he is fond of using real life examples to illustrate his points. One such anecdotes was about a man who tragically lost not one, but two young daughters. The bereaved parent could not shake his anxiety and depression, until one day his remaining son asked him to build a boat.

At first the father was in no mood to start the project, but he relented and spent three hours working with his son. To his surprise, those three hours were the first time in months he was free of stress.

“I realized,” the father said, “that it is difficult to worry while you are busy doing something that requires planning and thinking.”

This man went on to build his therapy around doing home repair projects, volunteering, and taking adult education classes. The result? He no longer had time or energy to worry - not to mention the side benefits of fixing up his house, raising money for the Red Cross, and learning a foreign language!

Carnegie attributes this phenomenon to the simple fact that the human mind cannot contain two thoughts simultaneously. As an example, he challenges the reader to think of The Statue of Liberty while planning what they will do the next day. Can’t be done.

I recently had more cause than usual to be stressed. My usual reaction to stress is to curl up and stop doing anything. Normally my evenings and weekends are filled with lifelong learning activities - basketball, dance, writing, and playing instruments. At first I thought I would just drop all those activities. My logic was that by foregoing those unnecessary “distractions” I would be able to focus more of my energy on dealing with the stressful situation. But after reading Carnegie, I realized that was self-defeating behavior. Because when you are actively engaged in learning, your mind can’t think worrisome thoughts.

Prove this to yourself. Pick up an instrument and memorize a piece, or sing, or recite a poem out loud. You will forget your other troubles and finish with a refreshed outlook.

I wanted to share this because even if you are not facing some dire situation in your personal life, you owe it to yourself to keep learning and growing. It doesn’t have to be as ambitious as learning to speak Spanish, but it could be learning a new way to bake bread. It could be welding, or dancing, or playing dulcimer, or any of hundreds of other classes you can find right here.

The benefit of lifelong learning isn’t just about learning a new skill. You will also be meeting some pretty neat new folks who share your interest and passion about the subject. They might even have some insight into your stressful situation!

When you take your next Club Ed class, we can’t guarantee you will be free of stress. But we are pretty sure you will leave just a little bit more relaxed, and maybe a little smarter, too.

See you in class.

XXX

Club Ed offers 165 cures for stress. Spring classes are starting now! For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Since 1974, the Kerrville Independent School District has offered Community Education (Club Ed). Each year, Club Ed offers more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Learn to enjoy learning

by Phil Houseal as published in the (Kerrville TX) Community Journal - Dec 29, 2010

We are never too old to learn. Dr. Suzuki says so.

Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s book Nurtured by Love is required reading for parents of children learning to play music using The Classic Approach to Talent Education.

His insightful teaching brought music education to the very young, with 3 and 4-year-olds able to master the challenges of Bach and Haydn on violin.

But what struck me was the impact his philosophy can have on those of us way beyond single digits in age. This will not do justice to his philosophy, but four elements that apply to lifelong learning spoke to me on first reading. Not unexpectedly, Club Ed and other adult learning opportunities address each point.

Point 1 - “Talent” is learned

Take a look again at the book’s tag line: The Classic Approach to Talent Education. Suzuki disdains the phrase “natural talent.” His revolutionary insight was that talent can be taught; talent can be learned. There is hope for everyone!

Point 2 - What does not exist in your cultural environment will not be developed

If you grew up listening only to The Monkees, you probably won’t appreciate Mozart. In order to improve our lives we need to fill our days with enriching, inspiring, challenging opportunities.... opportunities you’ll find in Club Ed.

Point 3 - Think of learning as fun

I really believe that having fun is the secret to succeeding in any area of life. You might lose weight temporarily by dieting. But you will be healthier the rest of your life by having the adventure of eating right.

You might get fit doing an exercise. But you will stay fit by finding physical activity you enjoy doing every day.

You might learn how to play dulcimer by taking one class. But you will only make music by practicing daily (see Point 4) and playing with others.

In Club Ed we do offer all types of classes - more than 200 each semester. And while they are excellent, taking a class is really only the first step to mastery of any skill. Just one example is our ongoing Dulcimer Jam session. Beginners of all ages and experience meet weekly, not to learn an instrument, but to make music.

Point 4 - Practice. And practice right.

Suzuki believes we are all experts; it is just that some of us are experts at doing things “wrong” due to bad instruction or lack of practice. But talent always comes down to practice, no matter at what age you begin. An adult who practices 3 hours a day for five years will be more “talented” than a child who practices five minutes a day for 10 years.

As you probably guess, Club Ed can help bring all these good things into your life. You can learn a skill, start a hobby, listen to an expert, and just enjoy the company of like-minded friends seeking a more enriching life.

So as you start a new year, don’t simply resolve to go on a diet or learn to play violin. Learn to enjoy eating right, learn to make music, and learn to enjoy learning.

See you in class!

Paint dreams

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - Nov 10, 2010


I remember the year my dad took a painting class.

It changed the way I looked at grownups.

This happened around my sixth grade year. My dad would have been in his early 40s then... a very old person in my worldview. At dinner one evening, he mentioned that he had signed up for a painting class at the nearby university’s community education program.

Up to that point, I couldn’t envision my parents doing anything outside their roles of breadwinners and caregivers. We had grown up in a large family on a farm. As one of nine kids, my main interaction with my parents was when I needed discipline or a haircut.

For kids, parents were nebulous bodies that orbited around our fantasy universe, like Neptune or the Orion constellation. We knew they were there, and were comforted by their presence, but we never really looked at them as individuals distinct from other celestial mysteries.

So when my dad told us he was taking an art class, it made me see him as something else... a person.

