PHILADELPHIA & BEYOND

PHILLY GATHERING  JULY 17, 2013

We Roeperians met on Tuesday, July 17, at the Vietnam Restaurant in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.  In attendance were Paul Rabe,’72,  Angela Stitt,’05, Hannah Goor, ’08, Pandora Young,’99  with partner Justin Beatty, Linda and me.

After a delicious meal, we settled down to our serious discussion and it was lively.  In answering my question of what kind of people our society needs, Paul put forth that we need to have folks who believe there is a difference between fact and opinion.  Apparently, he has been meeting a lot of people online and in-person who simply say “That’s your opinion” when faced with a matter of fact or fiction.  Paul wasn’t talking about getting rid of nuance and shades of grey but just getting people to acknowledge that there are such things as facts.  We may argue about validity but we can’t restore to hiding behind “That’s just your opinion” when encountering a statement of fact we don’t like.

Hannah thought it most important to have people who are trained in critical thinking – that is being able to analyze the thinking of others and one’s self for flaws.

Pandora agreed and said she benefitted from classes in logic at Roeper.

Angie said she got a lot out of being forced to represent positions opposed to what she really believed.  Such exercises made her think harder and deeper about what she really believed.

Pandora added that she had the same experience when she was made to take a pro-life stance in a Roeper debate.

I asked if they encountered any kind of political orthodoxy or any other type of thought restriction.  All said “No.”   They agreed that although the political thought of most Roeperians can be described as “liberal,” people don’t impose their views on others and it is safe to hold minority or unpopular opinions.

In response to my mentioning Keith Carpenter’s idea that society needs people who  have more than just “school training” removed from practical experience, Angela agreed as did Pandora who said that more outside the classroom experiences are needed so people have concrete experiences to use in conjunction to theory.  Pandora said that Roeper always finds a way to help students find their own ways and to pursue their passions.  The group agreed that all schools, even Roeper need to do a better job of knocking down walls and connecting people to the outside world.

Hannah opined that Roeper taught her that her education was her responsibility and that she should take charge of it.

Pandora thought she enjoyed at Roeper a wide choice of unusual and off-beat classes because of the teachers being willing to teach what students wanted to learn.  She was referring to both mainline classes and independent studies.   It all worked because students trusted their teachers and teachers respected the students and never thought that a Roeper education was all about the instructors.  Her life was changed because she was allowed to take over the Roeper greenhouse in 9^th grade and that experience lead directly to her having her dream job of being a gardener at the wonderful Longmont Gardens, one of the premier gardens in the world.

Pandora added that teachers were allowed to be themselves.  They were approachable human beings who had the ability to teach their passions and to interact with students in real and meaningful ways.

Paul said that back in the 1960’s when he was at Roeper, the classes were pretty structured and teacher top-down.  But there were many, many extracurriculars  during the school day (so many kids were bused in that afterschool activities were hard to schedule).

Hannah who left Roeper in high school because her family moved, attended a more restrictive and rules-bound school in DC.   The school was “big” on external punishments and not so good on trying to internalize self-control.  She felt there were a few kids who might have needed to be controlled in those ways but many kids if worked with from their early years in a Roeper-like fashion, could have become more responsible.

Pandora talked about natural consequences at Roeper.   If you missed a class, your “punishment” was missing the class and the learning experience.  Hannah said that there were classes that she loved and did her best in while other classes left her “cold” so the super-effort wasn’t there.  She said “It depended on me.”

Paul had a different take.  He always thought of his 1960’s era Roeper education as an employer-employee situation.  The teachers and administration were the employers who gave the orders and directed the learning while his job was to be a student who learned.

Angela remembered how flexible Roeper was.  When she was in a professional production of JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNOCOLOR DREAMCOAT in Detroit, she and other Roeper students were allowed to miss school and were helped out to stay caught-up by their teachers.   I added that Charlie White could speak to very much the same thing in all the years of his skating practices and competitions.

Hannah added that she always expected deep and personal relationships with her Roeper teachers and some of those relationships are still strong for her today.

Justin, sadly not a Roeper alumn, answered my question about what kind of people our society needs by talking about workplace issues.  He is a chemist who thinks that those who do well are those who are engaged with what they do.  They take ownership and a have sense of responsibility for their work.  They have a willingness to focus. 

The group agreed the characteristics of engagement and responsibility are not just important in the workplace but in the family and in the community.    Everybody thought that a school could help develop people like Justin described by giving people responsibility and holding them accountable.  Students need opportunities to fail, to do their work in their own ways and to have the close support found in healthy relationships with mentors and educators.

ON TO TECHNOLOGY AND HOW WE CAN USE IT TO EMPOWER & INSPIRE STUDENTS:

Paul recollected how in college years ago, the big thing was profs videotaping lectures.  It didn’t work because it wasn’t thought through before it was instituted top-down.  Beware of fads.  Beware of unexpected consequences.  Try any technological change on a limited basis.  The group agreed with this and agreed with the DC gathering folks  that students need to be involved in any planning and implementation of new technology.

Pandora said Roeper was small enough and the kids smart and responsible enough that classes could be “lab” settings to try out technological change.  The students could be encouraged to play with the new tech and make it their own.  She thought that although Roeper does do well offering more experiences  than one would expect at such a small school, technology could bring in outside resources and experts so we could do even better.  She also thought that some interactive technologies such as clickers could bring more student interaction and democracy to the class room.  It could create more student ownership of the education.

