EXPLORING CURRICULUM LEADERSHIP CAPACITY-BUILDING THROUGH BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE: A CURRERE

A dissertation submitted to the Kent State University College of Education, Health and Human Services in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

By

Karl W. Martin

August 2018 © Copyright, 2018 by Karl W. Martin All Rights Reserved

ii MARTIN, KARL W., Ph.D., August 2018 Education, Health and Human Services

EXPLORING CURRICULUM LEADERSHIP CAPACITY-BUILDING THROUGH BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE: A CURRERE CASE STUDY (473 pp.)

My dissertation joins a vibrant conversation with James G. Henderson and colleagues, curriculum workers involved with leadership envisioned and embodied in his

Collegial Curriculum Leadership Process (CCLP). Their work, “embedded in dynamic, open-ended folding, is a recursive, multiphased process supporting educators with a particular vocational calling” (Henderson, 2017). The four key Deleuzian “folds” of the process explore “awakening” to become lead professionals for democratic ways of living, cultivating repertoires for a diversified, holistic pedagogy, engaging in critical self- examinations and critically appraising their professional artistry. In “reactivating” the lived experiences, scholarship, writing and vocational calling of a brilliant Greek and

Latin scholar named Marya Barlowski, meanings will be constructed as engendered through biographical narrative and currere case study. Grounded in the curriculum leadership “map,” she represents an allegorical presence in the narrative. Allegory has always been connected to awakening, and awakening is a precursor for capacity-building.

The research design (the precise way in which to study this ‘problem’) will be a combination of historical narrative and currere. This collecting and constructing of Her story speaks to how the vision of leadership isn’t completely new – threads of it are tied to the past. Her intrinsic motivational indicators as relevant to curriculum leadership will be described and analyzed through her lived experiences, scholarship and writing that all pointed towards her vocational calling.

Keywords: currere, allegory, folding, capacity-building, intrinsic motivation, curriculum leadership, Reconceptualizing Curriculum development (RCD) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to my wife Michelle, a continual source of love, support and suggestions.

I will be forever grateful to James G. Henderson for his exceptional and mentoring.

There is no better. Thanks to Linda Hoeptner-Poling, who believed in my inquiry, Todd

S. Hawley, who always supported me, and Joanne Caniglia, who always pointed me in the right direction.

Thanks also to archivists and librarians Jonathan Ryder of Classical High School,

Vanessa Earp and Cynthis Kristov of Kent State University, Olga Umansky of the Boston

Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and Kevlin Haire of The Ohio State University.

Jennifer Schneider, Daniel Castner, and Jennifer Lowers have steadfastly helped me through the process of peer review. I am grateful for the support of Sherry Ernsperger,

Shannon Stewart, Janine Jones and Cheryl Slusarczyk, and Luci Wymer. Lastly, I thank

Ann Poston for her discerning eye and brilliant integrative work.

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM...... 1 Introduction ...... 1 The Exploration ...... 4 Brief Outline of the Problem...... 8 Fourfold Process: Corners of Critical Imagining ...... 12 Specifics ...... 17 RCD and Motivation ...... 18 Four Folds ...... 20 Folds of Professional Awakening ...... 21 Folds of Creative Teaching ...... 23 Folds of Generative Lead-Learning ...... 24 Folds of Participatory Evaluation ...... 27 Other Emerging Folds ...... 28 An Envisioned Future...... 30 Historiography and Narrative Biological Writing ...... 31 Statement of Significance of the Work ...... 33 Intrinsic Motivation and Capacity-Building ...... 35 Purpose ...... 35 Autonomy ...... 36 Mastery ...... 37 The Lack of Capacity-Building ...... 38 Impediments ...... 39 Classical High School ...... 44 Historical Writing as Genealogy ...... 45 The Legacy of the Rationale ...... 46 Another Valdectorian ...... 48 Higher Education ...... 49 Two Sides of the Same Coin ...... 50 Currere and Narrative ...... 60

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...... 63 Introduction ...... 63 Classical High School and Traditional Liberal Education ...... 63 Beginnings of Curriculum as a Field ...... 66 The Vertical ...... 94 Classical and Traditional Materials ...... 110 Narrative Literature ...... 111 Currere Literature ...... 113 Curriculum Leadership and Relevant Literature ...... 116 Collaborative Lead-Learning ...... 117 Deleuze and the Fold ...... 118 Educational Experiences and The Fold ...... 120 Reconceptualizing Curriculum Theory ...... 121 Motivation ...... 122

III. METHODOLOGY ...... 124 Narrative Inquiry ...... 124 Historiography ...... 125 Evolution of the Inquiry ...... 130 Typewritten Research ...... 132 Biographical Case Study ...... 134 Reflexivity ...... 142 Personages ...... 144 School Newspapers ...... 147 Research Setting ...... 148 The Emergence of Research Informed by Currere ...... 151 Ethical Considerations...... 162 Limitations ...... 165 Summary of Methods ...... 166 Indicators ...... 170 Motivational Indicators ...... 170

IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS ...... 173 Foregrounding ...... 173 Introduction ...... 175 Kathy M. Cadwell ...... 181 Immigration ...... 183 Janina Barlowski D’Abate ...... 187 Marya Barlowski ...... 194 Lillian Barlowski Runyon ...... 203 Roman Catholicism and Saint Adalbert’s ...... 213

v Church History ...... 214 Father Marek Kupka ...... 218 Olneyville, ...... 219 Map ...... 222 Community History ...... 225 Robert Raughtigan ...... 229 Manton Avenue Elementary...... 230 O. H. Perry Junior High School ...... 234 Classical High School, Jonathan Ryder ...... 235 Lois Kneeland ...... 238 Margaret Ajootian ...... 240 Margaret Dorgan ...... 242 Pembroke College at ...... 249 Dorothy Spofford ...... 252 Enzina Robbio Sammartino ...... 252 Mary Foster Cadbury ...... 260 Smith College ...... 263 Greystone Park Asylum ...... 266 Master's Dissertation ...... 267 Restatement of the Research Questions ...... 278 Intrinsic Motivation ...... 279 The Setting ...... 281 Educational Theory and Experience, a Curriculum...... 282 The Question Club ...... 287 Leadership and Vocational Calling: Journey of Intrinsic Motivation and Capacity- Building, Greystone Park Asylum ...... 293 James Jackson Putnam Children’s Center ...... 294 Awakening ...... 296 Ohio State and Ohio State School for Social Work (1959-1960) ...... 306 Ralph Tyler and Ohio State ...... 312 The Ohio State University ...... 312 Rhode Island Social Work and Subsequent Illness ...... 313

vi V. CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, & STRATEGIES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH . 314 Introduction ...... 316 Ethics of Psychiatric Social Work ...... 317 Social Work as a Process ...... 319 Liberal Education ...... 321 A Look to the Future ...... 322 Critical Thread of Awakening ...... 324 Transcendence and Awakening ...... 325 Awakening of the Human Spirit ...... 325 Destiny ...... 327 and James Jackson Putnam ...... 330 Sophie Freud ...... 331 Photographic Insights ...... 333 Biography, Narrative and Historiography as a Lifelong Project, Classical Curriculum ...... 337 Marya, Self-Discipline and Study ...... 344 The Classical Archives ...... 351 Summary of Findings, Accountability ...... 352 Transition ...... 361 Suggestions for Future Research ...... 365 Catherine Stearns ...... 366 The Bergamo Conference ...... 368 Hope for the Future, a Tribute to Kathy M. Cadwell ...... 372 Maria Barlowski ...... 374 Psychopathology, the Letter ...... 376 Alex Bernstein ...... 382 William Rowane ...... 392 Elyssa Beron Arons ...... 400 Mirela Vlastelica...... 406 Conclusion ...... 407 Her Death ...... 410 Frank X. Ryan ...... 417 Empirical Discussion of Problem Statement ...... 421 Julian Street and Manton Avenue Elementary ...... 430 O. H. Perry Junior High ...... 431 Classical High School ...... 431

vii Undergraduate Scholarship at Brown University ...... 432 Graduate School ...... 434 Final Notes ...... 435

APPENDICES ...... 449 APPENDIX A. LETTER OF RECRUITMENT (PHYSICAL OR VIRTUAL) ...... 450 APPENDIX B. PARTICIPANT'S AGREEMENT ...... 452 APPENDIX C. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS I ...... 454 APPENDIX D. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS II ...... 456

REFERENCES ...... 458

viii CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM

Introduction

Not so many years ago – perhaps ten - my father and I were downstairs in his office in Weekapaug, Rhode Island. We were on our laptops, enjoying some time together before going out for a seafood dinner that evening. Out of the blue, he reached over, placed his hand on my shoulder, and said: “You know I loved your Mother, but there was someone before her that I loved with my heart and soul. We were in love and planned to marry…”

The story continued. They met at Pembroke College, the sister School of Brown

University. He was a Navy midshipman, stationed temporarily in Providence, she a Latin and Greek scholar. They met, dated, fell in love on College Hill, and planned for a future together. They often walked past the Carrie Tower with the accompanying inscription

Love is Strong as Death. That was to be the representation of their everlasting love, an intimate symbol of their devotion, their commitment to one another.

When he told me her name, I did a search on Google - Marya Barlowski - and discovered that she had passed away at age 49, in 1974. My father was desolate, shaken, and I had to support him in his chair. We only spoke of her once more, at a coffee shop adjacent to the coast, surrounded by a group of seagulls on a sunny Sunday morning.

It was during World War II that he became separated from her. One day, without warning, his ship deployed unexpectedly and immediately. It was close to graduation, and his letters never reached her. When he returned at war’s end she was gone. While 1 2

searching for her at a servicemen’s dance he met my Mother, who was a stunning woman in her own right. They married, and I emerged on the scene in 1951.

My father died in 2010, and I had filed the narrative away as a lost segment of the past. While doing some dishes in February three years ago, looking out the window for signs of spring, I suddenly remembered her name. I walked over to my laptop, used a

Google search again, and this is what I discovered:

(Brown Herald-Record, Vol. 1, No. 9, 1944. P. 1)

My History of Photography professor from the early 1980’s, Dr. Ralph Harley, looked upon old photographs reverently. He quoted from Beaumont Newhall and made us study, really study historical portraits, landscapes and still life black and white photos. 3

I observed her face, admiring the features. She was photographed in a handsome ¾ view with perfect exposure. I was looking for visual clues and information before reading the accompanying article. Ralph Harley insisted that a good photograph could provide real insight into people from the past, since the visual record “was the very light that touched her face.”