School and learning was for kids. I knew that as a fact based on all my worldly experience. Getting out of high school - which to a 6th grader seemed an impossibly long way in the future - was emancipation.  I was not really sure what lay on the other side of graduation, but I knew it did not involve going back into a classroom. Especially for 40-something fathers.

For the next several weeks we watched as this new person in our family dutifully went to art class every Thursday evening. That in itself was unsettling, as dad was always, always home in the evening. For him to be out on a weeknight left us all a bit off balance. We looked on with interest as he brought home sketchbooks filled with his exercises. He really was quite good at drawing, a fact that made me proud for some reason.

The culmination of the class was to complete a landscape in oil. He chose to paint our family farm, a fitting subject that perhaps made his foray into the art world less avant garde.

When he brought home the finished piece, we were duly impressed. It was a painting that looked like our farm. And it was painted by our dad. The old dog had learned a new trick. At some childish level, that gave me hope that we could learn new things forever, even in our dotage.

The painting was hung with pride above the Lowry organ, which represented another new skill our dad picked up in middle age. Some 50 years later, the painting still hangs on the wall of the family farmhouse.

For me, now past the age my father was when he painted that picture, I try to master the violin, along with tap dancing, and twittering. It is interesting that the young boy who couldn’t envision school past the 12th grade now works with lifelong learning programs that accommodate 3000 local adult students and touch half a million Texans throughout the state.

So if you have always wanted to learn to dance, or paint, or weld, but just haven’t got around to it, please reconsider. Do it for yourself, of course. But do it for someone else, too.

You never know who might be paying attention.

XXX

Birthdays

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - March 24, 2010  


Birthdays are beguiling commodities.

Early in life, they take too long to arrive for the youngster aching to be a teen, to drive a car, or to legally get in a club. By midlife, they become a nuisance - nagging milestones keeping track of how far we’ve come and how little we’ve done.

Past age 50, birthdays tumble upon us like marbles hitting a washtub - hounding us toward another year of uncovering new aches with irritating persistence.

Similarly, the raiment of birthday celebrations evolves. As children, we expect the world to stop and celebrate, though simple math shows we share our birthday week with 140 million others.

In midlife, we still expect accolades simply for being born two or three decades before, and admit feeling slightly hurt if we get through the workday without sufficient birthday wishes.

At our acme, more of us go out of our way to hide the day’s arrival, but curses - computer calendars and smart phones mark our day with chimes and ringtones.

I used to toy with how I reported birthdays. When my students asked the indelicate question of my age, I would respond with correct but confusing numbers. That is how I went from age 39 to “thirty-ten,” “thirty-eleven,” and so on. That worked until they learned enough math to penetrate my deception.

Why discuss birthdays? Well, March is my birthday month, and I started thinking about that when my cousin reminded me (via Facebook) that our ages overlapped (Thank you, Mary Kay).

It got me to thinking that as we travel through life we should worry less about the odometer and more about enjoying the adventure.

As a lad in my early 20s I remember debating my brother about when was too old to learn to play guitar. He maintained you had to learn skills as a child, invoking the “old dog/new trick” argument. I disagreed, arguing that if as an adult we worked as hard at learning as we had as children we could learn just as much, just as quickly. Think back. As a 10-year-old, though we loathed practicing, we did it for hours, daily. As adult learners, we pick up the instrument once a week for 10 minutes and expect a chair in the orchestra.

Good thing I disagreed. Because if I had stopped learning in my 20s, I - along with many of you Club Ed compadres - would today be missing the joys of tap dancing, playing violin, acting, and even writing this column, all skills I did not even begin to pursue until I was long past “twenty-eleven.”

xxx

Club Ed has lots of learning left, both this year and for years to come. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

New "center" of learning

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - Feb 10, 2010

When you are looking for lifelong learning, there are many places to go, large and not so large.

Of course the Club Ed program covers Kerrville and Boerne, offering hundreds of classes. Go down IH-10 to the east and you will find hundreds more classes hosted by Northside ISD. But don’t forget to dig in unlikely places, like deep in the hills in the small town of Center 

Point.

[PHOTO: Cooking up new ideas, Center Point residents are diving in to classes such as Cake Decorating offered locally in the school’s new community education program. Shown: Sharon Kirby and her Pumpkin Cake. Photo by Shirley Wright]

I had heard that Center Point got its name from being at the “center point” of Texas when measured from east to west. More probable is that the name came from its central location in relation to the neighboring towns of Kerrville, Comfort, Bandera, and Fredericksburg. Now, thanks to Shirley Wright, the unincorporated town is becoming a nexus of lifelong learning with a new program of classes that the locals are embracing with enthusiasm.

When it comes to enthusiasm, Wright has an abundance. “I am having a ball,” she said of setting up and running her program. “My wheels are always turning, trying to think of different things to offer.”

Just started last fall, Center Point put out an ambitious catalog of 30 classes. The 3750 residents of the district could pick from such offerings as computers, martial arts, Spanish, quilting, cooking, and photography, along with some more unexpected topics such as yoga, acting, cake decorating, and bread dough basket weaving. All are held in the buildings of Center Point ISD, a Class 1-A school. Opening existing school facilities to the public has been the cornerstone of the community education concept ever since its introduction in the 1930s.

One innovative project is the new fitness center. Housed in the Center Point schools, the center is open to residents of the district and sports 10 new workout machines. It is available each school day from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Wright - who also wears the hats of librarian and cheerleading coach - enjoys the support of her board and Superintendent Cody Newcomb, as well as the support of the community. Most of her first classes “made” and she is eager to expand the program.

