Discussion Group Spotlight: Cherry Hills Village, Colorado

In the mid 1970s, several of us mothers of elementary-age children were introduced to the Great Books Foundation when we enrolled in the Junior Great Books leadership training classes in Denver. Our inspiration led to volunteering as “teachers” of Junior Great Books classes at our Cherry Hills Elementary School: extra-curricular hours for interested students! We are all college educated (in a variety of subjects) but most of us not former teachers.

These experiences led to our desire to explore the adult Great Books program, which was the beginning of our present GB discussion group.  It became so inspiring and rewarding that we have survived all these years—since 1977—with the same nucleus of women. Along the way we lost a few members and added a few new, but our guidelines remain the same:

• Membership in our group requires previous Great Books leadership training.
• We always read and discuss the materials purchased from the Great Books Foundation and none others.
• We rotate the position of leader and the location of meetings; thus each member takes her turn as leader and hostess once a year, primarily in our homes.
• We use the GBF questions plus some of our own, and always try to stay on topic while following the desired Socratic method.
• We are currently continuing the Great Conversations series.

We consider our group to be unique and successful due to our intellectual curiosity and our commitment to the Great Books concept, in addition to our friendship and mutual respect.