Scarsdale Adult School Catalog Fall/Winter 2024-25
Swimming Lessons: Swimming and Aquatics in Popular Culture, Literature, and Life View modern culture through the lens of the popular pastime: swimming. Through literature, film, visual art, and social history, explore how swimming pools have become provocative symbols of glamour as well as contested arenas for recreation. Investigate how
swimming and aquatic activities reflect pressing social issues including gender discrimination, racism, economic inequality, suburban conformity, sexuality, and community belonging. Discuss literary works that recount the joys and challenges of both recreational and competitive swimming and reflect broadly on how participation in exercise and leisure activities can profoundly shape our lives, our well-being, and personal identities. Materials to be read or viewed before each class include the website Pool: A Social History of
Segregation (poolphl.com), the online magazine Pool (poolphl.com/pdfs/Pool_Magazine.pdf), paintings by visual artists, John Cheever's short story “The Swimmer” (1964), and the memoir: Swimming Studies (2012) by Leanne Shapton. In addition, students are to view the following films, available on Amazon Prime and other streaming services: Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), The Swimmer (1968), and SwimTeam (2016). For an optimal experience, pair this course with “Author Visit: Vicki Valosik, Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water (2024)” ( Course 12816 ). LORI ROTSKOFF is a cultural historian, writer, educator, and public speaker specializing in memoirs and narrative nonfiction, childhood and youth, women’s and gender studies, and arts and culture. She studied history and literature at Northwestern University and earned a PhD in American Studies at Yale. 3 Sessions, starting Wednesday, September 11 (class meets on 9/11, 10/9, and 10/30) • 2:30pm-4:00pm • Zoom • Course 12843 • $120 3 Sessions, starting Thursday, September 12 (class meets on 9/12, 10/10, and 10/31) • 11:00am-12:30pm • Westchester Reform Temple • Course 12713 • $120
Book Discussion: Long Island Compromise (2024) by Taffy Brodesser-Akner The second novel from the bestselling author of Fleishman Is in
Trouble fictionalizes the incredible true story of Jack Teich, whose memoir was also recently published. In 1980, the fictional Carl Fletcher, a wealthy suburban Jewish businessman, is ambushed in his own driveway, kidnapped, ransomed, and returned to his family less than a week later, resuming what appears to be the American dream. Told from the third-person perspectives decades later of his Fletcher's three children, the story uncovers in satirical fashion the latent generational trauma resulting from their father’s repression of this incident, and the affluence that made him a target, then saved his life, and now has dwindled down to just about nothing. LORI ROTSKOFF (see bio for “Swimming Lessons: Swimming and Aquatics in Popular Culture, Literature, and Life”). Thursday, December 5 • 11:00am-12:30pm • Westchester Reform Temple • Course 12810 • $35 Thursday, December 5 • 3:00pm-4:30pm • Zoom • Course 12811 • $35
www.ScarsdaleAdultSchool.org • (914) 723-2325
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