“Even if some of our classes don’t make, at least we are taking steps and offering you the chance to come learn something new,” she said. “I am very excited.”

If you would like to learn more about the Center Point ISD community education program, contact them online at www.cpisd.net or call 830-634-6124.

Lifelong learning has something for everybody, and it should be everywhere. There is lots to learn around every corner.

P.S. Any school district interested in adding a community education program of its own can find out more at www.tcea.com.

XXX

For information on Club Ed or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Knowers vs Learners

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly Jan 20, 2010

Are you a “knower” or a “learner?”

Here’s how to tell the difference. A “knower” lives in the past. A “learner” is moving into the future. Another way to portray it is that “knowers” talk, “learners” listen.

We all are familiar with someone who “knows” it all. No matter the topic - from world geography to political nuance - they chime in with facts, opinions and trivia that leave no room for conversation. One buddy described it as if people carry around scripts in their head on every topic, ready to unleash one at the even the most tangential moment.

“Knowers” show up in all walks of life. The stereotype is the old fellow who remembers how it was in the good old days, when he walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways. A more insidious type is the quintessential salesman who won’t stop talking. Back in my selling days, I have been in meetings with account executives afraid to appear not to know everything. They filibuster the conversation, drowning everyone with all they can do to serve the clients.

I learned something on one of my first sales visits. We went into a meeting with a large potential client. After listening to their marketing director describe the company’s current campaign, I stood up and announced, “I’m not sure you really need us. You have a perfectly adequate situation.”

I can’t say who was more startled - my account executive or the client. After a pause, the client said two things: 1) I’ve never had a vendor say that before, and 2) You get the account.

She was impressed by my honesty, but more important, by my ability to listen. We sat back down, probed deeper, and came up with award-winning campaigns and a relationship that went on for years.

The point is that I was willing to learn - to learn more about my client’s needs. Those types of learners are the people I meet walking into our doors day after day. They come in all ages. We had the 80-something retired engineer who decided to learn how to weld. I am just as impressed by the 18-year-old college student who enrolled in a Spanish conversation class to supplement her language studies at Schreiner University. Now that’s a learner.

So now is the time to ask yourself what type of person you are - a knower or a learner?

If you are a learner, we have a class for you.

If you are a knower... well... maybe you can teach a class.

XXX

For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter@clubedtx.

Life-wide Learning

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly  Jan 13, 2009

As a statewide and national advocate for Community Education, I always speak of life-long learning, as in learning that never ends.

Lately I’ve realized a better way to explain the concept might be “life-wide learning.”

The difference is similar to the one of that exists in pursuit of advanced degrees. One wag observed that the goal of a Ph.D. candidate is to learn more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing.

But even those of us with advanced degrees find satisfaction in gaining knowledge in many unrelated fields. It might be said this wide learning has lead to mankind’s great discoveries. Consider the serendipitous events, such as the discovery of penicillin from bread molds, and radiation from the accidental placement of uranium on a film negative.

Maybe you already have a degree in Nuclear Physics, but you need to fix a fence. That’s where our class in welding comes in.

Or maybe you run a small business that is growing so fast you can’t keep up with payroll and inventory. But Quickbooks can, and Club Ed has a class to teach you how to use it.

Or maybe you’ve retired from that military career, where you were in charge of platoons and divisions. But you have always wanted to learn to paint (or knit, or crochet, or dance, or play guitar). That is a wide array of choices. That is life-wide learning.

Not sure what you want to learn? We have classes for that! Coaching courses put you one on one with a professional who will help you lay out a path for personal fulfillment. Or take a course in journaling, where you discover your inner voice.

Lifewide learning is also “learning to learn.” The first step to learning any skill or knowledge is an having an awareness of how you learn, to recognize and monitor your  learning style. Are you a visual or auditory learner? That is, do you prefer seeing the information written on the board, or do you prefer listening to a lecture? Or are you kinesthetic - do you have to get your hands on something in order to understand how it works? Knowing the answer will guide you in the kind of class you should take.

Whichever way you learn, the key to lifewide learning is that the very act of learning should be a source of enjoyment. Learning is something you immerse yourself in.

Even if you discount the worldly benefits, the act of learning can be a source of enjoyment.

Opportunities for “lifewide” learning are endless and ever changing. Each session brings about 200 new classes. You don’t even have to wait for the catalog. You can go online year round, or go to your favorite bookseller and get a book.

So don’t ever wait to start learning. Come on in - the water is warm and the river is wide!

XXX

Registration for Spring classes in Club Ed is now underway. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

A class in every town

by Phil Houseal, as seen in Community Journal (Kerrville TX) & Hill Country Weekly (Boerne TX) Dec 23, 2009

You’ve heard of a chicken in every pot; my Christmas wish is to put a community education program in every town.

Kerrville, you are fortunate having a program like Club Ed. That is not bravado; it is fact. For a town this size, there is probably not another program like it in the state or the country. Two times a year, you receive a catalog of hundreds of interesting and stimulating lifelong learning opportunities, from dance to computers to cooking to karate. This is not magic; the success is because your school district offers it and you support it by signing up for classes and by stepping up to teach.

But you may be surprised to learn there are fewer than 100 such community education programs in Texas. That is less than 10% of the more than 1100 or so school districts in the state that open up their facilities to the tax-paying citizens.

A little history. The concept of community education began in 1935 as a dream of Frank Manley, a physical education teacher in Flint, Michigan. He passionately believed in John Dewey’s philosophy that “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

With funding from the Mott Foundation, Manley led the way for schools to open their doors to the community. What better community center than the schools, which had quality facilities, central locations, and connected all parts of a community?

