DC GATHERING & ON TO PHILLY

GTE TOUR & HINDSTRUM FEST  July  16, 2013

Sunday evening we had a great time at the lovely apartment of Miranda Beebe (that's her in the middle)  What a cool DC neighborhood Adams Morgan is!  There were so many people on the street and so many cool restaurants. 

We had about 26 people come and enjoy the delicious spread Miranda laid out for us.  Here are those who attended:

Tina Krysinski

Mike Tilchin

Alex Dickinson

Miranda Beebe

Rob Goor and Linda Tebelman (Parents of Hannah Goor )

Craig Hicks

Josh Mandelbaum & wife Insun

Jacyln Shettler, husband  Aaron Marx  and kid Sophia

Pete Vanden Bosch (alumni  Upper School physics teacher) and wife Marilyn

Kristin Clark Taylor

Terry Rudman ( alumni teacher- Lower School Computer )

Christine Curry

Torrin Cummings

Miriam Weisfeld

Leah, Erik and Carter Herron

Mary Margaret Bailer-Hill

Linda & Emery

After a lot of informal socializing, catching up, getting acquainted and networking, we turned formal for a dynamite discussion on what kind of people our society needs and what Roeper can do to help those people develop. We finished up talking about the opportunities and challenges new technologies pose for education.

Here is a quick-and-dirty summary (I apologize in advance for any omissions or misrepresentations as I was taking notes like mad and trying to keep up with Roeper people talking is no easy task.

Before we got going, Miranda reminded us that Roeper’s 75^th anniversary is coming in 2016 and all alums need to think about how they can support the school by taking part in the activities coming.

Back to the discussion questions:

Craig Hicks, ‘82, started off by opining that what society needs are more skeptical and questioning people.  Not cynical but definitively not people who accept things at face value. People who go beyond their comfort level to talk with and listen to others who have different perspectives.  He also believed that an underlying assumption he learned at Roeper was the need for social justice and the duty of everyone to be responsible for what is and can be done.

Torrin Cummings, ’86, said he thought that Roeper believed in as few walls as possible.  The importance of imagination and the questioning of authority were paramount and that helped people go beyond the mere acceptance and comatose existence of most schools.  He thought the keys were the mutual respect developed from letting people define themselves and building a more Roeperian milieu one step at a time and not getting bogged down with defeatism because we weren’t living up to our high ideals.

Lea Herron (Bistak), ’86 & husband Erik (photo is below) who both work with students on the university level  agreed that what they see missing is critical thinking.  This lack results in an abundance of  lazy acceptance.                                                                                                                                                     Students need to be able to do better quantitative analysis after being able to pose better questions.  Right now they see too much reliance on and belief in “wiki” research instead of relying on primary sources and close analysis.

Craig (middle in photo on right) notes a most distressing trend in our society.  Civil discourse and a respectful exchange of ideas are vanishing quickly as people seem fearful of ideas.  This climate of fear is preventing us from learning from others and being true 3^rd level critical thinkers (those who can analyze not only the thinking of others but their own thinking).

Terri Rudman, alumni teacher and parent, (below on the left with Pete Vanden Bosch and wife Marilyn Howe) spoke about how dysfunctional society has become with civil discourse breaking down.  We need to learn how to listen to others and grow from our exchanges with others.  We need safe discourse.  We need communities to have discussions and then take action.  We need to transcend our differences. 

Alex Dickinson, ’04 (photo below on the left with  Jaclyn Shettler-Marx and Tina Krysinski) stated that she believed that at Roeper she learned in an atmosphere of trust and safety so she could develop the habits of questioning and self-reflection that were well-ingrained by the time she left us.  She also thought that learning at Roeper was more holistic in that students were encouraged to make connections and see beyond the superficial.  And beneath it all was an assumption that everyone should be seeking social justice.

Miranda Beebe spoke about leadership being key in so many ways.   We need leaders to challenge everybody to think critically, to focus on what is important, to encourage collaboration, to engage in activities that help folks feel empowered and confident enough to take charge of their lives and to work for social justice.

Christine Curry gave the example of how she and other students felt the need for an African-American Lit. class. After getting encouragement and support from staff they launched the class.  This experience led them to take on more such as founding a Gospel Choir.

Lea thought Roeper should bring in alumni to talk about the real world and to both empower them and knock down the walls between school and “out there.”

Craig objected to the phrase “real world” as it implies that Roeper is artificial.  He told how he spent the last two years of high school in a large suburban Atlanta school and it was a hard transition as the place wasn’t very Roeperian.  But he was sustained in a belief in trust and mutual respect and eventually he helped carve out a small community inside that high school that was more humanistic.  He also felt empowered,  with his parent’s support, to “drop out” of high school before graduating and move onto college early where he was able to find a more challenging and accepting learning environment.

