Well, I just finished the course Great Masters: Mozart — His Life and Music from the Great Courses series created by The Teaching Company. TTC puts the top college courses on audio CD and DVD allowing active minds to continue to grow from these courses by some of the top scholars at the best universities in the world. Robert Greenberg, who holds degrees from Princeton University and the University of California at Berkeley, where he received a Ph.D. in music composition in 1984, is the professor in this great course.

Mozart is my favorite composer so I thoroughly enjoyed this historical look at his life. Sure, it is impressive that at age 5 he was touring Europe and sure it is impressive that he wrote his first full symphony at age 8, but armed with the rest of his history, Mozart become even more amazing.

Think it is silly to (attend) class when you don't have to any more? I think it is downright silly to stop learning just because you graduated from high school or even college. Consider how much you could learn from these enlightening courses if you listened to or viewed just one 30- or 45-minute lectures each weekday:

• In twelve months, you could finish a superbly rounded selection of thoughtful liberal arts courses, including The Great Ideas of Philosophy (50 lectures), Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition (80 lectures), Great World Religions (50 lectures), and The History of the United States (70 lectures).

• In six months, you could learn to get the most out of your music listening by taking in not only the 48 lectures of How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, but also our popular 32-lecture courses on The Symphonies of Beethoven, Bach and the High Baroque, Concert Masterworks, and How to Listen to and Understand Opera.

• In just a few weeks, you could complete any one of the illuminating, mind-broadening courses, even the largest and most comprehensive. This list includes Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition (84 lectures) and Classics of American Literature (84 lectures), to name just two.

• And if you’ve always wanted to know more about science, you’d benefit tremendously from Einstein’s Relativity and the Quantum Revolution (24 lectures), Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy (40 lectures), and The Joy of Science (60 lectures).

• In just a short time, a wealth of knowledge and insight would become yours as you join our world-class professors in exploring great music, great books, and great ideas. You can make the learning lifestyle part of the fabric of your own life and all in less than an hour per day.

• What would you have to give up for all this? A daily drive to work filled with radio blah-blah? Half an hour of junk TV? It’s a "no-brainer"—especially when you could be spending this "dead time" with the greatest minds of all time. And don’t forget—you’d still have your weekends free.

I firmly believe in the power of what I call Auto U. (Automobile University.) I have taken (listened to) the following courses in the last year from The Teaching Company. (Most of these I checked out from my local library.)

The American Civil War
Ethics of Aristotle
Famous Greeks
Famous Romans
Great Ideas of Psychology
Great Masters: Mozart — His Life and Music
Great Presidents
History of Hitler's Empire, 2nd Edition
Life and Work of Mark Twain
Thomas Jefferson: American Visionary


That is quite a little education on the side. Right now I am listening to, Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy

- posted by Chris @ 11:25 PM