Angela and Hannah had bad experiences with clickers in large college classes and the group cautioned that technologies could never replace the intimacy and depth of a Roeper education.  They urged that before any technological change be made, everyone agrees what the educational goals are and how the technology is supposed to help reach those goals.  As Paul stated earlier, avoid fads and mindless pursuit of new technologies.

Paul mentioned that various alternative schools in Philadelphia have used technology to network their schools and establish online consortiums of learners.

We moved on to the topic of how alums could help current students via technology.  I explained RAMP (Roeper Alumni Mentoring Program) which has college-age Roeper alums being mentored by older alums online.  Pandora wondered if such a program could be expanded to middle school and upper school students.

Linda mentioned informal networking where individual teachers connect kids to outside people including alums.  The group was impressed but we all agreed that such programs could be “too hit-and-miss” and we should institutionalize such efforts.

Angela wondered if career counseling and job awareness could be based on utilizing alums more.  Linda and I explained Roeper’s successful  Philumni Days every other year.

The group thought that alums could be used to help give college counseling some help for students considering certain colleges.  I should have explained (but didn’t) how we have a small but growing data base of alums willing to talk (online or over a meal) about a college.

We thought that as careers and fields of study change rapidly, we need to use our alums as a resource.  Angela said the field she is in (she is a Child Life Specialist –combo social worker, psychologist and teacher to help critically ill kids understand the medical procedures they are experiencing  in a hospital setting) was completely unknown to her until she had almost finished her undergraduate work.

Although most of the group thought that better career counseling was needed, Paul said he knew from 3^rd grade on that he wanted to be a scientist but he acknowledged that for many people dreams do change.

The group agreed that sometimes, for good or bad, an influential high school teacher can influence a person to go into a certain field or at least, a certain college area of study.  Some said they pursued an area only to realize that they didn’t really want to go into that area; they just revered a certain teacher.

Pandora brought up that Roeper and its small, “nowhere-to hide” atmosphere” gave her great opportunities to learn social and interpersonal skills. 

Angela agreed and wanted to caution that social media, smartphones and other tech advances can actually prevent the development of strong interpersonal and social skills.  She also thought that clear and professional writing is in danger from online “writing.”

The group had mixed memories of how much collaboration and group work Roeper had.  Paul remembered how he and a classmates in the 60’s “cooperated” on a test not realizing that the teacher would consider that cheating.  This led to a discussion what divides collaboration (good thing) and cheating (bad thing).  I explained that some gifted educators are leery of collaboration as gifted kids sometimes in mixed ability groups either end up doing all the work or are held back by the abilities of the group.  This problem is lessened at Roeper where, although there are still differences in ability, no one kid is going to get stuck doing everything (Roeper kids usually don’t  think of school work as automatically something to avoid.) Although learning to work collaboratively takes time and practice and is not immediately an equal and positive experience.

Angela spoke about the need for being upfront with safeguards and assessment tools to make sure no one person is doing all the work and that everybody’s roles are clear.

Pandora spoke of how bringing people with different abilities and perspectives together can create a synergistic positive result.

We finished up with group members suggesting various online groups that teachers might take advantage of:

Hannah suggested TED talks as a valuable resource and thought also that online resources should make studying current events more exciting and meaningful.

Angela suggested Quora as way to get kids thinking and discussing via an online forum.

Hannah suggested there are online Health question-answering services that might benefit teen-agers as they can get answers in complete anonymity.

We had to end but hopefully, our conversation will help the school think about a few things as we continue into the future.

Hindstrum wasn't tired after the discussion as all he did all night was sleep and then try to pick up a waitress so he wanted to go out after the gathering.  We went to a late night joint in Chinatown where Hindstrum was angered by the presence of a dragon.  (Background:  Hindstrum hates dragons since he believes the dragons are dinosaurs and dinosaurs are birds - he has read the works of Jack Horner- and he hates birds since our Grand Tour West last year and he had to fight off blue jays with his trusty ax to save his breakfast).  In any event, he was about ready to start a brawl with a dragon model when a bunch of Chinese kids entered.  Hindstrum who has watched way too many Jackie Chan movies was about ready to rumble with those nice med students from the University of Penn. So, we grabbed him and ran to avoid another brouhaha like last year's fracas with the Disney security folks (they didn't have much of  a sense of humor)

ONTO NEW YAWK:  The next day we left Pandora’s and Justin’s home in the pastoral Pennsylvannia countryside.  Although we were looking forward to seeking the many Roeperians in the Big Apple, we weren’t looking forward to the Heat Emergency forecasted for the next few days.

While we were driving up from Philly, Hindstrum was on his phone surfing the web and he found that Joey Chestnut won the hot dog eating contest once again (7^th time) by setting the record of 69 dogs eaten.  He immediately had us find a Nathan’s (official sponsor of the contest) as he was determined to set a new record.

 The website had said that the hot dogs would be “dressed with spicy brown mustard, kraut and griddled onions. That’s all. No relish, chili, no raw onions. Nuttin’ else.”   Hindstrum thought the last line meant he would be getting acorns. When he ordered and found no acorns, he refused to take part and is now contemplating inventing an eating contest based on hickory nuts.

On the left, Hindstrum is trying to get Nathan's to add his profile to their logo.

Tomorrow we will send you news about our adventures in NYC and how a little heat emergency didn't deter hardy Roeperians from a good time.

Remember: 

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.