More about Marya: One might liken her to the Nobel prize-winning John Forbes

Nash, the subject of the unauthorized biography by Sylvia Nasar. Her surviving relatives, while they were still talking with me, have said as much. She was a brilliant paranoid schizophrenic with a 160 IQ, adrift to deal with her confusion and pain before the advent of pharmaceuticals that would be developed in the late 1970’s. Her story is one that needs to be told. I am her voice, the only advocate in her corner. Her narrative has many implications and conclusions and deserves complex analysis and complicated conversation. It is a platform upon which I base ongoing inquiries in curriculum theorizing, including this one.

We have to go back a little further to see the curriculum roots of this narrative, to

Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. Classical has a recipe for success that has made it a most respected and venerable institution. The school itself was established in downtown Providence in 1843, celebrating its centennial two years after

Marya graduated. It was not named “Classical” in a superficial way. The motto of the school since its’ inception has been the final line in Latin from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s

Ulysses: Certare Petere Reperire Neque Cedere (To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield). This maxim has also become mine. 4

The Exploration

Historical fiction is often based upon an actual historical figure in the context of a biographical sketch embedded in a plot outline. Writers approach this narrative blueprint in different ways. Some follow a character from their birth to their death, while others focus on a single, defining event in their life, and this inquiry is more representative of the former. There were defining events in the life of my heroine, but small stories – narratives – are better-suited for this work. A big story approach, one where people have to reflect on their lives, has relevance, but Michael Bamberg feels they we should work with ordinary stories first. Bamberg (2016) clarifies the difference in the following manner: “The small story approach, or the narrative practice approach, assumes that stories typically occur in mundane everyday situations. When we interact, when we talk, that’s where we at times, not all the time, we launch into story-telling mode or we break into story-telling mode” (Bamberg, 2016, p. 17). Two stories inform my dissertation research design, one about a real person in her own place and time, one about the broader historical context in which her story unfolds. This alternative developmental frame of reference will inform lifelong work that builds on my dissertation research, one that involves history and persons that beg for recognition, reflection and reconstruction.

Stated another way, this model of looking at the world will most likely become a springboard for a productive line of curriculum theorizing inquiry through biography and historiography.

Because I will be standing in part on the work of Dr. William Pinar, this encouraging email begins the journey: “You’re kind, Karl, to compose an abstract for me. 5

You’ve bitten off quite a bit: enjoy! Good news you appreciate Simon’s resolve.

Congratulations on moving to candidacy. Wishing you well…Bill” (W. Pinar, personal communication, August 21, 2016). Dr. Pinar offers a clue that recommends remembrance not as an intrusive strategy, but as a means of agency. His reference to

Roger Simon’s “resolve” describes a fortitude involving risks associated with remembrances of loss, and those “reactivated” that have experienced extreme pain.

Between Hope and Despair is a collection of essays edited by Roger Simon, Sharon

Rosenberg and Claudia Eppert that “outlines the theoretical and pedagogical stakes of a sense of memory founded on the events’ irrecuperability and its’ effect upon subsequent acts of witness by individuals who were not there” (p. 6). Simon suggests that the telling of stories encompass not just a retelling, but also “the story of the telling of the story”

(Simon, Rosenberg & Eppert, 2000 p. 7). My story – and the biographical journey is also part of the overall narrative. I feel as if my “purposeful sample” has followed me and that biography is the way I can best express my approach to curriculum theorizing. The biographical subject of my writing made a career of listening to stories in a risk – laden and critical manner through psychiatric social work. She also worked in depressing and oppressive environments, including archaic asylums for the mentally ill. Many psychiatric social workers practice not only with the threat of physical violence but are also haunted by uncomfortable memories for years. “They can be prone to depression and may even assimilate some of the symptoms they regularly observe, not necessarily in a malingering way” (W. Rowane, personal communication, November, 12, 2015). For the duration of her professional practice and vocational calling, Marya also taught social 6

work inquiry as part of her leadership in her chosen profession. Even on an individual level trauma and tragedy are instructive, but the biographical markers that make up a life will stand as substitutes, representations and supplemental adjuncts to a narrative sense of loss. Remembrance of history, therefore, should not - and is not - self-serving, is often disquieting and uncovers or creates knowledge that points toward new histories. My personal risk involves the pain of empathy surrounding an unfinished life that was long forgotten - now disinterred - and reactivated for reflection and reconstruction. Dr. Pinar describes the process: “Reactivation is my term: in Simon’s language, it becomes a two- pronged praxis of remembrance, thought and “pedagogic action” (1992) that cultivates

“historical consciousness” (Pinar, 2014, p. 7). This kind of pedagogic action implies a broader, more expansive view of teaching and learning that is not exclusively formal education. Curriculum in schools is encompassed by all the learning experiences generally supervised in or outside classrooms including dramatics, athletics and sports, activities, clubs and other extra-curricular activities. Outside of the classroom, pedagogy

(the method and practice of teaching) might emerge through a priest’s sermon, learning a dance at a Polish cultural center or social work interventions with schizophrenics, cognitively-disabled children or alcoholics. Just as Roger Simon engaged in remembrances of massacres and mutilation “beyond comprehension,” my writing may well reactivate issues of tragedy, mental illness and loss. The historical personage; the