The concept spread across the country, and became established in Texas in 1971 through the Center of Community Education at Texas A&M. The initiative to place community education programs in towns was at first funded by the legislature, but that funding went away in the late 1980s. Since that time, community education programs are largely self-supporting, using a combination of user fees, grants, and local support.

In the 1990s, the Texas Community Education Association made repeated attempts to acquire funding to start new projects with funding from the legislature and the Texas Education Agency, but appropriations bills failed to get out of conference committee.

So that brings us to the current state of affairs. Community Education programs exist and thrive around the state. San Antonio is a center for the largest programs in the state, at North East and Northside ISDs. Several strong programs exist in the Metroplex, with the remainder based in small and medium sized communities such as Frederickbsurg, New Braunfels, Lake Travis, Dripping Springs, College Station, and Kerrville.

It is also important to note the community education is not just people doing line dances or taking basket weaving (although we have both in Club Ed). Community Education looks different in every community, which is a strength. Some programs focus on offering classes for senior citizens. Others offer more K-12 based programs, including after-school enrichment and extensive summer camps. Others focus on adult literacy and GED classes. That diversity is a strength, because the community education program should reflect the community.

Back to the dream. If you live in a town that does not yet offer community education, please consider taking steps to start one. It does not have to be large, or even based in the school district. One town offered computer classes in a bank’s basement; other towns used local libraries.

Our Club Ed program has taken a small step in this direction by offering “remote” classes in surrounding communities over the years, including in Junction, Bandera, Center Point, and Comfort. Currently we have branches in Boerne and Ingram.

But it is important that every town has a place for a lifelong learning program of its own, to accommodate the community’s needs and reflect the population’s personality.

Because one fact remains the same in every town - learning should never end.

xxx

For more information about starting a community education program, visit www.tcea.com or email info@tcea.com. Technical support and small grants are available.

New spring classes are online now. The catalog will be mailed to all hill country homes after Christmas. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Don't be a Maxine

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly 12/9/2009

“Exactly when was it, Mom, that you become so afraid to try new things?”

That was the blunt but loving query I asked my 80-something mother, Maxine, during a recent, infrequent, phone conversation. I was chiding her for not getting on her computer and learning how to use a basic email or a Facebook account.

You see, my mom used to be an intrepid explorer. As a young girl, she was the oldest of five sisters living on a farm in Iowa. She left the farm in her teens to study business in the state capital, married a sailor, and raised nine kids. She chased down wild horses, cooked and canned, and tended a huge truck garden.

Her reply? “If I do get on email, will you talk to me more often?”

“Every day,” I said honestly. I am still waiting for her to do it.

But other seniors are not waiting. They quickly discover that computers are easy to use, and once on, they can not only correspond with their children, but they can see pictures and videos of their grandchildren, look up old classmates and war buddies, and make new friends who share their interests and hobbies around the world.

It is understandable that computers intimidate some from a generation that was born before airplanes, television, and indoor plumbing existed. If you are one of those who just don’t feel comfortable trying a computer, don’t worry. We have courses and instructors designed just for you. For 20 years we have offered Computers for Beginners, and trained hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds how to join the computer revolution. That course literally starts with learning how to turn on the machine and how to move the mouse. By the end of the course, students are playing games, writing letters, and emailing friends.

From there, the options are up to each student. Many go on to learn more about email, how to fix old photographs, how to use digital cameras, how to make greeting cards and signs, and how to use word processors and spreadsheets.

How about shopping online? It sure beats getting out in the crowds and traffic, and is completely safe. And shopping online doesn’t mean you bypass the local economy. There is probably not any local store that doesn’t have a web site you can use.

I like to listen to classic radio programs, with my favorite the George Burns & Gracie Allen Show. In the 1940s, advertisers mounted a mock campaign to increase safety in the home. They titled it “Don’t be a Gracie,” referring to Gracie being prone to accidents.

With all apologies to my mother, I plead with you non-computer users “Don’t be a Maxine.” If you are hesitant to use new technology, come in and sign up for a class. We promise to be gentle. And if you have someone in your life who shares my mother’s distrust of computers, urge them to try something new by getting them a gift certificate for a Club Ed class.

Who knows? The first person they email, might be you.

xxx

For a last minute gift, how about a gift certificate for a class in Club Ed? One lady gave her 70-year-old mother a certificate for sky diving! For information, call 830-895-4386 before Dec 18.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Stress and class

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly Dec 2, 2009

Are you stressed? I might have a cure.

I recently attended a seminar on recognizing and dealing with stress.

It was valuable because the insidious thing about stress is that you don’t realize you have it. It’s that twitch in the eye, the shallow breathing, the waking up at 2 in the morning - little tics that have become patterns that you cannot remember not having.

This group ended the session by going around the room and offering examples of ways we each deal with stress - sharing activities that reduce the level of anxiety.

We covered all the Reader’s Digest points - better nutrition, reduced sugar and caffeine, exercise, finding your happy place, and so on.

The session was nearly over when suddenly I had a flash of insight.

“Take a class!” I blurted.

Everyone turned to me to see what I was going to say next. I wondered, too.

Then it just came spilling out. I realized the times in my life I feel least stressed are when I am learning something new. Right now, that includes learning how to play violin and how to tap dance (no, not at the same time).

When I am in that lesson, for one hour, I don’t worry about work, kids, job, cars, or money. My mind goes to a state of focus and concentration, where the sole purpose is to hit that G# or nail that shuffle ball change. As a bonus, I’m getting a physical workout and learning a new skill or hobby - another stress reducer.

