Grand Tour Blog.  7/13/12   Bay Area Reunion, Hindstrum Makes Friends & Our Journey Down Big Sur

We’re sitting in a coffee shop in San Luis Obispo after a spectacular drive down the Route 1 (the Big Sur).

Our thanks to our hosts Peter and Martha whose beautiful home high in the Oakland Hills always feels like heaven when we go there.

First, we are going to tell you all about the Bay Area reunion, Wednesday, July 11 then get to the Adventures of Hindstrum, our day of travel  yestereday and finish reminding how you can meet him in person.  We are beginning to feel a bit like Richie Cunningham in “Happy Days” as the minor character Fonzie took over the show. 

We had a wide variety of folks join us overlooking the Pacific in SF on Wednesday.   Peter Roeper, former student, drove over from Oakland.  Peter (and his sibling Karen and Tommy) are still dealing with all the details from his mother’s passing and estate.  Peter, a public health researcher, is semi-retired.  He is an avid cyclist and hiker and enjoys biking and hiking through the Oakland Hills near his home.  He hopes to meet and talk with members of the current and alumni communities when he (and the whole family) returns for Annemarie’s memorial on August 25 on the Bloomfield campus.

Riding with Peter over the Bay Bridge was former student and sister to alumna Amanda Ronis, ’00,  Angela Stitt.   Angie is a pre-school teacher  in Berkeley but is looking for work in her chosen field of Child Life Specialist which is a profession working with seriously ill children in hospitals, dealing with their educational issues, emotional states and understanding the treatment they are receiving.

                                                                   Below Gloria and Peter

Gloria Rogan, like Peter, didn’t graduate from Roeper as it didn’t have a graduating class until after she left.  Gloria finished her high school education at Interlochen.  Presently, she is doing great in the still- hot San Francisco real estate market.

Angela is left.

Then in walked  Nico Martinez, ’02,(above) who is working this summer in downtown SF with one more year to go at Stanford Law.  He is thinking about a career in criminal law.  His wife Becky couldn’t come.  She has one more year of residency in cranio-facial plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Lucian Beebe (former student and son of alumni staff member Rosalie Lake)    lives in San Francisco with his wife Jane and 2 kids.   He develops software in financial planning and works down the road on the Peninsula.

Gabrielle Knazik, ’02,  brought her friend Derrick from Redwood City where they live and develop video games. 

Before we started the discussion about Roeper we enjoyed a good meal and some catching up.  Lucian told us about the difficulties of education in SF while Gabrielle and Derrick talked with Lucian about the videogame industry.  Linda talked with Nico about how important Dave Crawford and Butch Ashman were in his life and with Angie about her recent trip with sister Amanda, her  niece Nadia and mom Julie to visit her grandmother in NC.

In response to my question about what was important about Roeper and what David Feldman should know about our school and community, Gloria lead off with  (the group readily agreed and amplified) that Roeper is a place where imagination and divergent thinking were not only allowed but supported and encouraged.   More than just a safe and non-judgmental place, Roeper is a place of respect for the individual’s quest to be him or herself.  Gloria recounted how she hated and feared school before Roeper where her imagination and individuality were honored. 

Gloria thought it was important that comparison and competition was downplayed.  She remembered when she went to her brother’s  U. of M.  Med school graduation and the top of that class was Roeper alum Julius Gardner.  At Roeper he was just another student, smart but not put on a pedestal.

It is an open place where people talk to everybody.  Everybody has something in common with everybody in at least some way.  The Roeper philosophy and general vibe of acceptance are pervasive and are the uniting forces.

I asked if they ever felt that the emphasis on the individual was harmful to the sense of community and the answer was a resounding “no.”   They felt that the community was stronger because it never had the unhealthy squashing of the individual and because the individual strengths came out to help the community.

In response to my question of what a strong point of Roeper was, Nico brought up the ability of the student to manage and control his or her own education.  It not only helped him  follow his passions, it gave him  experience directing and planning as well as providing practice in negotiating with others.

Nico also stressed how valuable it was to have the age diversity at the Birmingham campus.   From interacting in the halls to speaking in town meetings, kids get to know people from age 11 to whatever advanced age Linda Pence and Mike Ruddy are (my dig, not Nico’s).

Gabrielle mentioned how her confidence was built at Roeper.  By being given safe opportunities to try things she came out of her shy shell and she learned how to speak up.