“purposeful sample” who is the focus of my inquiry, became increasingly susceptible to psychopathology following her formal education. Conversely, her scholarship, successes and service provide opportunities for multidisciplinary insights as we reflect on the past, 7

with positive consequences for the present and imaginings toward the future. The lived experiences, education and service of a student, scholar and social worker will provide the framework for the larger story. This “larger story” involves a biographical narrative manner of approaching four themes, generally defined and described by the four corners of the map of a journey of 3S understanding (Henderson, 2016). It is my hope that this reactivation of history will be a braiding that contributes to Dr. James G. Henderson’s vision of curriculum leadership. Jen Schneider has suggested that my dissertation is in a small way contributing to ground this leadership, and that my study of her life is contributing in a specific way to reactive history and a life from the past to better understand the present. She writes that my “collecting and constructing of Marya’s story might be a way to speak to how the vision of leadership isn’t completely new. Threads of it can be tied to the past. We can sense it in the stories of those that came before” (J.

Schneider, personal communication, January 27, 2017). It will be suggested that perhaps her work encapsulates this vision of leadership through the presented findings and subsequent analysis. She was there when the field emerged, there during the establishment of the United Nations after World War II with accompanying world social welfare programs, and there when the National Mental Health Act was passed,

“establishing the National Institute of Mental health (NIMH), encouraging states, through grants, to develop and upgrade community and institutional mental health services”

(Barker, 1995, p. 47). Marya possessed intrinsic motivation for excellence led her to become a lead professional in her chosen calling of psychiatric social work. Biographical indicators indicate that she was individually invested and collaboratively engaged in the 8

teaching and practice of social work. This narrative will contribute understandings to the ongoing research and writing of Dr. James G. Henderson and colleagues as described in the following outline of the problem:

Brief Outline of the Problem

The Tyler Rationale was designed during the first half of the Twentieth century as a systematic procedure to guide curriculum workers. The Rationale outwardly appeared to be a valuable tool, a short volume without highly specific objectives that might lead to accountability and social efficiency. From the introduction: “The Rationale, which was originally fashioned out of face-to-face interactions with school teachers, gave curriculum developers an enduringly useful way to plan the conduct of the school”

(Tyler, 1949, 2013, location 48).

However, as a means to the embodiment of ethical values, the Tyler Rationale may not provide inherent safeguards, and may be utilized as a means for control and accountability. According to James G. Henderson (2017), this may have been somewhat unintentional: “Perhaps Tyler’s inattention to the distinction between critical and vulgar pragmatism is not so much a personal limitation but an artifact of the academic culture of his generation of curriculum scholars. In short, Tyler’s lack of critical awareness may mainly be traced to habit and custom” (p.14).

The Rationale itself was structured by four sections of objectives, lessons, instruction and assessments, underscoring the elements of scientific management Ralph

Tyler espoused. 9

“He saw his Rationale as a systematic procedure that could be used to guide working groups in schools, one that, as many critics fail to remember, was fashioned in the experimental curriculum work of the Eight Year Study. To criticize it raised the question of its alternative” (Hlebowitsh, 1995, p. 89).

As a worthy alternative, Dr. Henderson, Daniel Castner and Jennifer Schneider incorporate a fourfold process of professional awakening (becoming a lead professional for democratic values), creative teaching (practicing holistic pedagogical transactions), generative lead - learning (building the necessary repertoires for creative teaching) and participatory evaluating (democratically reviewing expressive outcomes and social impacts), a vast improvement on the Rationale, not relying upon sequential and structured objectives and assessments. They believe that the framework of the Tyler

Rationale was worthwhile (purpose, experience, organization, evaluation), but that it relied too much on accountability and compliance. Their work is invitational, attracting educators who are intrinsically motivated to pursue democratic curriculum leadership.

But what does this process entail?

Dr. Henderson and colleagues’ fourfold process as currently conceptualized builds upon intrinsic motivation. This incorporates a more idealized approach to curriculum theorizing that is better attuned to the nature of the learner, values of society and the knowledge inherent in the subjects. “It cannot be used for enforcement purposes because it draws its inspiration, perseverance, and moral strength from educators’ vocational callings—from the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that inspired them to be educators that advance enduring democratic values. This text’s 10

awakening/teaching/collaborating/reviewing process is irrelevant to educators without such intrinsic motivation” (Henderson, 2017, p. 14).

This awakening, teaching, lead - learning and participatory evaluating process is valuable to all educators who possess the core qualities of intrinsic motivation. “Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequence. When intrinsically motivated a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather than because of external prods, pressures, or rewards” (Deci & Ryan, 2000, p. 56).

There is little information available about the intricacies of such motivation. As a means to inform these intricacies, it is proposed that the use of a historical biographical narrative would be an engaging means to address this, perhaps motivating educators to engage in the fourfold process. As a bonus, her narrative adds an informative historical element: “In short, though curriculum history can promise no solutions, a rediscovery of the past can serve as a partial corrective to a long - standing characteristic of the field - that of ahistoricism” (Ponder, 1974, p. 463). As an example, her intrinsic motivation for educational excellence led to becoming a lead professional in her field of psychiatric social work, also developing and teaching the curriculum and practice of social work.