It occurred to me that every day I get to see people come through our doors who want to learn something new, and they are the happiest, most well-adjusted people I know, regardless of their age. This fall I interviewed a gentleman who is learning to weld. He is 87. And he didn’t appear to be too stressed. We have had a 70-year-old lady jump out of an airplane. I imagine she had a little adrenaline pumping through her veins, but she landed and survived to jump another day. Stress didn’t kill her.

We all know you should eat better, exercise more, sleep eight hours, and take time for yourself. The biggest reason people gave for not doing these things is “not enough time.”

Taking a class makes you take time. It forces you to attend a specific place at a specific time. It is in your organizer. When you show up, you are immersed in a whole new group of supportive people who become your friends and allies as you push back the frontiers of ignorance and uncertainty.

It is a fact that learning something new - at any age - forges new neuron paths in the brain. Old dogs can learn new tricks.

Oh. They say that change is another stressor. Well... take a tap class, and you can embrace change - shuffle ball change.

XXX

For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

No retiring from learning

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal and  Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - Nov 25, 2009



What does a retired teacher do when she no longer teaches?

Learn, says Carol McMahon.

I always love to ask people why they sign up for any lifelong learning classes. Everyone is so busy, I wonder what motivates them to choose a class, register and pay for it, then carve out time to show up for each meeting. I’ve asked people from all backgrounds and of all ages, including a few folks in their 90s. The answers are always revealing.

In McMahon’s case, she retired to the hill country three years ago, after teaching public school for 25 years. She immediately got involved in tutoring college students and, in her spare time, taking Club Ed classes.

“These classes are wonderful - a godsend for people who want to get back up to speed on computer, or learn art or dance,” she said. “It is fantastic you have this program here.”

In a short time, McMahon has enrolled in a smorgasbord of courses. They include Cultures of the Hill Country, dance lessons, art lessons, watercolor, and several trips. She couldn’t name her favorite.

“They were all really, really good,” she said. She especially enjoyed the local history class, and started doing her own research into the area. “There are a lot of small towns, and people don’t know about them. It’s nice to know about where you are.”

McMahon is already planning her next session of classes. She has her eye on geology, Google Docs, and Yoga. How, I wondered, does she decide which ones to take?

“Everything I am interested in,” she replied. “I never had time during my working life to get into things I wanted to do. So it is a real pleasure for me to have time to do this.”

McMahon is especially enjoying her art classes. She finally has time to study this love, and often travels to her place in Port Aransas just to paint.

Her next frontier lies in taking more computer classes.

“I work on the computer all the time. You have to update your skills as software is always changing. I especially need work on digital photography. You have to use it or lose it!”

Losing it does not see to be an option for this lifelong learner. She tells all her friends - even the out-of-town ones - about Club Ed and encourages everyone to take a class.

“I do believe in education. These classes are wonderful, especially for seniors. Anyone can afford $20 for a yoga class. What a great addition it is to the community.”

xxx

For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Kerrville ISD delivers Fall Club Ed catalogs

Online signup underway

PHIL HOUSEAL, DIRECTOR, KERRVILLE ISD, 830-257-2218

phil.houseal@kerrvilleisd.net

Lifelong learners can soon begin signing up for their favorite Club Ed classes, as 70,000 64-page catalogs arrive in mailboxes throughout the Texas Hill Country this week (Aug 3-14).

Club Ed, the Kerrville Independent School District's Community Education program - offers hundreds of courses held in local communities and offered online from the convenience of home. Areas cover computers, travel, recreation, cooking, art, self-improvement, business, training and much more.

Among the new offerings this fall are Canning, Cooking Italian, Candle Making, Teaching art to a child, Horsemanship, Social Networking, Kindle, Hypnosis, Wine Appreciation, and Storytelling.

Local flintknapper Jim Morris is bringing in Woody Blackwell, the best-known flintknapper in the U.S. to teach a one-day workshop. Kurt Shirer will teach how to build and play a washtub bass.

Travel guide Ardie Dixon is hosting trips to a Holiday Night Out in Fredericksburg, and to the San Antonio Holiday River Lighting Parade. Travelers can also sign up for trips to the South Pacific, Bavaria, New England, or the Canadian Rockies.

Popular returning courses include Welding, Web Design, Coaching, Spanish, Writing, Dog Obedience, Travel for Free, a complete set of gardening how-to's, and all types of dance.

Those not wanting to wait for the catalog to arrive can sign up online now at www.clubed.net.

Complete information and registration is also available by calling 830-895-4386, or by visiting the Auld Center, 1121 Second Street, Kerrville. Weekly articles appear at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

Link to article in Kerrville Daily Times:
http://dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=946f297afebc3360

An artist at any age

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal - May 6, 2009

We always say folks can learn at any age, but it is still a good surprise when someone comes in to sign up their 86-year-old mother for an art class.

Why would someone put an octogenarian in a beginning art class?

“Because she raised seven kids and never had the time to do any fun stuff,” her daughter - whom I’ll call Alice - replied. “Our daddy was in the military so we moved all the time, and she had to be a homemaker until her oldest girl started college.”

Alice’s mother’s yearnings for something deeper started early in her life. Her father died when she was only 9, so she went to work as a secretary at 15 in order to help support her large family.

“She didn’t get to do any fun stuff in school,” she said, “Just typing and shorthand. She just wanted to know how to draw.”

While her mom lacked experience, she did not want for confidence. Maybe it was a trait she picked up from her hard early life.

“She would look at the work of a grand master painting and say, ‘I can do that!” Alice said. “She always just wanted a chance to draw.”

