|
|
|
Becky (Beckwith) Walsh sent this very thoughtful and insightful review of Ken Nye's first and second books of poetry. As notes, Ken's books are available on Amazon, and if you also check "page 2" to the current newsletter you will see that Ken has a third book available, and as usual he offers a good deal for classmates interested in obtaining a copy. Ken Nye asked me to review his poetry
books for the next newsletter, and I have been putting it off because he used
the phrase "review worthy of the NY Times" which,
Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow Lawrence Meyers, 2008 Reviewed by Reid T. Reynolds (HGHS ’60) Fifty years ago some 30 of us sat in Mr. Barlow’s physics class. I suspect I am not alone in having more vivid memories of that class than any other in my four years at HGHS. And others of us must have been touched, as I was, when we learned that Mr. Barlow had left his entire estate, nearly $500,000, to a scholarship fund for HGHS students. Given all the schooling and mentoring many of us have benefitted from over the years, some of us have had the good fortune to encounter other excellent and even famous teachers and mentors. But I suspect that many will agree that there was something singular about the Barlow experience. What most readily comes to mind are the eccentricities – the same black suit and tie every day of the year, the obsessive fixation on a book during any idle moment, the apparent permanent residence in his classroom and many more. But the fundamental enduring memory is of the unusual discipline I experienced in physics. Discipline in both senses of the word – sanctions for bad behavior and “training that corrects, molds or perfects the metal faculties or moral character.” [Webster] As Barlow’s student I didn’t spend much time trying to understand the reasons for, no less the origins of, this strange pedagogy. For me, a less than stellar student, the effectiveness of the method was what mattered. That I would occasionally be called to the board to work out a problem in front of several far more accomplished classmates, that I got an ‘A’ on a lab assignment where my estimate was the farthest from the correct value but my method of arriving at it was imaginative; experiences like these, rare though they were, gave me a new sense of the possibility that I could be a good student after all. But what were the origins of and reasons for this strange pedagogy? Fellow Greeleyite Larry Meyers (’84) has spent years searching for the answer. Some of you may have helped him in his quest by contributing to the Web site he established, www.MisterBarlow.com . The fruit of this labor now appears in his recently published Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow ($17 softcover; $29 hardcover from: http://pdlcapital.com/bookshop/index.php?&Itemid=89 ) The book is divided into four parts. Part One, The Mister Barlow I Knew, is an account of Larry’s anxious anticipation of and a challenging year in Mr. B’s AP Calculus class, of the continuation of their relationship as Larry receives tutoring and counsel from Mr. B. while an undergraduate at Cornell even as he discovers that his vocation is film, not chemical engineering. Part Two, The Mister Barlow You Knew, tells many tales from Mr. B.’s 35 years at HGHS. Former students, faculty members and former Vice Principal Larry Breen (our guide on the wonderful tour of HGHS that Ken Nye arranged for our 40th reunion) are the sources for these tales. Part 3, The Mister Barlow Nobody Knew, lifts the veil Mr. B. so carefully constructed over his past and the few hours each week he spent away from HGHS. The book ends with a short Part 4, Understanding Mister Barlow, an understanding derived from an exploration of the philosophers, authors and teacher who influenced Mr. B., his secrets he kept and the myths he encouraged, an unusual interview in the Greeley Tribune, and Larry’s reflections on all that he has learned about Mr. B. in his quest. This quest was aided by Mr. B.’s younger brother, Albert, who gave accounts of Mr. B.’s childhood and relationship to the Catholic Church, as well as opening the door to Mr. B.’s World War II service records. How is the Mister Barlow I know today different from the one I thought I knew two months ago before the first notice of Teacher of the Year and its promise of revealing mysteries of Mr. B.’s past? Like any good biography Teacher of the Year gives the reader a more profound understanding and appreciation of its subject. That Mr. B.’s passion in life was teaching math and physics to HGHS students should have been obvious to even the most casual observer. (My mother, who had a limited appreciation of the value of physics, objected only mildly when I had to stay after school as much as three hours late on Friday afternoons to finish “the problem of the day.”) The gist of Teacher of the Year is that this passion was the result of the redeeming power of vocation over the adversity of an under-privileged childhood, a searing combat experience (Mr. B. had killed several German soldiers at close range and sustained two injuries by the age of twenty-three), and a life-long struggle with alcoholism. For those of us who find much of the meaning of our life in our work, I wonder how much this was influenced by Mr. B., a person whose life was totally dedicated to his vocation, teaching. I remember hearing (again, from my mother, a mild anti-papist) that the Jesuits were somehow responsible for Mr. B.’s eccentricities. In Teacher of the Year we not only learn of Mr. B.’s attraction to the church and aspiration to become a priest. We get a Cliff Notes precis of Acquinas’s Summa Theologica; a nod to Kant’s categorical imperative; and, of course, thoughts on how Mr. B.’s ever-present copy of Alice in Wonderland explain the man and his method. Having only a passing acquaintance with these works, combined with some skepticism of the ability of any biographer to construct an accurate psychological portrait of a subject with the limited material Meyer had a his disposal, I nevertheless find his argument quite convincing. Some may find certain features of Teacher of the Year off putting – the recreated scenes from his childhood, the hype of a mystery now solved – but I can’t imagine a former student who would not find this book worth the few hours it will take to order and read. Those who managed to navigate four years at HGHS without any close encounters with Mr. B. may find it compelling as well.
Here is the list of teachers, and also some info about the busing problem that arose with the construction of the "new" Greeley in 1957. Teachers in Chappaqua Schools, 1957-58.
This is a list of the teachers in
all the Chappaqua Schools from 1957-58, the year Horace Greeley High School
moved to its current location and site. At least a half-dozen of these
teachers were still employed by the Chappaqua schools in the 1980s and
1990s.