Again, the means to inform these intricacies is through the biographical examination of the vocational calling of Marya Barlowski with reference to the awakening, creative teaching, generative lead - learning, and participatory evaluation folds. Marya was a brilliant Greek and Latin scholar who was the valedictorian of her graduating class Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island, arguably the most 11

demanding secondary school in the country at the time. She attended Brown University for undergraduate work in Greek and Latin, and Smith College for study and research in psychiatric social work, her vocational calling.

Vocation is derived from the Latin word vocātiō, meaning “call,” or “summons.”

This involves a specific disposition, inherent qualities of mind and character that move one purposely toward a future calling of larger ideals, the embodiment of what it means to be a social worker or educator.

Through connecting to the work of James G. Henderson and his colleagues, I believe that becoming a teacher (or practitioner, instructor and curriculum leader of psychiatric social work) requires an almost “missional” calling. This calling describes the intrinsic drive that “unconsciously, from the motivation of his occupation, reaches out for all relevant information, and holds to it. The vocation acts as both magnet to attract, and as glue to hold” (Dewey, 2004, p. 297).

I further believe that this might explain why educators would want to examine what initially influenced and motivated them, pointing them towards their vocational calling. A historical biographical narrative is a worthy means to tell this story, “an education which acknowledges the full intellectual and social meaning of a vocation would include instruction in the historical background of present conditions” (Dewey,

2009, p. 306).

As a brief summary of the problem, the goal is to provide currere - based empirical insights into why educators would want to engage in the fourfold process Dr.

Henderson is theorizing. This inquiry will be explored and presented as a historical 12

biographical narrative of a real person in her own place and time. Even unheralded

biographical subjects can be inspiring as models, providing an engaging personal

component. The reader may well feel what I’m writing, developing an empathy for my

subject, and in turn be motivated to experience Dr. Henderson’s and colleagues’ fourfold

process. Therefore, the inquiry delves into curriculum leadership capacity-building

through biographical narrative, and how this described and pointed towards her

scholarship and vocational calling. This currere-based inquiry will provide insights as to

why educators would be motivated to engage in the fourfold process of James G.

Henderson, Dan Castner and Jen Schneider. This fourfold process is described in the

following manner:

Fourfold Process: Corners of Critical Imagining

The four corners of critical imagining point towards an invitation to becoming a lead

professional as a pluralistic democratic being, the method of currere for self and

historical examination, a critique of knowledge and power, and moral imagination as

defined by Ends in View as set forth by John Dewey. This describes a notion of final consequences the means of which are likely to produce the end. “The end in view is thus itself a means for directing action – just as a man’s idea of health to be attained or a house to be built is not identical with end in the sense of actual outcome but is a means for directing action to achieve that end” (Dewey, 2012, ¶ 5). The journey of becoming a lead professional, therefore, is not to achieve an “end” that is beyond inquiry and deliberation. Rather, it is a process by which the ends – and aims – are realized through the deliberation and action: “Consequently ends arise and function within action. They 13

are not strictly speaking ends or termini of action at all. They are terminals of deliberation, and so turning points in activity” (Dewey, 1922, p. 223). It is my hope that this historical biographical narrative will awaken something new, differing from the usual schema of educational discourse. It is a unique approach, and I want the writing to retain some unpredictability, maintaining an “edge.” Seidel and Jardine (2014) present a case that discourages predictability through the writing of Paulo Freire:

It speaks of a story which was once full of enthusiasm, but now shows itself

incapable of a surprise ending. The nausea of narration - sickness comes from

having heard enough, of hearing many variations on a theme but no new theme.

A narrative which is sick may claim to speak for all, yet has no aporia, no

possibility of meeting a stranger because the text is complete already (p. 2).

Nonetheless, there are “ends in view” in this writing with accompanying terminals of deliberation. The ends-in-view will be maintained and actualized through a continual biographical examination of Her vocational calling as possibilities of “intrinsic motivations” and capacity-building as described by Dr. Henderson’s vision of curriculum leadership. Curriculum Leadership may be viewed, in part, as a critique of standardization, and there are a number of publications and dissertations – in progress and defended - that build upon Dr. Henderson’s curriculum leadership research. When curriculum leadership evolves beyond where the past century has taken the field, when

Douglas McGregor and ’s work on empowerment, intrinsic motivation and capacity-building are applied, perhaps the culture of extrinsic rewards and 14

punishment in the schools in the form of testing and accountability will be diminished.

Perhaps this biographical narrative will add to existing knowledge, or at least present new

“wrinkles” through small stories that “reactivate” a life. Ravitch (2010) reversed her stance on school reform when she saw that there weren’t noticeable improvements in education. She writes that there is no simple solution: “The overemphasis on test scores to the exclusion of other important goals of education may actually undermine the love of learning and the desire to acquire knowledge, both necessary ingredients of intrinsic motivation” (p. 229). The problem as Daniel Pink describes is through the metaphor of an operating system that hasn’t been working very well, and occasionally crashing. If we extrapolate that to the influence of the Tyler Rationale, one issue that comes to mind is political pressure and endorsement for teacher merit pay. It is my belief that prospective teachers move towards their vocational calling not for rewards and high salaries, but because they are genuinely dedicated and motivated to helping kids learn. Educational policy makers and administrators to control teachers through rewards and punishments, which Pink (2009) characterizes as “carrots and sticks.” Unfortunately, extrinsic rewards and punishments have limited usefulness. Pink channels the spirit of Frederick Winslow