Angie mentioned that the hot topic in education now is “emergent curriculum” or in other words, developing the pedagogy from the interests, passions and needs of the kids who are there in the classroom.  She said that Roeper was “following the child” for her years ago before it became the fad.  Peter and Gloria said Roeper was doing this 50 years ago when they were there.

Nico thought that one of Roeper’s best gifts to him was his ability to speak openly and genuinely to adults on an equal footing.  It was safe and accepted for kids to talk with teachers and others in authority.  He knew how to act appropriately and when to do what since he had a lot of experience in working with people to accomplish his goals.

Peter said that his parents never were in a state of denial about the real world and never intended that we create an ivory tower so people could hide from the real world.   They were keenly aware of pressure to conform and change the school to match the conservative community of affluent Bloomfield Hills.  They also wanted our education to be involved with the problems of the walls outside of Roeper.  We were a place of safety for people to grow but not to hide.

I asked if there were problems with leaving Roeper.  Angie mentioned that she missed the open spaces and campus feel of the Lower School campus when she went to Bloomfield Hills Schools.  It was hard leaving friends and losing her Roeper identity.   I reminded her that she would always be Roeper and that she took our values with her.   I am not sure that totally consoled her.

Speaking of taking Roeper with you after leaving,   Lucian used the Roeper experience and the framework and philosophy when looking for his kids’ education in SF.  All agreed that after being at our school, one develops, if not always a well-articulated philosophy, at least a gut-feeling for what a school and community should be.

I asked if anybody had a discussion question and Gloria offered more of an information query.  “Why was the school called ‘The Roeper City and Country.’   Peter explained that George and Annemarie wanted to have a school with both the urban and suburban perspectives.  It was to send the message that we were in Bloomfield Hills but had our hearts still in Detroit as well.

They closed the restaurant or I think we would still be there talking. 

You too can have a great discussion as we will be having gatherings in:

Los Angeles Area:  1510 S. Disneyland Dr, Anaheim.  2:00-4:00 on Saturday, July 14.

San Diego Area: 62 Aruba Bnd, Coronado,  1:00-3:00, Sunday, July 15

Phoenix Area: 1761 East Rancho Vista  (Optima Camelview Village), Unit number 7005, Scottsdale, 6:00-8:00 PM, Tuesday, July 17

Sante Fe & Northern New Mexico: 25 Esquila Rd., Sante Fe.  6:00-9:00 PM on Friday, July 20.

Denver & Front Range:  Chad’s Grille, 275 Union Blvd., Lakewood, CO.  5:00-8:00 PM on Sunday, July 22.

Lawrence, Kansas:  (Please call me at 248-230-0466 if interested in this gathering at the Bistak’s), July 24.

St. Louis:  Boathouse Restaurant in Forest Park, 6101 Government Dr., St. Louis.  6:00-8:00 on July 25

Hindstrum Meets Friends and Our Journey Down Big Sur.   In this section we have shots of our intrepid hero all the way back to Montana but most of it focuses in WA, OR, & CA.

Hindstrum wisely makes friends with a pie-baking bear in Billings, MT . 

Hindstrum frolics with Roosevelt Elk




Please excuse the large blank spot following and please scroll down for the rest of this edition.  We apologize for this problem but we have to drive 200 miles to LA and we have been fighting with this edition for 6 hours.

Hindstrum refused to be photographed with what he considered gross banana slugs.

Hindstrum originally tried to make friends with these Carmel, CA pigs but found them one-dimensional.

Below is Hindstrum at the unbelievably beautiful and interesting Point Lobos where he watched harbor seals, sea otters and sea lions.  Right outside Carmel, CA

 

Let's go Blue.

 California Poppies


Hindstrum is reading to Emery about the two different types of geologic formations but Emery is really sleeping.

 Surf's up

Mammals have a lot in common.

Two of the more boring of the scenic spots in the Big Sur

Maybe these Elephant Seals would like an acorn.

These guys are arguing over who Hindstrum likes best.

A squadron of pelicans survey a herd of 30 sleeping elephant seals.

We almost drove past these guys but Hindstrum spotted them and made us stop.

Michigan Squirrel meets California Squirrel

 

Hindstrum ambushed one of his mortal avian enemies and we can't show you the result as it is too gruesome

Crabs aren't birds so they are friends-to-be-made.

Hindstrum sails the seas in a shoe to meet an echinoderm

Get away from my oysters, you furry brigand!

After we have the Sunday San Diego gathering we will have some time to get the next blog to you.