Joyce Reider             

CURRICULUM VITAE        

Northwestern University   1956     majored in English and Drama

Brandeis University National  Committee- 1963 to present

Served as National Chairman of Curriculum, Programming and Continuing Education Committees.

Developed and presented adult continuing education classes in Art History, American Literature, American Politics , Middle Eastern and European History, American Theater, Jewish-American Studies, The Pop Culture of the 40s, 50s and 60s, Women’s Issues

United Nations Educational Adjunct (presented under the auspices of the Eastside International Center)   1978 - 1988  Lecturer in American Studies through Literature  (presenting the development of the essential American experience through the medium of the short story.

Paramus, New Jersey Adult Education Experiment  1980 - 1982 Adapted the techniques and content of the U. N. curriculum for use   in a program directed to retired public school teachers

Adult education speaker for Homeowners’ Associations and Country Club programs in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Miami  Beach and Williams Island.  Facilitator for 22 book clubs.

Founder and faculty member of  “Center for Cultural Enrichment “, Temple Sinai  Delray Beach  1999-2000

Joyce Reider, a Nationally known public speaker, is marking her 50^th year as a lecturer and discussion leader in the field of continuing education.  Trained at Northwestern University, her career highlight was a ten year stint as lecturer in American Studies for the United Nations community.  In her Florida “retirement”, you will find her holding classes  on subjects as diverse as political reform, medieval Hebrew poets or contemporary American literature. Read with an expert and you may never read the same way again.

Our Readers

This is a space I hope to devote to some of you individually as comments or insights unfold in our discussions.  I will always ask your permission if I use your name, but sometimes a clever quip doesn't want to be attributed or goes by too quickly to be attached to a name so check in once in a while to see if your bon mot made the cut.

Readers from various groups are still remarking that when they do not "like" a character, they stop reading.  Or, if they are not able to "identify with" someone in the story, their interest disappears.  In fact, they develop a degree of annoyance and/or aggression toward the book.

  I confess I am at a loss as to how to respond to this.  So I ask my readers, do you have to like the characters to read a book?  Over the past weeks, I have repeatedly heard a variation of the question, "what's the point?" of reading about unlovable characters or depressing circumstances. Crime and Punishment and Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness come to mind. There is more to literary fiction than enjoying the characters.    I hope that people who read with me are not doing so just to pass the time.

The Bitter and The Sweet

We're used to offering congratulations and condolences as life events are shared among us.  Some things are of a different order altogether. 

Congratulations to Cynthia Kamen who hosted a formal celebration of her 100th birthday. She provided the Boca group with a passable translation of a Goethe poem from the German at a recent meeting.  She is indomitable and inspirational and we were thrilled to see her overcome a lingering case of pneumonia to regain her usual panache.

This is the  year I will be retiring a short story group for the Brandeis National Committee.  The original members started with me in 1987.  It's been a wonderful run, with a lot of life-changing milestones.  Good luck in the future, as we say to all graduates.

I also have had to "retire" 7 groups from my long-standing roster.  The pressure of traveling and talking someplace every day has finally gotten to me.  To all those who will now strike out on their own.,,Good Luck