Taylor “murmuring directives” when he writes “People use rewards expecting to gain the benefit of increasing another person’s motivation and behavior, but in so doing, they often incur the unintentional and hidden cost of undermining that person’s intrinsic motivation toward the activity” (Pink, 2009, p. 22). The work of reconceptualizing curriculum development through curriculum problem-solving and educational leadership has been a pushback to heal the infirmed operating systems at play in school and society. 15

In the meantime, I would like this writing to be more than a variation on a theme, and believe it has a uniqueness that points towards imaginative curriculum work. A requisite arsenal – or repository - of skills, techniques and strategies for imaginative curriculum work leads to inquiry, concept development and virtue as a means to 3S understanding

(subject, self and social), using reflective teaching as professional artistry. In part, then, this dissertation is a biographical-historical analysis of these four themes, the four corners of the following map:

Henderson, J. G. (2016) Critical Imagination and the Educational Arts

Dr. Henderson and Colleagues’ map is an illustration for a specific inquiry in a

“prescribed” manner, but one open to review and revision. As a precise inquiry focus of my dissertation, and my research design (the way I will study the problem), the study and practice of a fourfold process with lead learning implications will be the basis of my research questions. Dr. Henderson’s vision of leadership is embodied in his CCLP, 16

which is “embedded in dynamic, open-ended folding, is a recursive, multiphased process supporting educators with a particular vocational calling” (Henderson, 2017). The four key components (folds) of the process are as follows:

How do educators awaken to becoming lead professionals for democratic

ways of living?

How do educators cultivate repertoires for a diversified, holistic

pedagogy?

How do educators engage in critical self-examinations?

How do educators critically appraise their emerging professional artistry?

As fits the foregrounding in the problem statement (the precise inquiry focus of my dissertation project) and my research design (the precise way in which to study this

‘problem’), Dr. Henderson’s seminar’s (CI 6/77002) four-phased process informs and is the basis for the research questions and methodology; the what and how of my study. It will be valuable here to delve into the intrinsic motivational indicators pertaining to the recognition and informing of curriculum leadership. Since no direct empirical measurement is possible, the intrinsic motivational indicators are representations of her life and educational experiences, scholarship and vocational calling. This is accomplished through narrative biographical writing as fits the pursuit of excellence and embodiment of intrinsic motivation. Her excellence continued after becoming valedictorian at arguably the most rigorous high school in the nation, graduating summa cum laude at an university and her study and research at Smith College. This journey culminated in her vocational calling, service, teaching and leadership in 17

psychiatric social work. It is suggested that her sense of intrinsic motivation was always

there. It’s evident in her research, writing, achievements and experiences. The middle

child of poor, working-class Polish immigrants from one of the poorest neighborhoods in

the country, her life’s journey deserves a second look, grounded and described by

examples of intrinsic motivation and capacity-building.

Specifics

The storyboard is set, and what I would like to know is clear. Biographical indicators are designed to illustrate the historical presence of curriculum leadership, building upon the work of James G. Henderson and colleagues as fits intrinsic motivation and capacity-building, leading to a vocational calling. It is recommended that I “be very specific about my biographical study of “intrinsic motivational indicators” as pertains to the recognition at the curriculum leadership I am studying is grounded in a “vocational calling” (J. Henderson, personal communication, April 7, 2017).

As a currere case study, artifacts that point to her motivations, capacities and

scholarship should be included, loosely following a linear timeline. Using this as a

general organizational tool, there will be ample opportunity to place other elements and interview analyses contextually into the text where appropriate. The artifacts themselves

are identified as photographs, school records, recommendations and examples of her

writing and research.

Regarding photographs and other artifacts, they are presumed to engender general

meanings. This can be accomplished through captions or standing alone. As in a

museum, there is didactic space in a dissertation that requires captions and lengthier 18

descriptions, guiding “the viewer to selected parts of the photographs and the information or ideas to be communicated”

(¶ 1). The photographs should inform and, when necessary, help carry the narrative. All of the artifacts should stand in some manner as intrinsic motivational indicators pertaining to the recognition of the curriculum leadership as grounded in a vocational calling. Since family, school and community play roles in pointing an individual towards their vocational calling, photographs from school newspapers, yearbooks and official documents are relevant to the writing. They would also be included in a currere exploration, since regression requires going back to the beginnings, to observe someone – usually oneself - functioning in the past. William Pinar (1975) describes this process in the following way: “It is suggested that one return to the schooled beginning, to the elementary years, to whenever one is able to reach. Enter again the classroom, watch the teachers, yourself and your classmates, what you did” (p. 8). There are examples of her writing that have been lost over time, but I have unearthed most – but not all - which still exist. Interviews that include reflections of family, classmates and colleagues may help describe, explain and instruct. The life’s journey of my highly – motivated subject, my

“purposeful sample,” may provide an interesting addition to the work of Dr. James G.

Henderson.

