The Grand Tour:
Denver, Lawrence and Heading Towards St. Louis (worked on while waiting on an oil
change in Lawrence, KS on July 24 and a motel in Central MO after we decided it
was too hot to camp at a 100 degrees and finally posted in a coffee shop in St. Louis).
We got into Denver after a
gorgeous scenic drive through beautiful New Mexico after Linda stopped
Hindstrum and me from making an offer on a burger joint in Eagle Nest, NM. Our plan was for him and me to go
trout-fishing and elk-hunting in the fall and skiing in the winter while Linda
ran the restaurant. Some people are wet
blankets. Here is Hindstrum with his
first bird friend. If this relationship
is successful he will move on to live ones.
In Denver we stayed with my long-time friend Barb Najarian
(formerly Stoll) who actually attended the reunion with us. We invited her as she is a retired teacher
who could ask the outsider questions and give a non-Roeper perspective to the
discussion. In addition, I wanted her to
hear about Roeper from someone other than me ranting about it.
When we got to Chad’s Lakewood Grill (just another example
of the flexible, hospitable establishments we encountered time and time again),
Nate Chapman, ’98, from Boulder and Collin Powell, ’99, from Longmont were
already there. It turns out that we
probably should have had the gathering north of Denver as most of the attendees
were from the Fort Collins or Boulder areas.
Joined by Barb, we started a mini-discussion. Nate and Collin
gave us lots of leads on people who are engaged or who have married. We also talked a bit about the sense of
justice gifted people have. We also
touched on the importance of making sure the school, the student and the family
knows each other before the admission acceptance so everybody knows what each
is getting into. Nate recounted for Barb
how he ended up at Roeper.
Here is Barb with Collin followed by a shot of Collin, Emery, Hindstrum and Nate.
Nate is studying sociology at Colorado University at Boulder
and enjoying life in the Rockies.
Collin is exploring areas of industry to apply his skill and
interest in mathematical simulations and algorithm development.
Carpooling from the north were Adam Abraham, ’02,(Fort
Collins), Julie McLaughlin, ’03, (Boulder), and David (formerly Davey) Wayne,
’04, Boulder. Left to right in the following photo is Adam, David and Collin.
Below is Julie, Adam, David with Collin facing Adam
Adam is finishing up his
PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Bioengineering – Osteoarthritis/Orthopedics). He is a National Institute of Health
Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow. Adam is
engaged and will be married in Sept.
Julie is working for a lightweight backpacking company and
getting the most of living and exploring the mountains. She might be going to grad school in the
fall for restorative ecology or in her words, “I want to set stuff on fire to
kill invasive weeds.” She is also proud
of recently winning her Bar Trivia Championship.
David is a doctoral student at the University of Colorado at
Boulder who should graduate in 2013-14. His field is mathematics or more
specifically, “The Algebraic K-Theory of Singular Varieties and Stratified
Spaces.”
Then Lonie (Smith) Beck,’96, (Fort Collins) came down with
her husband Bryan and her darling troop of sons, Noah (5), Simon (3), and Levi
(2). My congratulations to the boys on
being very well-behaved and entertaining themselves during what was a long period of sitting and
listening. Lonie is enjoying life taking
care of the boys and Bryan. Bryan is a
physician.
Here are the Beck Boys with Hindstrum. First row: Simon, Hindstrum & Levi. Back row: Noah and Bryan.
Below right is Lonie
Susan Toll (Morrow) who left in 6th grade after
the 1974-75 school year when her father Dick took a job at DCD could only stay
for a little while but she and Linda were thrilled to see each other
again. Susan did work at Roeper Summer
camp, did babysit for Karen Roeper’s Jamie
and did keep in contact with Roeper kids.
She has three children age 10, 15 and 17. She lives in Denver.
Here is Susan, Hindstrum and Emery:
Below: Alumni mom Wendy Evans (mom of Shari and Kiera) with her
husband Chris Stimpson lives in Westminister.
She is teaching and coaching somatic education there in Westminister.
The discussion started slowly and I think I surprised
everybody with the idea that they had to talk for their dinners. But when we got going it became one of our
longer conversations at one of our gatherings. It only ended when the old folks (Linda and I)
had to go back to go to bed. In some of
our other gatherings, one person would speak for a longer time and it was easy
to take notes. In this one, people had more of a conversation with short
passages and a lot of back and forth and jumping around making the poor
scribe’s job harder.
Collin wanted to know if David Feldman knows how the Roeper
experience “gets under your skin?” It
causes long-term changes in one’s life.
