People Want to Learn

Seems obvious, doesn’t it, that people want to learn, particularly adults who remember history from school as being terribly dull and filled with useless names and dates? But people are enjoying FRONTIER FEMINISTS, my lecture on Colonial-era women, because I’m telling stories about real women – slaves, French-Americans and Iroquois – and the fascinating lives they lived in the mid 1700s.

If you’ve got an interesting story to tell, people will listen, and eagerly. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get people to show up. It’s not. Fewer people have attended my just-completed fall series of lectures than ever before. Why? Perhaps they’re busy. Or they’re distracted.

Or they’re just numb with information overload. News and controversy. Politics and petulance. Aren’t we all numb, either slightly or completely?

But those people who do show up at my lectures are enjoying themselves. FRONTIER FEMINISTS is a bit of a stretch because it’s an hour long, unlike previous lectures that were over and done in 35 minutes. (I time these things. I’m a serious presenter.) But I’m still holding people’s interest over an hour’s time. I watch people’s faces. They are really listening, and enjoying what they hear. And they come up with lots of interesting questions.

Women’s history in this country is largely unknown. So I’m planning to continue presenting FRONTIER FEMINISTS. I hope you have the chance to hear me someday. Your presence means a lot to me.