Her mom started drawing on her own, putting pen to any paper she had handy, even using the backs of used postcards. She would make intricate drawings, sign them and sometimes frame them, telling friends and family, “See, I can do this.”

So now her daughters were getting her into an art class. Still, their mother didn’t go without protest.

“I saw it there in your catalog and said she is going to love to draw,” Alice said. “She would not ask to take a course, because she felt guilty asking us to drive her to class.”

“Our mother thought taking a drawing class was a waste of time,” she added. “After all, a child of the depression just didn't do that stuff.”

Thanks to her daughters, one child of the depression is proving again that it is never too late to learn.

XXX

No matter your age, for information or on signing up for any class, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

The Secret Life of Snowbirds

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal Mar 18, 2009


Goodbye! Goodbye!

I heard the cries from the door to the classroom where the latest dulcimer class was just finishing.

It was spring, and one of our adult students was heading back north.

A snowbird?

"Oh yes," he said. "I come every winter, and this year I just had to take this dulcimer class - it is the only one offered in the hill country!"

Why not move to Kerrville and stay, I asked him.

"Grandkids," was his one word answer.

The encounter got me thinking about the phenomenon of "snowbirdhood." Having lived here for 30 years, I have come across snowbirds in other aspects of my life. A large group gathers in Fredericksburg to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity. We used to have a clowning instructor who would teach for us, as long as it was between Oct and March.

The whole concept of snowbirding appeals in a bittersweet way.

It is always sad to have to say goodbye to friends you have met and known for several months. Yet it must be an exciting existence, like leading a double life. In summer you bump around the Midwest dressed in overalls. But each winter you travel to that exotic locale - "the south."

(As a former yankee, I understand the appeal of living half the year - the cold half - in the warm, sunny south, where you can wear shorts on Christmas day and plant your garden in February. To a Midwesterner, that's like imagining living on the moon and being able to jump six times higher - simply incomprehensible.)

You'd like to think that snowbirds would invent a wholly different life to go with their southern residence. An engineer in Nebraska might become a secret agent in Texas. An English teacher could become a best-selling author of steamy romance novels.

But that doesn't happen. I've noticed that wherever you travel physically, you drag your personality and comfort zones with you. A homebody in South Dakota will also stick close to the RV while parked at the edge of the Grand Canyon. We haul our worldview even into the virtual world. While taking a class on Second Life - an online world where you create an avatar that represents the real you - our students would tend to build "mini-me's," perhaps making the hair a shade darker and trimming a few pounds off the mid-section.

But our personalities don't change, whether we are stalking the plowed fields of Kansas, padding through the bluebonnets of Texas, or soaring in an electronic sky.

So here is to snowbirds! Long may they fly, though sad when they flee, and all we wish for them is that the day they alight, let it be in Club Ed, Texas!

XXX

Snowbirds can take a Club Ed class from anywhere in the world! For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

Drawing out the inner artist

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal Mar 11, 2009

What reaction do a bunch of grown-ups have when they get together to chip rock, mix cement, and dye shirts?

"Fun!" said Ann Witherwax, who teaches classes on Mosaics and Tie Dye for club Ed. "That is almost always the response I see and hear - Wow, I actually did this. Sometimes you draw out an artistic ability you didn't know was there."

Drawing out that inner artist is a mission for Witherwax. The Hunt resident is trained as an art teacher and graphic artist. She teaches children through adults. When I asked about her favorite medium, she hesitated.

"I'm not sure how to answer that - I teach lot of mediums," she said. "But my purpose is to establish creative thinking skills. That is more than making artists - I want them to learn to think creatively."

Witherwax accomplishes this by using art to show there is more than one way to tackle a problem. Her art classes go beyond creating art for art's sake.

"I believe that through teaching art we can train our brains to find many avenues to solve a problem, to build something, to create a piece of art," she said. "As adults, we tend not to do that. Anybody is capable of doing anything. There is more than one way to solve a problem. Using our creative thinking skills, we can tackle anything."

This spring Witherwax is teaching classes in tie dying, mosaics, and garden pavers. These diverse mediums require the student to make choices that draw out the inner person. Creating a tie dye shirt, for example, requires the student to select from a palette of color. With garden pavers, students can embed tiles or stones or even bottle caps, or write words and phrases on polished stone. The finished paver can be one of several in a garden path, or sit alone as a decoration inside or out.

Every piece comes out completely different, which is fine with Witherwax.

"You cannot mass produce tie dye or pavers," she said. "There are a lot of techniques that get different results, and in each project you end up with a wearable or usable piece of art."

For Witherwax, art is more about process than product.

"That letting out of energy that comes with doing art is very healthy, it is relaxing and a release of creativity. There are so many positive results when people allow themselves to go there."

"Going there" requires no artistic ability.

"I feel like God has blessed me with the ability to inspire people to be creative and do their art in very non-judgmental way," she said. "I want everyone's art to be theirs, not like mine."

XXX

Ann Witherwax will teach classes on Tie Dye on March 28 and April 4, and a class on Garden Pavers on April 18. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

Take your garden to another level

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal Mar 4, 2009


I miss Iowa sweet corn.

Though I've lived in the hill country since 1980, I make no secret that I am an Iowa boy, born and fed on a farm in the breadbasket of the world. Back in the Midwest, the topsoil is measured in feet, not inches. The soil is so rich one observer claimed you could just eat the dirt without bothering to turn it into vegetables.

So when I arrived in Texas, I set out to grow a garden. I quickly discovered that the dirt in Texas was a little more unforgiving than Iowa loam. But I eventually uncovered an approach that worked - raised beds.