Roaring Brook School (at the time, the only elementary school) Kindergarten * Miss Nancy Narret * Mrs. F. Patti Noreinis * Mrs. Dorothy Caryell * Mrs. Jane Harte * Miss Dorin Lundgren First Grade * Miss Marylin Coe * Mrs. Mildred Hobbs * Mrs. Mary Kiley * Miss Beatrice Roberts * Mrs. Lois Sapiel * Mrs. Leona Scandozza * Mrs. Dorothy Wakelee Second Grade * Miss Edith Dulgov * Miss Laura Hill * Mrs. Rose Moore * Mrs. Ruth Spielman * Miss. Louise Trovato * Mrs. Penelope Weller Third Grade * Miss Helen Conboy * Mrs. Lillian Gold * Mrs. Florence Hill * Mrs. Bernice Korman * Miss Sondra Skol * Miss Frances Updike Fourth Grade * Mr. Walter Brownsword * Miss Bernice Dykeman * Mr. Arthur Harte * Miss Dorothy Maloney * Mr. Howard Rose * Miss Mar ion Reig Art * Miss Evelyn Knapp Library * Miss Mary Brundage * Mrs. Lorraine Lewis Music * Mrs. Laura Lassiter * Mr. Morton Ross * Mr. Frank Siekmann Nurse * Miss Constance Brooks Physical Education * Mrs. Ruth Collins * Mr. Don Hess Psychologist * Mrs. Margaret Witt Remedial Reading * Miss Helen Porter Speech * Mr. John Stoia Middle School (unnamed at this time, it became the Robert E. Bell School later in 1957) Fifth Grade * Mrs. Margaret Burke * Miss Carol Sherman * Mr. Kenneth Allard * Mrs. Rita Cooney * Miss Patricia Keeler * Mr. Adrian McGuire * Mr. Alan Lindsay * Miss Edith Mulry Sixth Grade * Mrs. Agnes Boudreau * Mrs. Vivian Ellis * Mrs. Trenna Turner * Mr. Robert Haigh * Mrs. Alice Runyon * Mrs. Edward Myers * Mr. William Sherman English * Mr. Robert Casey * Mr. C. Michael Mahon * Miss Ellenjean Stewart * Mr. Richard J. Werner Mathematics * Mr. Robert Cahill * Mrs. Mary Hanley * Miss Blanche Henry * Mr. Charles Tetelman Social Studies * Mr. Arthur Bleemer * Mr. Eric Cole * Mr. Marvin Edelman * Miss Mary Laudodio * Miss Helen Robertson * Mr. Michael Scizewicz Science * M r. Norbert V. Pratt * Mr. Chester J. Bosworth Physical Education * Miss Alice Whitehead * Mr. Theodore Galasieski Art * Mr. Carl Bergman Music * Mrs. Agnes Betts Industrial Arts * Mr. Frank Kieper Speech * Miss Erda Goldstone Homemaking * Mrs. John DeBartolo Horace Greeley High School English * Mrs. Claire Damon * Mr. William Davis * Miss Sylvia Kurson * Mr. Philip Price * Miss Clare Risoli * Mr. Louis Vion * Mr. Charles Sweet Mathematics * Mr. Harold Bischoff * Mr. William Herrmann * Mr. Thomas Nelson * Mrs. Thelma Cook Social Studies * Miss Alice Barry * Mr. Robert Gibson * Mr. Paul McDonald * Mr. Robert Meredith * Mr. Charles Taylor * Mr. Rex Thrasher Science * Mr. James Anderson * Mr. Edwin Barlow * Mr. John Behonek * Mrs. Flora Bourdeau * Mr. Clarence Houmiel * Mr. Kenneth Tice Languages * Mrs. Evangeline Galas * Mr. Dean N. Gould * Mr. Albert Hagedorn * Mrs. Elsie Warrington Physical Education * Mr. Carlton A. Hall * Mr. Donald Hess * Mr. Mark Whittleton * Miss Jeanne Irwin * Miss Alice Whitehead * Miss Joan Pattison Homemaking * Miss Helen Gorman Art * Miss Toni Pa cks Secretarial Practice * Miss Margaret Opris Typing, Shorthand * Mr. Charles Pollock Shop/Mechanical Drawing * Mr. Edward Stark Music * Mr. Joseph Visca Driver Education * Mr. Merl Brightbill Librarian Miss Mary Stewart Greeley - You Can(‘t) Get There From Here Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 12:25pm In 1957, Chappaqua had a new high school, and a new problem. Whereas the original Horace Greeley High School had been located near the center of town, the new site wasn’t as accessible. Complicating matters further was an existing district rule that limited bussing to a radius outside of what was considered normal walking distance. At the old site, this rule had not been much of a problem, as a network of sidewalks linked many of the affected areas to the high school. At the new site, however, there wasn’t a single inch of sidewalk within a mile of the school. Students in areas where the buses not did cover were forced to beg for rides, or walk along Bedford Road, which at the time had a speed limit of 50 miles per hour. After a month of close calls, the Town Council asked the state to reduce the speed limit on the road. The state refused. Stymied, the town asked residents along routes to the school to allow footpaths along their property so that the students could avoid walking along Bedford Road. They were rebuffed. The matter was not settled until the district approved extending funds for Greeley bus service within the given radius (Note: Bell students within walking distance of the middle school were not provided bus service until the late 1990s). Before the bus service was approved, two proposals had been investigated to alleviate the problem. One would have put sidewalks along Bedford Road from Orchard Ridge Road to Roaring Brook Road. The other would have extended a path from the end of North Greeley Avenue (where the Ambulance Corps is located) to the back of Greeley, generally parallel to the railroad tracks.
|