RCD and Motivation

Dr. James Henderson grounds his phases of Reconceptualizing Curriculum

Development (RCD) in Daniel Pink’s research: “The science shows that the secret to high performance isn’t our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third 19

drive— our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our own abilities, and to make a contribution” (Henderson, 2015, p. 178). This “third drive” has nothing to do with rewards and punishments and was based upon research completed in

1949 by with a group of monkeys. Biological drives like hunger, thirst and sex never came into play, as the monkeys derived enjoyment and satisfaction from the process of solving puzzle tasks, becoming quite adept on their own. “The performance of the task,” he said, “provided intrinsic reward.” The monkeys solved the puzzles simply because they found it gratifying to solve puzzles. They enjoyed it. The joy of the task was its own reward” (Pink, 2006, p. 6). He describes a book by made by scratching words and phrases on stolen bits of paper during his confinement at

Auschwitz, producing his masterpiece as Man’s Search for Meaning. Pink (2006) points us towards a seminal point through the work of Frankl: “Our fundamental drive, the motivational engine that powers human existence, is the pursuit of meaning. Frankl incorporates an approach called “,” for “logos,” the Greek word for meaning—quickly became an influential movement in ” (Pink, 2006, p.

217). Intrinsic motivation is engendered by our search for meaning and purpose, as was the life of my heroine, a Greek scholar. This divine logos/logoi, or plan(s) ordered her cosmos, whether through her Catholicism, the Sophists or Aristotle. She wanted to direct her own life, and her educational grounding, ethos, and intrinsic motivational capacities enabled her to expand her abilities and make positive contributions to society as a whole.

She achieved these ends by keeping them in view as worthwhile goals. This is also a story about my involvement with another person and the ongoing inquiry. This biography 20

has acquired a complex history all its own, and her story has also become mine. She was

a great scholar, musician, educator and social worker, and is deceased, therefore her life’s

work is complete and can be fully appraised. This currere case study will be organized to

provide a historical and creative four-fold rendering of her life through Dr. Henderson’s

four phases – now folds, providing valuable structure and organization for the inquiry.

Four Folds

Not a linear means to problem-solving as fits curriculum leadership, this process is more powerful in a Deleuzian fourfold way. We are studying as “lead-learners,” not in a hierarchic manner, but with humility as an invitation to join. This leads into the fourfold process of critical awakening, capacity-building, critical self-examining and critical reviewing. The factory model of education is the very antithesis of 3-S

Understanding and pedagogical artistry. This model should not – and does not – truly fit an educational model. Diane Ravitch (2010) writes:

Far from being twenty-first-century ideas, these strategies are firmly rooted in the

early twentieth-century factory-model approach of Frederick Winslow Taylor, the

father of “scientific management.” Taylor believed that work could be carefully

measured, and that workers would be more productive if employers identified the

right combination of incentives and sanctions (p. 259).

Since the industrial period is over, perhaps being lifelong learners and problem-solvers may be tied into figuring out what our passion is. Gilles Deleuze’s concept of folding has roots/rhizomes that connect spiritual power, informing philosophy.

An inner landscape is described as thought or a frame of mind, and Gilles Deleuze’s 21

grounding of folds in Dr. Henderson’s CL inquiries is compelling. As concepts and ideas

are “clothed” through this textile model, involving a “haptic” touch-like quality.” “The

fold, in Deleuze’s conception, is a textured philosophical fabrication. It has a palpable

quality, a material culture, a tissuelike texture…” (Bruno, 2003, p. 115). A means to

philosophical endeavors in ways seeing the world, the concept of folding helps us in

imaginative envisioning that lead to new concepts, new knowledge. “The time has come

for us to ask what philosophy is. Philosophy is the art of forming, inventing, and

fabricating concepts” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1994, p. 2). As described and utilized for our

curriculum leadership seminar, in “Deleuze’s world everything is folded, and folds, in

and out of everything else” (James Henderson, personal communication, April 19, 2017).

The folds as pertaining to this kind of leadership work may now be described. Appearing

to be four, they are not numbered so as to being open to including other extra folds. The added benefit is preventative, keeping the folds from becoming an instrumental and creativity-restricting tool. Presented here by James G. Henderson & Colleagues, then, is a process of holistic understanding and democratic curriculum artistry through a fourfolded curriculum inquiry. It is open-ended with regard to working with other folds as they may emerge through ongoing inquiry, analysis and reflection. I will designate here that each folded process will include an invitation for “working with Other folds.”

Folds of Professional Awakening

The folds of critical awakening informing study and practice are the following:

o Understanding Embodied Historical Critique

o Embracing a Loving Way 22

o Identifying Democratic Knowledge-Power Relations

o Clarifying Inclusive, Humanizing Social Justice

As addresses critical awakening, will my historical perspectives through currere case study be valuable for providing reflections and critiques? Jack Dougherty (2016) writes that it may well be impossible to approach history without case studies: “It is difficult for me to imagine a history course without antecedents, counterexamples, comparisons, and intersections, unless someone still requires students to memorize and regurgitate facts from a single-perspective textbook” (p. 117). With respect to human agency and awakening, might a historical case study disrupt some prevailing beliefs about educational policy? In other words, would “new” educational policies be seen as having long threads, reaching back into history? Can we see the past in a new way, and, as an added benefit, use sourcing and contextualizing of the uncovered historical and primary documents to contribute to new knowledge, both general and local? Regarding knowledge – power relationships, we might assume that the knowledge embraced by

Classical High School, Ivy League universities or the society at large is the truth. Power and money were – and are – required for them to do their work, and they forwarded their own “base” of ideas. To “look behind the curtain” it is valuable to read interview transcripts of her contemporaries through the oral histories of Brown Women Speak. It is more revealing to listen to their testimony, as they describe their motivations, challenges, capacities and successes. In part, this writing imagines what she might have said through this inquiry process, had she been living. The historical experiences of her contemporaries at Brown speak volumes about all the folds of critical awakening, and 23

also the other three. The correspondence, photographs, yearbooks, writing and other

memorabilia give voice specifically to Marya. Her story as allegory informs these

elements of awakening.