By piling up dirt into 4-foot square beds, supplementing the soil like crazy, watering and mulching, my kids were soon turning up their noses at mounds of broccoli, brussels sprouts, and zuchinni.

Dr. Tom Harris is a true expert at what is now called "square foot gardening." He teaches a series of gardening courses in Kerrville and Boerne, has written "how-to" books, and keeps lists of plants that are best suited for the local climate and conditions. He regularly helps immigrants from other states navigate the conditions of the Southwest so they can produce bumper crops in their own backyards.

The retired educator and Master Gardener will be in Kerrville on Wed, March 11 to lead a class in building some of these raised beds in the backyard of the Auld Center, home of Club Ed.

Dr. Harris digs this approach to gardening. "No weeds, no work, less water," he ticked off the reasons. "Raised beds are super handy, and very friendly with nature - you can recycle all your yard wastes by making mulch or compost."

That overcomes the biggest challenge for hill country gardeners - growing plants in rocks. "Mostly what we have around here is caliche," he said. "You can't hardly grow anything in that stuff. It is easier to start with a raised bed and make your own soil."

Building raised beds does not have to be elaborate or expensive.

Gardeners have used rocks, bricks, and timbers to raise the beds to at least 6 inches. Dr. Harris uses 8-inch cinder blocks. He fills them using a 50% mix of light garden mix, and recommends drip irrigation for efficient watering.

The best thing about raised bed gardening is that the concept applies anywhere in the world, and it works for growing vegetables, flowers, herbs, and trees - "whatever you want to grow."

So if you yearn to learn the secrets of building a square foot garden of your own, make tracks over to Club Ed. He figures the class can build three or four raised beds - it will just take you a couple of hours.

And you must promise to bring me a sample from your first crop of sweet corn.

XXX

The Square Foot Gardening Workshop meets on Wed, March 11. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

Look up

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal Feb 25, 2009


For Jim McMahon, things are always looking up.

It's not just because he is an optimist, but because his hobby is astronomy.

The retired mathematician teaches Backyard Astronomy for Club Ed. His objective is to bring the mystery and wonder of the universe to your own backyard.

A curious mind helps, as does a pair of binoculars.

"A pair 7 x 35 binoculars - which a lot of people already have - comes in very handy," McMahon said. "If you can hold binoculars steady, you can see the satellites of Jupiter."

The first number is the degree of magnification, and the second number is the width of the lens in millimeters. So a set of field glasses 10 x 75 means they magnify the image 10 times and the lens is 75 millimeters across.

Is bigger better?

"Yes, because you can collect more light and see fainter objects," he said.

Higher magnification also means it is more difficult to hold the binoculars steady. So this is where serious astronomy buffs move up to reflector telescopes. They offer more magnification, more stability, and more features.

"This is an 8-inche telescope," McMahon said, pointing to his compact red viewer that he uses in class. "That means you can see very faint objects with this telescope."

Technically, his is a catadioptric telescope, which means the light is funneled through a series of lenses and mirrors before it reaches the eye.

"It folds the optics so don't have telescope too long and unwieldy," he explained. This allows for the performance of a large aperture and long focal length in a package that is lightweight and transportable.

You can go up quickly in sophistication by adding tracking devices, computer controls, and photography accessories.

Still, looking up at the night sky is an affordable and accessible hobby. Of course the best viewing is from an area far from the lights of the city. If you can't escape to the country, you can still get decent viewing if you shade the light. Put your scope in a tree's shadow, for example, to block out the mercury vapor street lamps.

When you observe the stars, you will be sharing an activity practiced by man from the first night he lay on his back. For ancient civilizations, the starry sky was the tableau for its bedtime stories, legends, and lore. Early astronomers learned to predict the seasons and track the passing of time. It still sparks the imagination of every person who takes the time to look up.

With McMahon's help, that appreciation of the skies can start outside your back door.

XXX


Backyard Astronomy begins Thursday evening, Feb 26. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

When camels ruled

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal Feb 18, 2009


Longtime Kerr residents are familiar with the clumpy story of the U.S. Army's experiment with using camels in the 1860s.

But newcomers are always surprised when they learn about the history of Camp Verde. The area, now home to the Camp Verde General Store and Post Office, is 10 miles south of Kerrville on Highway 173 at a site considered " the most historic crossroads in Kerr County."

Gerald Witt teaches a Club Ed class there called Camp Verde - The Camels and More.

"It really was a government project," Witt said. "They thought camels would be the best beasts of burden for carrying cargo across the southwest. So they went to Asia Minor and came back with 40 camels."

The year was 1861. It was the start of the Civil War, but the "camel experiment" had nothing to do with war. According to Witt, this was all about the Army finding a better way to ship cargo across an unsettled west.

The project was not without challenges. The Army had to bring in camel handlers from Asia. Apparently, American soldiers didn't get along with camels.

"They were more used to working with horse or cattle," he noted.

The upshot is that the camel experiment was a success. The hardy beasts of burden easily navigated the deserts and mountains, hauling goods from Texas to California. But a national distraction ended the program.

"In two words, what killed it was the Civil War," Witt said.

The camels that made the trip to California never came back. The ones left at Camp Verde were auctioned off to circuses and zoos, and a colorful chapter in the area's history closed.

In his class, Witt points out that Camp Verde was about more than camels.

Along with Fort Martin Scott in Fredericksburg, Camp Verde was part of a string of forts stretching from Fort Worth in the north to Fort Inge on the Rio Grande. For a very brief period, they served as the line of defense along America's western frontier. A restless nation quickly grew beyond it, and the forts were abandoned or converted to other uses.