It should never be considered just a school. What makes it different is that it is a
mission-driven school with a philosophy that requires an emphasis on community
and giving back to it. We are “citizens
of the globe” and it is always more than just about the individual.
Nate explained that he was a late-comer as he started in 8th
grade but it was still easy to absorb the values of tolerance and importance of
community. Also crucial was a freedom to
explore and find out who one is and grow.
Julie added that everything seemed organic and natural not
forced or artificial. Wendy remembered
the service projects in Stage II which taught the kids at an early age that
there is life beyond the walls of school and that there was a relevance to the
learning. Empathy was nurtured.
Another alum (my notes aren’t clear) spoke about how
barriers between student and student and adult and student were removed so
honest relationships could develop.
There was a sense of equality so cliques and popularity differences
weren’t as important.
Nate recounted the importance of class conversations. Teachers allowed discussion to go off planned
topic so they were more meaningful to the students.
Collin added that independent studies were important in
allowing students to pursue their passions.
Julie thought that all aspects of Roeper learning helped to
encourage her to think of herself as a life-long learner. From discussions in the halls to independent
studies to service projects to in-class activities, the emphasis was on
learning not achievement for getting into college. Nate chimed in that it never seemed to be
totally about academics.
Wendy reminded us that the close relationships pose a
special danger if the relationship is used by a smart student to avoid taking responsible by
manipulating an adult into postponing deadlines or into becoming an
enabler. I believe she has a point and
that we need to have even better, more healthy relationship which people are
honest with each other and respect each other enough to demand responsibility.
The group suggested an unusual problem. When leaving Roeper, some said they easily
lost respect for college instructors who didn’t measure up to Roeper
teachers. Wendy recounted how Kiera at
Oakland University was underwhelmed after having Mary Kay Glazek for English.
Most found college easy after Roeper.
Julie spoke of the personal interest teachers took in the
students. Laura Panek helped her find a
job so she could earn money to go on a trip.
Wendy likes how Roeper would admit a mistake and didn’t
usually hide in a defensive stance. That
goes with the sense of safety necessary for growth and honest relationships.
Nate thought that students felt empowered from a variety of
experiences and he focused on kids serving on hiring committees and on the
Board of Trustees and what that statement made about our values of respect and
community.
Adam spoke about the role of Birmingham campus town meetings
and how they built community. The group
was especially impressed how we handled the trauma of 9/11.
We spoke about how hard it is sometimes getting the
community the information it needs to be empowered while preserving the privacy
of individuals. I suggested that an
administrator builds up trust and credibility and then when there is a
difficult situation, that trust and credibility is spent so the community knows
that the situation is being handled without necessarily knowing all the
details.
David got the group talking about how Roeper is on the right
track when they allow students to pursue their own educational goals as much as
possible. If the student wants to take a
lot of pottery that’s fine as long as she or he knows the consequences of doing
that. This is where the close
relationships and empowerment of information comes in. Julie felt that she didn’t get the guidance
at times she needed to set her direction and wondered if we should put more
formal, explicit procedures in place.
Linda and I stated that more of those procedures are functioning now.
David continued with how important it is that students be
encouraged to think about what they like and want to do. He always appreciated
how flexible the school was and how willing it was to adjust to the student.
Being a math guy, he made the conscientious decision to focus his energy on
math, evaluate what it would take to pass the other classes and did enough to
make the ‘C ’.
I asked what they thought about how Roeper did helping
students get ready for a rapidly changing, crazy world. They thought it could always improve but it
was significantly better than other schools.
An area of improvement would be in teaching how to better find and
retrieve information. They like how
Roeper taught problem-solving and working collaboratively.
Adam brought up that Roeper didn’t have the technical
resources for what he needed in his quest to be an engineer. He supplemented with work in his dad’s
machine shop and he got a strong science foundation at Roeper and then started engineering in college. What he really got from Roeper that he
noticed missing in almost all his fellow university colleagues was an emphasis
on humanity and how to benefit it. His
passion is engineering, solving problems and making new things and he wants to
use these to help humanity with medical/engineering devices. He credits with the helping humanity part.
Julie pointed out how she benefitted from working with
younger kids such as when she chaperoned the 7th grade Ohiopyle
trip. This led to a whole discussion on
the importance of trips and the financial problems in taking kids on them. David suggested we look into government or
foundation grants to help take students on trips to broaden their horizons.
