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.

Coaching the game of life

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


We all have had coaches help us along - soccer coaches, baseball coaches, coaches as gym teachers, even birthing coaches.

Wouldn't it be great to find someone to coach us through life?

Meet your Life Coach.

"A life coach is a highly-trained professional who helps you gain greater satisfaction and well-being in your life and work," said Leia Francisca, life and executive coach accredited by the International Coach Federation.

Life coaching is as far from the stereotypical sports coach as a life goal is from a field goal. Life coaches do not stand on the sidelines and tell you what to do.

"Coaching is a guided journey to your own answers," Francisca explained. "We are not advice givers. Coaches believe you - the client - have the answers. Our real power is helping you clarify the issues, understand the possibilities, then help you take action."

The most common reason people approach her is that they are "seeking change."

"Every individual wants to change something in their workplace or life, but most are not sure what that is," said Francisca. "The majority say something isn't working in life - not that I'm sick and need therapy - I'm just simply lost and not clear on what to do next."

The real power of a coach is helping them clarify their situation, consider the possibilities, then take action. An effective coach helps people truly understand what they need to change.

Francisca calls it "coaching to the gap."

"My job is to see the disconnects, and work with people in transition. I help them understand what it is like to let go of the old and embrace the new."

Francisca went through a similar process along her journey to becoming a coach. She was successfully teaching at a college, but felt she wanted to do more with her life. She taught because she loved to communicate with people, and wanted to help people find out who they were, to discover that sense of purpose and strength inside themselves. She had an opportunity to try coaching, and now pursues it as her own career.

Today, through Club Ed, she wants to help others become coaches.

"There are not enough of us to go around," explained the instructor, who holds a Master of Arts in Bus Administration. "There are so many specialties to coach that there is room for everyone. And today, 90% of our work is by phone."

Francisco offers both life coaching and "how to become a life coach" sessions at Club Ed. The meetings are set up on an individual basis.

"People wonder where do I start, where do I go," she said, explaining her "how to coach" sessions. "Before they spend money, I want them to test drive this, to understand what is ahead of you."

Francisco emphasizes that coaching - life coaching - applies to anyone of any age.

"It is well documented that being coached enhances training and develops performance. Personally, people are more focused and more likely to carry out plans to reach goals. This also creates such a sense of self-discovery and centeredness. It's not just feeding you fish; it teaches you how to fish. You are never too old to develop your life purpose and goals."

XXX

To set up your one-to-one coaching session, 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.

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.

String Fever

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal Jan 28, 2009

When it comes to playing music, Karen Shirer's favorite stage might be a soapbox.

"The music industry has taken music away from us," she proclaimed. "They make it sound wonderful on a recording, then sell it back to us. As a result, we feel that any music we try to play won't sound like the recording, so our music is inferior."

Shirer wants the masses to take back the music, and she is working on her mission by teaching beginning guitar for the first time in Club Ed.

Shirer herself is an accomplished musician, playing piano and guitar. This fall she picked up the violin for the first time, and has already performed a concert with the Take-A-Bow orchestra of adult beginners. She believes that music is meant to be played by everyone, together and with joy.

"There is so much enjoyment we can find, even as adults, struggling in playing together," she said. "We can enjoy the process as well as create a decent end product. Music does not have to be perfect in order to be enjoyed. It is okay to laugh!"

Shirer teaches from what she calls a "folk" standpoint. That, she explained, means learning music not just in terms of reading notes, but by experiencing it. That means performing in a group.

"You must also learn to read other musicians you are playing with," she said. "Playing is a time to enjoy one another. There is so much about music that connects people."

Shirer starts beginners off learning basic chords, showing the structure and patterns common to many songs. She teaches people to learn to play by ear, so they can hear the chord changes and feel the music. She throws in music theory, but she calls it "pretty painless theory."

"I teach practical theory," she explained, "like how to use chord changes in your music by listening as well as by reading."

The thought of playing in front of others terrifies some beginners, especially adults. But Shirer feels it is important for players to step out of their comfort zones.

"Music is about sharing emotion, but it does not have to be scary," she said. "You are sharing delight as well. We know there is a bit of nervousness, but we don't want people to feel scared. We try to foster a supportive and encouraging environment."

That is why she came up with Acoustic Easy Jammin' to follow her beginning class. Musicians of all levels can perform together, taking turns leading the group. It evokes a kind of "playing around the campfire" experience.

"I love the campfire sing-along, playing songs people already know from when they were young. In the jam, the focus is not on learning new songs, but rather on learning how to play them and enjoying the sounds of the different instruments."

So turn off the radio and take off the headphones, and head to Club Ed to learn to play real music.

"Learning something new does the brain an amazing amount of good," Shirer said. "It keeps you young, and nurtures the joy that music just brings to your soul."

XXX

Club Ed is offering classes in guitar, piano, singing, and dulcimer in the spring session, now underway. Karen Shirer's guitar classes begin Feb 19. 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.

Writing a Romance

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal
Jan 7, 2009

Did you ever yearn to write your own romance novel? Students in a recent Club Ed class learned what it really takes to top the bestseller list from successful novelist Mara Fox.

The Harlequin Romance writer lives in Fredericksburg, and spent a few sessions unveiling the secrets behind her first novel I Shocked The Sheriff.

Unlike the faces of many romance heroines, Fox's basic message was unvarnished and stark.

"If you are writing for yourself, self publishing is fairly easy and inexpensive, and you can have a stack of beautiful books for family and friends," Fox said. "But if you want your book in bookshops, you have to do what the publisher wants."

In other words, you have to compromise the "book of your heart" so it "their book."

Fox has had students disagree strongly with that advice, but she points out that her message has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. It is all about creating a saleable product, and to achieve that you must follow certain guidelines.

