We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape. We use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods.

The Odyssey Project is a college-level course in philosophy, literature, art history, and history for men and women living below 150% of the poverty level.

Its anchor program is the first-year course, which is offered in partnership with Bard College and for which students may receive six units of college credit.

Faculty members are largely from first-rate universities such as University of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute, and DePaul University.

Tuition is free, and the Illinois Humanities Council provides free childcare, free books, and transportation. The six units of credit are fully transferable to other colleges and universities.

This course meets on Mondays and Thursdays.
Admission is by application only. Refer to syllabus for changes in course schedule.

For all the value it brings to our lives, technology is amazing in its ability to distract us. We just can't give complete attention to anything or anyone-work, driving, conversations, friends and family-when that email arrives with a "ding" in our computer mailbox or pops up on our ubiquitous Blackberry.

But emails aren't our only distraction. Our attention has been eroded to an alarming degree by the fact that we live in a hypermobile, hyperconnected society, says Maggie Jackson author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. She writes: "We can tap into 50 million Web sites. 1.8 million books in print, 75 million blogs, and other snowstorms of information, but we increasingly seek knowledge in Google searches and Yahoo! Headlines that we gulp on the run while juggling other tasks."