Diploma in Pleasant Living^™

Chicken Necking 101

3 credits

A keystone offering mandatory for all students in their first semester, this course uses an exploration of the practice of catching crabs with a chicken's neck to introduce Eastern Shore people, values, and traditions.

Seaside Critters and Plants

3 credits

Learn how to tell an osprey from a pigeon, a flounder from a goldfish, a spider crab from a hermit crab, and a bayberry from a begonia. This course is a survey of the plants and animals in and around the coastal bays and seashore. Students who succeed will actually be able to name many of the things they see in a natural coastal landscape.

Inland Critters and Plants

3 credits

Know which woodpecker is which, a walnut from a sweetgum, and what inhabits a cypress swamp. This course is all about creatures and plants you'll find away from the seashore, including the freshwater ecosystem of the Pocomoke, and includes coursework on loblolly farming.

Decent Things Shore People Built

3 credits

A primer on the built environment of the lower Eastern Shore, from farmhouses to firehouses, including a basic architectural history of the Town of Berlin. Why do local towns and buildings look the way they do? Why is the great “new” idea from up north that you want to copy a bad one? What are the different kinds and styles of buildings in Worcester County and why are they valuable? How old are they and how do they reflect who we are? We're not calling it historic preservation, we're calling it an invitation to appreciate the context where you have chosen to live.

Farming and the Rural Landscape

3 credits

In this course students learn about Shore farming — what crops farmers grow and how they and the poultry industry have shaped lives and the economy. Students learn to recognize natural and man-made agricultural features as well as structures and equipment related to farming, and their functions.

It's a Southern Thing

3 credits

Learn how the Lower Eastern Shore was, historically, part of the South and why, in some ways, that identity still hangs on. This course offers a clear eyed and respectful introduction to the pride and the prejudices of that legacy, and how it continues, in different ways, to shape the area today.

Shore Cooking

3 credits

Know a fritter from a frittata. Learn things like how to make a proper crabcake (hint: use crab), how to make “sweat pone”, and the proper ingredients of a chowder. Make your own dumplings and fry some chicken. Learn the difference between real farm stands and fake ones. Not only will you learn about Shore cooking, but food you make will be the only thing available in the cafeteria.

Ocean City: A Blessing and a Curse

3 credits

This course teaches students that Berlin is not Ocean City and equips them to understand the mixed blessings of our Town's location only a few miles from one of the East Coast's tackiest beach resorts. Learn how Ocean City has fueled economic growth, but not necessarily evenly, and how it and surrounding development have created severe environmental and cultural degradation in northern Worcester County.

Commercial Fishing

3 credits

Learn about the past and present of commercial fishing in Worcester County. What does the inlet have to do with it? Boats and rigs. The seasons. The storms. How was it different 50 years ago? What challenges does the commercial fishing industry face?

Waterfowl

3 credits

Upon completion students will be able to distinguish the species of duck and geese that frequent the Shore on the ground, in the water, and in the air. With their own eyes (i.e. no smartphones allowed). They'll know the difference between puddle ducks and diving ducks, local and migratory populations, and why different species choose one location over another.

Fish and Shellfish

Building on “Seaside Critters and Plants” (required prerequisite), take a deep dive into Worcester County fish and shellfish in this course. We cover offshore billfish, but they aren't the emphasis in this course, which focuses on every man's sort of seafood. In this course you'll learn about flounder, clams and where to find them, and why people's habits about oysters are changing.

The Legacy of Slavery and Segregation

Required prerequisite “It's a Southern Thing”. This course takes a direct and no nonsense look at how the injustice of slavery and its aftermath have shaped northern Worcester County. It's blunt and it's truthful, but it's not about navel-gazing and posturing, it is a pragmatic look at where history has left us today, in terms of educational institutions, land tenure, planning and zoning, and key forces that shape Town life, especially in the context of land use changes in and around Berlin.

Little League

Berlin Little League has been, without a doubt, central to Town culture since at least the 1960s. Desegregated early, at one time, Little League (baseball, football, and later basketball) might have been one of the only ways some kids in Berlin got to know others of a different race and/or economic class. Little League has been an educational and unifying aspect of Town life for many decades, even the Donkey Baseball.

Progging

After Seaside Critters and Plants (mandatory prerequisite), maybe you think you know your way around a coastal bay? This course delves deeper. It's not about biology so much as people. The day of the full time progger — a person who derives their income and diet from what they can glean walking around and wading in the bay — is long gone, but the idea remains. Let's say the zombie apocalypse happens and you have to feed yourself. All you have is a knife and a hand net. This course will give you options.

Commercial History

From the Philadelphia Post Road to the Bay Bridge, until recently, Berlin's limited connections to the outside world marked its economy. If you've hung around in Berlin for long, you've probably heard of Harrison's Nursery, but why did people first begin to plant peaches in quantity in Worcester County? (Bottoms up!) And on the subject of vices: black market chickens. We didn't always sell Guatemalan handicrafts made in China. We once canned tomatoes and other vegetables. And what were those buildings downtown made to do? Probably not to sell “sex wax”. Find out about Town businesses before people started trying to turn Berlin into a brainless Ocean City Lite.

Housekeeping

Work with the housekeeping staff of an Ocean City motel and learn the ropes of dealing with tourists and what they leave behind. You'll ride public transit every day into Ocean City and assist motel staff change sheets, clean bathrooms, and vacuum carpets. Experience the comraderie and economic reality of cleaning rooms for the next guest.

Seaside: Dockside Labor

Put your new knowledge of local marine species to work and learn about the seafood industry as an insider. Your duties will include cleaning and maintaining boats, and gutting, cutting and packing. You will keep the boat and dock shipshape.

Bayside: Pot Pulling

Wake up early and watch your fingers as you work alongside a real Eastern Shore waterman harvesting Maryland's iconic blue crabs. Be prepared for a salty insult or two if you can't empty and rebait that pot fast enough. Learn your jimmys, sooks, and peelers on the go as you clear the table and exhale before the next one is hauled up. Sort and refrigerate the catch, cut the bait, and clean the boat.

Chicken Catcher and Poultry Processor

Get on the inside of Delmarva's poultry industry. Start out “herding” chickens into crates and onto trucks. Follow the trucks to the plant and live the process of going from bird to hot wings, nuggets, and spicy chicken sandwich. Maybe learn a little Spanish on the side.

Provisional Fire Company Cadet

Join the Berlin Fire Company as a provisional cadet. Work for senior firemen by maintaining equipment, stocking supplies, cleaning trucks, cleaning the firehouse. Learn what the different jobs are for a fireman and the necessary skills and training. Get to know the volunteers and, if you do well, maybe even be promoted to full cadet after your practicum.