"The publishers have to be as happy with your product as you are," she said.

At the same time, Fox counsels that authors stand up for their beliefs when dealing with the book market. In her first novel, her heroine was a recovering alcoholic. The editor questioned having that character trait in the main character, but Fox convinced her that the entire book was based on it. There were other details she ended up changing, but she held firm on what became the key to the novel.

Over the years at Club Ed we have noticed a passionate interest in writing among students. Fox believes that is because writing is "closer to thought" than music or art.

"Writing is so personal," she said. "Everything I write involve issues I am dealing with. I think writers are the most vulnerable people in the world, because they want people to know them but don't know how to let people know them."

As a result, she believes the most successful authors are those unafraid to reveal the truth about themselves.

"A great author's book is so gripping because she puts so much of herself in it," she said. "That what makes it fabulous, but it also makes it so risky for the writer."

I have heard the quote that writing is easy - you just sit down and open a vein. Fox would agree.

"Writing," said Fox, "is one of most personal things we do as human beings."


XXX

Club Ed is offering a series of courses on How to Write, Market, and Publish your book in Boerne and Fredericksburg in April. Our Spring 2009 catalog is now online! Visit www.clubed.net to sign up, or call 830-895-4386. Catalogs will be mailed by January 1.

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 girl wants to dance

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal
Dec 17, 2008

"Phil, I want to learn how to dance."

A lovely lady named "Carolyn" started our phone conversation with that simple statement. She had called the right place. I had heard the same lament from quite a few of our hill country neighbors before.

That is because Club Ed has helped literally hundreds of couples learn to two-step, rumba and waltz across Texas. In fact dance classes are the most attended and first-filled in every community education program in the world.

"So you want to learn how to dance," I replied. "May I ask why?" I am always curious what motivates folks to finally step up and take a class.

Carolyn, who is now a grandmother, had several answers. She wanted to surprise her family. It was good exercise. But her most compelling reason was this: "It is just something I want to do."

I found it interesting that Carolyn had never learned to dance growing up in west Texas, home of Ernest Tubb, Buddy Holly, and Waylon Jennings. She explained how a strict upbringing precluded access to some of the baser pleasures of life on the plains.

"I never smoked; I never drank," she said. "And I know it is kind of late in life to learn to dance, but I am going to."

One advantage Carolyn carries in her tool box is her love for music, especially old country music. She mentioned Eddie Arnold and Marty Robbins. Perfect for the country two-step.

Carolyn has one handicap though: "I am kind of bashful about getting up in front of people," she said. "So anything I do, I want to do it right."

This spring she can choose from a smorgasbord of dance styles. Club Ed is offering rumba, tango, ballroom, waltz, cha cha, and belly dance. For someone with Carolyn's love for country music, she might start with country and western.

Whichever dance she chooses, here's hoping she gets off on the right foot. With luck, she will never have to relive a wistful memory that she shared before hanging up.

She remembered a night when a handsome gentleman asked her to dance. Carolyn panicked, because she didn't know the steps. She had to walk away, although she did so regretfully.

"I didn't waltz, because I didn't know how," she recalled. "I suppose he would have made me look good if I just hung on and picked up my feet. But I want to try this the right way, so I'm just going to do it!"

I know we'll see her in class.

XXX

Our Spring 2009 catalog is now online! Visit www.clubed.net to sign up, or call 830-895-4386. Catalogs will be mailed by January 1.

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

Tool Time for Tomboys

As published in the Kerrville (TX) Community Journal, by Phil Houseal, Sept 17, 2008


Before this year, Bonnie Tom was anything but handy around the house.

"I couldn't do anything as far as home repair," Tom insisted. "Honestly, I couldn't."

So the Boerne resident signed up to take a women's home repair course. That is all it took to send her on a mission to help other women hone their own home repair skills.

Club Ed is offering half a dozen of Tom's Ms Fix It courses this fall. Designed specifically for women, the courses cover basic home repair from plumbing and electrical to tiling and paint preparation.

One key aspect of approaching home repair from a woman's perspective is the tools themselves. Tom uses Tomboy Tools. How are they different?

Ever since a cave dweller picked up a rock to crack a nut, tools have been designed by men, for men. Tomboy Tools are tools designed by women, for women.

According to Tom, the tools are smaller and lighter, with comfortable non-slip grips and an ergonomic design to better fit a woman's hands.

They are also designed for projects that a woman is more apt to undertake. For example, they have a nifty measuring tool that makes hanging pictures easy. The jig includes a sliding ruler, built-in level, and adjustable points to score the drywall so you know exactly where to drive in the nails. The caulk gun even has a swiveling nozzle to make it easier to apply caulk in tight corners. Brilliant.

OK, they are pink, too. But that is just to promote the fact that a portion of the proceeds support Susan G. Koman cancer research. The original line is still blue.

But the Ms Fix It courses are more about creating a supportive environment where women are not afraid to ask questions.

"It is amazing how some women who never picked up a screwdriver are responding to these classes," she said. "We provide a non-intimidating environment in which to learn and ask questions."

But are women really so eager to move into home repair, the traditional domain of manly men?

"More and more women want to do this, because women are realizing they can be self-reliant, can usually fix something faster, and avoid the higher cost of getting someone to come to your home," Tom said. "Our mission is to empower women to have confidence to fix their own homes."

XXX

The series of Ms Fix It classes begin in September, and include Plumbing, Tiling, Electrical, Paint Prep, Energy Efficiency, and Drywall. To learn more about these and hundreds of other lifelong learning classes, call 830-895-4386, or visit www.clubed.net.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

Read article about the class in the Boerne (Tx) Star (Oct 2008)