Date: Fri, 8 Nov 96 17:43 EST
From: Gatolan <abramson@oeonline.com>
Subject: Re: [Malks] Re: Whining Newbie(wait a minute)

>--- the fiend wrote:
>the newbies will be brought to reign and we will teach them the ways of 
>the clan not scare them and threaten them with lead pipes anymore...  
>--- end of quoted material ---
>
>But it's so much EASIER that way. People behave a lot better when they know
>you'll hit them very hard if they don't. Large amounts of physical pain are a
>very effective teaching tool. And lead pipes aren't that bad. You should see
>what the Tzimisce do to their neonates. They make my theories look tame.

***Oooh... I wanna tell a story. deep in the hearts of two cities,
Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham (Michigan), there lie two buildings of a
connected nature. They both house the Roeper School. One of them "the Lower
school" has big and little domes for classrooms, a brook, a big house on a
hill, lots of woods and chickens to play with. I never went to school there.
But when I was a freshmen in high school I went to the OTHEr roeper in
Birmingham which is a three story 1920's building on Adams road two blocks
north of Maple (15 mile road). Besides the pre-historic heating and cooling
methods (read brimstone and skirtguns) this is a wonderful place.
The philosophy and mission of the school are so abstract no one, including
the founders can exactly put them in concrete terminology. The only thing
everyone CAn do is argue about how they're not being realized anymore.
Anyway, the philosophy, in my interpretation, is thus:

1) Children are not stupid undeveloped things.
2) A educator's role is not to take a "child" and transform it into an
"adult" (mold it). In fact, they should totally leave this medieval concept
behind (medieval being an expression in this case).
3) An adult has a much to learn from a child as a child has to learn from an
adult. We all have different experiences. The human mind is a unique
universe unto itself and each time you meet a new person its meeting a new
world.
4) Children need to be nurtured, loved, appreciated and consulted regarding
themselves and their environment. What building they're in; who their
teachers are; who runs their school; what classes they take and how they
take them.
5) Young people need to get their questions answered, and think up new ones.
They need to answer other people's question and be allowed to be themselves.

The Roeper School has not been perfect. It has somejerks. It has some bad
teachers. But all in all its the best place I've ever been, and I'll be
sorry to see it go. The philosophy lives on... and resurges violently now
and again in the community.

These are my deep beliefs on teaching kids, people put in your care, or
anybody else in the world.
--Gatolan