Monthly Archives: March 2011

NTL and the Human Potential Movement

I don’t know how many people today remember the Human Potential Movement of the 1970’s, and I guess if you don’t know and are really interested you can Google or Bing it, but in its time, it was quite interesting.  … Continue reading

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Memphis, Ocean Hill, and the Union

The conflict between African Americans and the United Federation of Teachers and its many Jewish teachers during the Ocean Hill-Brownsville strikes came as a complete surprise.  Jews had been a prominent part of the Civil Rights Movement, and they couldn’t … Continue reading

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The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Strikes of 1968

In 1968 I left Inwood Junior High School, unfortunately not on best of terms with Hanauer and Finkelstein.  The Vietnam War also tended to fray personal relationships.  I had applied for an open English position at George Washington High School, … Continue reading

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Race, War, Politics and Media in Washington Heights

No discussion of schools would be complete without some mention of the political situation at the time, and I don’t mean the differences between Democrats and Republicans, which seemed relatively minor at the time, although they might have been more … Continue reading

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My Introduction to Experiential Learning

My introduction to Experiential Learning and the Human Potential Movement was unexpected.  I walked into it the Saturday morning I showed up for the weekend workshop sponsored by the Board of Education to help in the fight against drug abuse … Continue reading

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Against Drug Abuse

There were two other problems at Inwood Junior High School.  The first was drugs, nasty drugs, like heroin, in the fight against which I became intimately involved, and the second was resistance to the Vietnam War, in which I had … Continue reading

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A School Changes

The turnaround from terrific to terrible at Inwood came about quickly, possibly the result of the demands for integration that were ripping through the nation and the city at about that time, or possibly the change was brought about by … Continue reading

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Graduation Ceremony at Inwood Junior High

The world around us changes remarkably quickly at times.  We become history without even noticing it.  At Inwood Junior High School the change that occurred was how quickly it turned from one of the best (if not the best) junior … Continue reading

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The Relevance of Camp to School

I had had little experience working with kids.  What I knew of children individually and in groups, came from the “practice teaching” experience at Brooklyn College, and my work at Frederick Douglas Junior High School, hardly a typical teaching experience.  … Continue reading

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Higley Hill Summer Camp

Often, with their parents in jail and facing abuse and ostracism at school and in their neighborhoods, the children of the Old Left needed to get away, preferably to the country in the summer; they needed shelter and unconditional love, … Continue reading

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