Alex Dickinson talked about how the many extracurricular activities outside of the classroom not only sustained her but gave her confidence while building a strong sense of community.

Lea told us about studies that show that college students who are more involved in extracurriculars are more likely to do well academically and socially.  Although there will always people who don’t manage to fit in, the more opportunities the more likely they can find something.  She also mentioned that social media and technology have helped many find long-range communities.

Miranda said the values of Roeper were modeled for her and other students by teachers she respected and revered.

Torrin remembered that there was a cohesion or congruence of values.  People didn’t espouse high ideals and then do something else.  And although people disagree strongly about a lot of things, they agreed on certain key values such as respect which made dialogue and learning from others possible.

I asked the group why people at Roeper didn’t believe life was a zero-sum game; we don’t believe that a person doing well hurts others. 

Tina Krysinski, ’09, spoke about how her class had a large group of strong female students who certainly competed with each other but also supported each other and reveled in each other’s success.  She didn’t see anything wrong in healthy competition. I noted that somehow we honor achievement without ranking folks or pitting them against each other.

I moved the group onto what they thought could be the ways technology could help empower students.

Our group agreed  that it is very important for both Roeper philosophical reasons and to insure that our efforts are most effective that the students be involved in any educational technology planning.

Lea stated that we are living in a post information age and our job is to prepare students for being able to “drink from the fire hose” of too much info.  She also said that the colleges are establishing learning communities via chat mail.  Her husband Erik (political scientist currently on a NSF grant but normally prof at University of Kansas) said that the use of Skype , video chatting and other tools can enable students to learn directly from experts and resources from around the world.  To be a part of a global society, it is easy to be connected to people everywhere.  Tech can help students use primary sources and work on real-life problems.

Craig talked about how students must be able to evaluate great streams of information.  They will have to use technology in the work place so they need to feel comfortable using it and new tools can enhance the learning experience.  He suggested doing an analysis of what we are doing presently and then asking ourselves how technology can help.

Torrin said that Roeperians seem to always be seeking more information.  Technology can help one get more info but we have to be able to evaluate what is valid info and what we can believe.  How far do you investigate the validity of the info you get?   A valuable lesson that Roeper taught him was that he was always in charge of what he believed and what he did. 

As we closed (after almost 2 hours of discussion), Miranda reminded us of the upcoming 75^th anniversary and how we all should think about how we can contribute and participate.  She also mentioned that various people at this gathering have spoken about having a DC alumni group with periodic meetings.

We want to thank Miranda for hosting the gathering. We also want to thank Rob Goor and Linda Tebelman (pictured below with Krystin Clark Taylor) for once again giving us a place to stay and chauffeuring us around DC.  You couldn’t ask for more gracious hosts.

Hindstrum stayed out of trouble while we were in Washington as we told him that any crimes there  would be  federal and could result in his being sent to Alcatraz.  Once across the line into Maryland, he made us stop the car where he expressed his feelings towards federal law enforcement.

We left on Monday morning for Chadds Ford, PA (just outside Philly) as we were staying at the home of Pandora Young and Justin Beatty.  Pandora has her dream job as a gardener at the amazing Longwood Gardens, one of the premier gardens in the world.  She is in charge of Pierce Woods, a beautiful forest of paths and fountains among mostly native species plantings.  On Tuesday morning we had a special tour of the grounds from Pandora.  To get an idea of Longwood, please go to http://longwoodgardens.org/  and take a look.

That afternoon, we journeyed into Philly to find a bubble tea shop in Chinatown where we are now working on this blog entry.  

Tonight we have our Philly area gathering at Vietnam Restaurant in Chinatown.  Hopefully, we will have a blog entry on it by tomorrow.

Please remember it isn't too late to join us at:

NYC:  Eric Peterson, Linda Pence and I would love to see you on Thursday, July 18  from 6:00-8:00 PM at the Arsenal in Central Park, 830 5th Ave (at 64th Street).

BOSTON: On Sunday, July 21 from 4:00-7:00 we will be at the home of Michelle Efros Fox, '95, 18 Frances St., Needham, MA  

WEST CENTRAL MASS.  Tom and Laura Roeper will host all available Roeperians at their home on Wednesday, July 24, 6:00-8:00 PM.  149 High St., Amherst, MA
For those in Mass., please feel free to come to both gatherings.  Actually, any Roeperian who comes to multiple GTE events will be lauded, honored and mentioned.

If you need to get a hold of us the day of an event or while we are on the road between July 6-July 25,  please call Linda at 248-318-0386 or me at 248-943-3256. Email at emery.pence@roeper.org also works.