PLATO Weekly Update

November 30, 2021

CURRICULUM

GIVING THANKS
We'd like to thank all the course coordinators who retired in 2020 and 2021 for contributing their time and energy to fellow PLATO members. You have truly helped make PLATO a space where the love of learning never gets old!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
The Course Schedule Calendar is now posted on PLATO's Home Page to make it easy to locate registration and start dates for Winter and Spring Courses.  

REMINDER
These COVID-19 Protocols continue to be in place for in-person participants:

· Wear masks inside of Host Location buildings.

· Follow social distancing guidelines.

· Follow any additional guidelines required at Host Locations - visit the Courses Page or check with your course coordinator.

SPECIAL EVENTS

GOOD NEWS! In the coming weeks we will announce dates for the resumption of social gathering breakfasts and an in-person theater trip. PLATO's Executive Committee and COVID-19 Advisory Task Group have allowed us to begin planning for early 2022. Each event will require participants to follow COVID-19 protocols including masking and providing proof of vaccination or a negative test within 72 hours of the event.

FALL WORKSHOP 

Tending Our Grief: A Self-Care Workshop: This week Thursday, December 2nd from 1:30–3pm we will learn about various types of grief and healthy ways to potentially work with it. Hosted by grief support specialists Stephanie Steigerwaldt and Julie Swanson, this session will include a presentation, self-reflection time, and small group sharing so that participants can learn, reflect and connect. Registration is required.

FALL LECTURE

Wisconsin Cocktails: Join us next week on Friday, December 10th at 2:30pm for a festive, one-hour virtual lecture by author Jeanette Hurt. We'll learn the histories behind some of our state's most iconic drinks and discover why Wisconsin has a love affair with Brandy Old Fashioneds, Tom and Jerrys, boozy ice cream and more. Registration is required.

Members are also welcome to access Past Recordings. 

SELF-GUIDED WALKS

Walking Tours of Dane County: Find descriptions of 11 of the most popular self-guided walks designed to help you easily locate parking and guide you along the trail.

THEATER 

Partake in a variety of virtual options found on PLATO’s Virtual Theater Trips page where new items are added frequently.

FEATURED AGORA WORKS

Visit The Agora Features webpage for highlights from this past season, created and curated by fellow PLATO members for your enjoyment.

Our Biweekly Offering for November 23 - December 6 is Woodpecker, a poem by Jane Hall, which offers a glimpse of how nature shapes this poet's work. 

SOCIAL GATHERINGS

NEW! PLATO Breakfasts to resume in early 2022 – see Special Events section above for more details.

SOCIAL JUSTICE EVENTS & READINGS

Select from a range of topics and formats 

for your Autumn reading, viewing, or listening, 

curated by PLATO's Diversity Awareness Committee.

DID YOU KNOW? November 30 - December 13, 2021

Did You Know… An  enslaved African man, Onesimus taught Cotton Mather how to inoculate against smallpox. The concept of immunization came to the American colonies via Africa. In the early 1700s, Puritan minister Cotton Mather learned from Onesimus, a man he enslaved, about a method long used in West Africa, where a weakened form of the disease would be intentionally applied to a cut.

Visit the Social Justice Webpage for more about 
Onesimus & past DID YOU KNOW? features.

DID YOU KNOW? – spotlighting notable contributions made by non-mainstream individuals you might not have learned or read about. Suggestions for inclusions are welcome (send to Kathy at: ksmichaelis@gmail.com).