“No one ever believed me when I said that I spent first grade in the dark room developing film and printing pictures.” – William Jelinek “I can smell the developer and fixer now!” – David Rosenbaum “…developed under horrid conditions in our darkroom, former broom closet, under the stairwell…. I had to write a grant …
Author Archives: Karen Carr
Free range
“We certainly pioneered the idea of “free range kids. ” We did some really insane stuff…dangerous…irresponsible. It was many weeks, for example before anyone even NOTICED that Becky Halton got on the city bus to go to school each morning and arrived home each afternoon without ever having set foot in the building. She self-educated …
Field trips
“I always remember the field trip he [Bob Herse] took us on, in his station wagon… Tilly- To Auburn to see a nursery school that he volunteered with, memorable because it was across from the prison (just after the riots happened there). Also he took us to Harriet Tubman’s house, that was still a private …
Theater and television
“Making up pretend stories and acting them out with Anne Brodie.” – Erica Peters “… our TV show, Kids Eye View? … where we got to interview Rod Serling.” – Sid Bardwell “Annie Halton type cast as the gypsy girl in a performance of Ravel’s Bolero.” – Bill Mutch “I remember doing that show. I …
Politics
“Have any kids mentioned being taken to anti Vietnam war protest meetings in Barton Hall @ Cornell ?? I have pictures of this of some historic interest, but remember little of who was involved. ” – Bill Mutch “Recording commercials for the Ecology Action Group. I’m pretty sure Ken Moraff was there, so I had to …
Chickens
“It took Jude Puryear (r.i.p.) SIX MONTHS to solve the puzzle of the chicken skeleton. I believe there are the same number of bones in a chicken as in a human, but they are much smaller. After they cooked and ate the chicken ( at Thanksgiving) one of his biggest challenges was to be sure …
Electricity and radio
“Dan was really into batteries and bulbs with his kids I remember.” – Ruth Wishik “Building the radio station with Paul Cummings was one highlight. We, mostly Paul, got the majority of the equipment from the bi-annual large trash days. We had an amazing amount of equipment that Paul, with Jordan and a number of …
Outside
“We did soooooo many great things outside of the school building.” – Dan Lee “Martha, a second grader in the second year, was a born hydraulics engineer. Her mom was a petite, aristocratic French woman who sent Martha to school every day in frilly crinolines with bows in her hair. In spring, almost every day, Martha …
Inside the school
“Earliest memory is playing house under a loft in Janet’s room, with a boy named Pierre, grade 1, 1975.” – Erica Peters “And I remember people building lofts everywhere, because it turned out that in a free school – an open school, they called it – you actually needed tons of tiny spaces where one …
The first day
“Coming in the back door from the playground as the school opened on the first day and being dragged into Jean Pepper’s classroom by a girl named Catherine who demanded to be taught to read. I hadn’t a clue how to do that.” – Bill Mutch “Earliest memory: the first day of school; I was …