Linda and I explained how well the George Roeper senior
projects are going now to help students pursue their passions while enriching
the cultural and educational life of the community. Nate thought we should do more to use the
alum expertise in helping to bring new technologies to Roeper.
The issue of giving came up and the alums spoke favorably
about restricted giving. They believe
people would give more if they could designate where it was going. Happy donors would be more willing to give,
give more and then some of that might even be of the unrestricted kind.
David asked about our endowment and I said it was growing. Nate suggested we seek partnership with colleges
to find funding for better technology.
Linda and I explained the hiring of the new educational technology
person and how that person would be crucial in helping the community figure out
and obtain what it needed technology-wise.
Some people had to go (other commitments, long drives, etc.)
but a core of about 7 of us stayed late and went down nostalgia-lane. I want to thank everybody who came and hope
that the Front Range people form a Roeper group and get to know each other
better.
The next day we had a leisurely morning with Barb in the
cute mountain community of Morrison near the spectacular Red Rocks area. In the first photo Hindstrum can be seen
posing in front of sandstone uplifts and in the second he is meeting some of
the heroes of his youth. Unfortunately,
after being inspired by John Denver, he bought a guitar and keeps singing
“Rocky Mountain High” over and over again in the back of the van. We asked him to consider “Sounds of Silence”
but he responded with another verse of “Rocky Mountain High.”
Below is Hindstrum, Emery and Barb
On the right, you can see the path Hindstrum took off down to get to the hippie town of Morrison to meet up with some of the musicians he used to play with.
Hindstrum wants you to try to identify as many as you can of his buddies on the left that he played with at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheather.
Then
it was a long haul across the high northern plains of Colorado and Kansas. Lawrence is at the far eastern end of Kansas
and we had a time zone change so we didn’t get to the Bistak’s until about 8:00 pm. Flexible
and welcoming, they had prepared a delicious summer supper made almost
exclusively from the fare of their amazing garden tended by master gardener Lee.
We had much catching up to do as they left Roeper quite a
long time ago. Lea started with us in
1976 and graduated in 1986 while Laura started in 1976 and graduated in 1988
. Nancy was a team teacher and then the
LS administrative assistant from 1976 until she and Lee moved to Toledo in
1993. After leaving us, Lee and Nancy
both got Master’s degrees in Pastoral Studies and Lee continued to get a
Doctorate in Ministry. Today, they are retired with Lee gardening and singing
in the Lawrence Civic Choir and Nancy doing volunteer work and both doing
marriage counseling classes. Laura is
doing volunteer work, teaches classes at church and taking a course on living with disabilities.
Lea is now married to Erik Herron with a 7 year old son, Carter. They have left the University of Kansas at
Lawrence for 2 years for Erik to work in the DC area for the National Science
Foundation and Lea to work long-distance writing grants for U. of K. Erik’s area of political science expertise is
in Soviet and post-Soviet election and politics; an area that had them living
in the Ukraine for a while. Lea and Erik
met a long time ago when they were Model United Nations high school
participants in Michigan. They reconnected as each separately went on to mentor
high school MUN participants as college students. MUN is truly a uniting force. We didn’t get a chance to meet Carter but he
sounds like a Roeper kid – he soaks up information, loves to learn, and can
figure things out in a flash.
Here is Lee, Emery, Nancy, and Laura with Hindstrum on the table looking for more delicious Bistak food.
Our discussion started Monday evening when we got there and
resumed Tuesday morning continuing until we left mid-day.
Nancy said she had an easy time coming to Roeper both as a
parent and staff member as her college experience at Marygrove was based on the
same assumptions she found at Roeper. We
treat others with the respect we want for ourselves. We allow people to grow and be themselves.
She remembered the LS in the 1970’s and 80’s as a place of
flattened hierarchy with many senior teachers having the influence and
authority to innovate and help run things.
Annemarie was accessible and always available to talk about and with
kids. Mariann was always there to make
sure things got done behind the scenes.
Laura said there was a Roeper discussion on Facebook
recently in which someone else opined that respect had to be earned. Laura disagreed as she thinks it should be
the default assumption that people as human beings are treated with
respect.
Nancy suggested that balance is always needed. We should treat people with the Golden Rule
but we must remember that people are individuals and also need to be treated
according to their particular personality and our experience with them.
The group all agreed that the Philosophy is a set of generalizations
and must be fleshed out by folks coming together to discuss and work things
out. Schools like Roeper are needed as
modern communication (and modern technology) is isolating, limiting and
misinforming so people are not learning how to really listen to each other and
to work together. Roeper demands
listening, intellectual stretching and authentic relationships.