Witt tells how the Comanche nation adopted the horse and moved in from Wyoming to spread across Texas. That leads to discussions of the two battles of Bandera Pass; one with the Spaniards, the second with the Rangers.

Again it is a reminder of the area's colorful and often unforgiving past. For those of us who came to Texas from states where settlers plowed sod or poled rivers, it is fascinating to walk hills and riverbanks where only a few generations back ancestors of local families clashed with Indians, led cattle drives, and built ranching empires.

So as you sit inside Camp Verde General Store, sipping your tea and gazing out over Verde Creek, Witt will help you envision a time when camels roamed those hills.

XXX

A few times each session, Gerald Witt teachers Camp Verde - Camels and More. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

Model Behavior

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal Feb 11, 2009


Doris Brooner wants to teach you to hold your head up.

"One thing I teach is that when you are walking and you are straight and your head is up, you are more aware of your surroundings," said the professional modeling instructor. "It is just amazing what you can see as opposed to walking with your head down. Plus, if you can project confidence, your audience recognizes it."

Brooner has been a model, and has taught modeling techniques to students who have appeared in fashion shows and television commercials from New York to Dallas. She believes the skills that help you walk a runway are skills that can help you become successful in any career.

Those techniques go beyond having good posture, but everything starts with how you carry yourself in public. Brooner teaches young women (and young men) how to sit, how to stand, and how to walk, pivoting gracefully on the turns. She demonstrates a proper handshake - firm but not hard, and definitely "not a fish." Maintain eye contact, and always keep your head up. Then we come to "how to make conversation."

"To be a good listener, don't do all the talking," she said. "Keep the subjects clean, and steer away from morbid topics."

This sounds like common sense, but Brooner maintains that social skills that used to be common are increasingly rare. She traces the decline in courtesy straight to your home, and to your dinner table.

"You always go back to the family," she said. "We are not eating meals at home. That's where you learn how to have a conversation, and how not to chew with your mouth open. Parents just don't have the time to teach proper etiquette any more."

Brooner also knows her way around a table setting. We have all experienced that moment of panic at a formal dinner, where we face a bewildering array of flatware, stemware, and utensils - a minefield waiting to blow up in front of someone we are trying to impress. Brooner's advice?

"It's simple. You watch your hostess, and do what she does," she said. When it does come time to choose which fork to use, Brooner's rule of thumb is to work from the outside in. And when you get up to visit the "powder room" during a meal, proper etiquette is to place your napkin on your chair seat.

I had to ask the expert how to handle a situation I always seem to encounter at a formal dinner: how does one discretely dispose of that annoying piece of gristle hidden in a bite of prime rib?

"You delicately get rid of it with your napkin," she explained. "It happens, and don't let it ruin your meal. Don't be embarrassed."

So I guess I have been doing it correctly. I just need to practice doing it while smiling, making eye contact, listening to the hostess, and keeping my head up.

XXX

Doris Brooner will teach Visual Poise through Modeling for Teens starting Wed, Feb 25 for six sessions. For more information, visit www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

"Clubstitution"

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal Feb 4, 2009


Here's some good news - not everyone is participating in this economic downturn.

I heard a report on public radio that some businesses are actually enjoying increased revenues. The example they used came from a spa in Massachusetts. The owner reported a sales increase of 10%, and no one was more surprised than she.

It turns out that spa patrons were using a strategy called "substitution." As I understood the term, it means that no matter their economic situation, people will continue to pursue pleasure and self-fulfillment. The only difference is that instead of taking the cruise of a lifetime, they are substituting more affordable diversions closer to home. This woman, for example, was unable to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, but she could afford a weekend of pampering at a local spa.

In other words, they substituted a more affordable luxury. For some of us it may mean grabbing a candy bar instead of enjoying a four-course meal. For others, it means passing up that trip to Italy, and instead signing up for an Italian cooking class.

Club Ed - with hundreds of classes and workshops - can help in this phenomenon. I hereby coin a term : "Clubstitution."

If you find - for economic or other reasons - that you won't be trekking across Asia this summer, you can always sign up for the Club Ed backpacking course. You will hike the hill country, and it will cost less than a hundred bucks. That is "Clubstitution!"

I leafed through my catalog and came up with several more "Clubstitution" ideas for you:

- Instead of experiencing the wonders of Istanbul, "Clubstitute" Beginning Belly Dance. It's a 5000-year-old art form that will help you shed inches and attract attention.

- Lost your seat on the next space shuttle? "Clubstitute" Backyard Astronomy. You can travel the universe right outside your back door.

- About that trip to Italy. We offer a new Pizza and Pasta class - taught by Anthony Coden, a professional chef from France. If you can't go to Europe, we'll bring Europe to you!

- Considering calling in a landscaper? We have many options to "Clubstitute." Make your own Garden Pavers, build your own Raised Bed Gardens, learn to install a Rainwater Collection system.

- Yearning to whitewater raft down the Colorado River? "Clubstitute" River Kayaking, right here on the gurgling Guadalupe.

- Can't even manage that weekend spa trip? Don't need it - we have several Yoga and Massage classes. One is self-massage, so you don't even need a partner!

- Can't travel at all? "Clubstitute" Travel Photography, and live vicariously through others' work.

You get the idea.

And if you still insist on traveling, Club Ed can help anyway. Sign up for Gina Henry-Cook's "Free Vacations" workshop. She'll show you how to go ahead and take that cruise, and get paid for doing it!

That would have to be the ultimate "Clubstitution!"

XXX

Club Ed offers hundreds of classes you can "Clubstitute!" Visit www.clubed.net to sign up, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.