This past weekend, my wife and I attended One Day University, a day at a local college with sessions taught by a variety popular professors from top universities.  These one day events are offered throughout the year at several locations with a different “curriculum” taught at each one.  As they say, there are no tests, no final exams and no diplomas.  What they offer, though, is a terrifically stimulating day of learning new stuff or, at least, new perspectives on stuff.

I love learning.  Nothing else gives me the rush I get from absorbing new facts and ideas.  Especially ones that I don’t think I would have picked up during my routine, everyday life.  Of course, the set of things I don’t know is, apparently, limitless so wrapping my head around today’s lunch menu is even somewhat invigorating.  As such, One Day University is a blast for me.  Cool information supplied in reasonably small and focused chunks and communicated by great teachers.

Interestingly, the qualifications for those that present at ODU are not the number of Nobel or Pulitzer prizes they’ve received but, rather, the number of teaching awards they’ve been awarded by their students at their respective universities. 

Here are the four sessions from our day at ODU:

• Political Science: The 2008 Presidential Election - Why It’s the Most Important Election in Decades - Wendy Schiller, Brown University
• Positive Psychology: The Science of Human Potential - Shawn Achor, Harvard University
• Communications: IS THE First Amendment Under Attack?  9/11 and Freedom of the Press - David Rubin, Syracuse University
• History: Where Do We Come From? From Creation Myths to the Big Bang - Marcelo Gleiser, Dartmouth College

All of them were great.  Good speakers and good information.  My wife and I have already signed up for three more sessions.  Highly recommended.

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