Laura thought Roeper could use a class in personal
communication. Linda said we presently
did have such opportunities via health classes and individual “teachable
moments” in which kids were taught to listen and speak clearly about their
feelings and emotions. I do think in an institution that requires almost
constant talking things through in order for it to fulfill its mission, we probably
could do more explicit and formal work in communication. Nancy agreed as she reiterated that she
thinks modern communication is especially problematic in preventing true
communication.
Everybody agreed that Roeper had the close relationships
necessary for people to get to know each other.
Without those, you have to resort to generalizations and rigid rules to
deal with people and situations. And,
those are profoundly disrespectful as they deal with people as abstractions and
objects as opposed to individuals.
The Bistaks thought that Roeper should always challenge kids
to think harder and help others more. We
should teach that learning is never done and we always can grow. Our message should be for everyone to get the
tools of communication, to get to know the people you deal with, to treat
everybody with respect and to work cooperatively to create a better world.
This led to a discussion about the importance of living in
the present. Focus on what you are
doing. Focus on the person you are talking
and listening to. Focus on enjoying your
life and getting the most out of the moment.
Of course, you must be aware of the future but don’t let a concentration
on it rob you of your life.
It was also suggested that we need to give time for kids to
process. The gifted kids’ minds work so
fast and deep that unless we give them time and space to think and emotionally
deal they will be confused and overwhelmed.
I asked them what the purpose of Roeper was. Laura responded it was to help people become
citizens of the world. Nancy said it was
for the nurturing and empowering of the individual. Lee added that the final goal was not just
for the individual but for the betterment and growth of the community through
the growth and betterment of individuals.
Nancy recounted how a student in the 70’s was a super
“non-math kind of guy.” Although people
tried to help him develop math skills, they really focused on helping him find
what he loved to do and what gave him confidence. His weakness in math never defined him. That success came about because of the
patience and care of his teachers and that came about because they knew him
deeply and authentically.
I asked Laura if leaving Roeper was hard and she said “Yes,
at first.” College was stressful. People didn’t treat her as an individual and
the culture of acceptance, tolerance and knowing each other as individuals was
replaced by sexism and an assumption of
male superiority. But she found comfort
in small affinity groups and extracurriculars became a place to fit in.
She appreciated Roeper’s opportunities for her to take
responsibility for her education. She
learned how to be accountable for her decisions and how to handle freedom. In college, other students "went goofy" as they didn’t know how to control themselves. Lee added that when he instructed at college
he had to teach basic common sense that you would have thought kids would have
learned at home or at school.
Nancy opined that we need to always help people to avoid
stating things in a passive voice.
Messes don’t just happened.
People cause their problems and people need to take care of them. There is nothing wrong with mistakes or failure
as long as one acknowledges them, learns from them and moves to do better. She hopes Roeper continues to be a safe place
to do these things.
I started our breakfast discussion out with the
question: What do kids in our rapidly
changing world need in order to deal.
The Bistaks suggested:
*that the tools of technology should be mastered and never
be the masters. A balance must be
achieved between using technology and being a member of a community. It is not a balance if the technology
isolates one.
*the importance of service to other people and greater
community needs to be taught through real experiences. The greater community includes the natural
environment that sustains us. We should
never forget that the school was not founded to just comfort individuals but to
help them help fight for a better world.
* that a school should challenge when it needs to. We need to allow kids to rest when needed but
never hide.
*we have to keep looking for ways to get students internally
motivated and that can be hard and messy.
*kids would be stronger if they knew themselves better and
accepted that frustration and doubting oneself are natural and a part of
growth. Failure isn’t failure unless one
gives up and/or one doesn’t learn from it.
Linda added that she took her 6th graders in June
to talk to alum Sarah North who works at Google. Sarah said that Google is looking for people
who have a variety of interests and passions and who know how to work
with others.
We closed with someone asking why we changed the name to The
Roeper School. I explained that it was
a marketing decision to give us a clear brand identity. I also told that Peter Roeper explained how
his parents had named the school City and Country to stress that urban and
suburban scope of the school.
Tonight is St.
Louis: Boathouse Restaurant in
Forest Park, 6101 Government Dr., St. Louis.
6:00-8:00 on July 25.
After Phoenix, the 106 degree St. Louis temp felt familiar. We had an hour or so to kill so we went to
the Missouri History Museum which was near where the gathering was to occur.
Inspired by a museum movie about fire safety, Hindstrum temporarily decides on a career change.
A tired squirrel resting upon getting home. 