Folds of Creative Teaching

o Understanding 3S Pedagogy

o Cultivating a Conceptual Repertoire

o Cultivating a Judgment Repertoire

o Cultivating a Virtuous Repertoire

Regarding the folds of capacity – building, would the historical approaches to

discourse that address what was actually taught in classrooms during the early twentieth

century point to the why and how behind what is taught today? Is there a historical

precedent to the understanding of 3S pedagogy? Is there a sense of emerging democratic

curriculum in the 1930s and 1940s that is embedded in the traditional educational

experiences of Classical, Brown and Smith? Did she expand and order/reorder her

conceptual repertoire through her scholarship and curriculum leadership? Henderson,

Castner & Schneider (2018) describe capacity-building as “acting humbly, not self-

righteously, as youthful lead-learners; showing respectful, empathic understanding

toward those who might question the wisdom or feasibility of RCD efforts;

highlighting— through sharing and evoking personal stories— the intrinsic drive toward

mastery, holonomy, and purpose that are core motivational features of human beings and

of RCD” (p. 183). 24

Folds of Generative Lead-Learning

o Understanding Existential Freedom

o Examining Personal Journeys of 3S Understanding

o Incorporating Historical Critique

o Sharing Autobiographical/Historical Narratives

“The four becoming moments I will highlight (inspired awakening, mindful

enacting, heartfelt self-examining, and persistent envisioning) are intended to be a starter-

kit to begin and sustain your investigations into embodying holistic understanding in the

contexts of your classroom (s), school (s), and beyond” (p. 62). As a means to address

the four folds of critical self-examining, Henderson suggests a process that guides us to

“contemplate challenges and critique ourselves as lead learners. This idea is at the center

of heartfelt self-examining. The heartfelt quality is a reminder to us about the caring and

compassionate nature of this work” (p. 62). Reflecting upon the self was something my

heroine embraced. As a means to represent the personage of my case study, I will have

to make informed judgements as to her inner being, her interior “landscape,” intuitions

and . Dr. James G. Henderson writes (2014) that the “process of self-

examining requires us to engage in deep introspections by probing our “inner

landscape[s]” (Palmer, 2007). Doing this, we delve into our pasts, presents, and possible

futures in order to strengthen our critical self-reflective capacities as teachers around

holistic pedagogy” (p. 64). My personal belief is that our “inner landscapes” might also

be described as “mindscapes.” For example, the human face could be described as a

mirror of the mind. That is why good photographic portraits are so “telling.” They 25

reveal the soul. When an artist depicts a portrait, nude, landscape or still life, there is also an unmasking of the self. From 1902 until 1906 Cézanne painted many views of Mont

Sainte-Victoire, both in watercolor and oil. During this period of his life he was following an inner drive and passion, returning again and again to his “beau motif.” He was in dialogue with himself. I can understand his drive, because Saint-Victoire from the outskirts of Aix- en- Provence easily captivates and motivates. It was emblematic of an inner journey for Cezanne as he divided up his picture plane with brushwork and drawing.

The writing that Marya composed is generally unrecognized, whether through fate or random selection. She was published, read and reviewed by many in her own place and time. She had her own journey, her own drive, her own Saint-Victoire. I do also.

She is the biographical subject in this historiography. One does not paint a mountain once and come to an understanding of it – or oneself. Cezanne moved on, and eventually

I will also.

As to critical self-examining, what was her personal journey of 3S understanding

(What would her perceptions have looked like)? What would the interplay of past experiences, present activities and future understandings - her autobiographical/historical narrative written by me through currere as biography – resemble? As to examining her personal journey of 3S understanding, can this be described and illuminated with the interplay of past experiences, and her then present activities, and future aspirations? Her prowess and excellence at most sports during her tenure at Classical High School reflected her brand of Athletic engagement and self- improvement. Her competitive 26

spirit was surely reflective of intrinsic motivation for capacity-building. Margaret

Ajootian Layshock, her friend and colleague, summed up the intensity they both had:

“We were driven to play well. During both our four years on the basketball team we both played our hearts during every game, even at practice” (Margaret Layshock, personal correspondence, March 16, 2016).

As part of a team, she was not only involved in examining and reviewing the self, but also the relationships with the other players. Further, whether through activities, scholarship or sports, she was also “entangled” with the culture and traditions at Classical

High, a venerable century-old institution. There were ample lessons to be applied later in life as a Classical High scholar/athlete might reflect upon a day, week, semester or year.

She was, according to colleagues and family, insightful and reflective. “The insights gathered from self-examining should not just remain locked away in our minds, which circles us back into the notion of action. Reflection is about manifesting action through the “taking of initiatives; it signifies moving into a future seen from … [one’s own] vantage point as an actor or agent” (Greene, 1995, p. 15)” (Henderson, 2014, p. 65).

Coach Mike Krzyzewski recently discussed leadership in an interview with David

Rubenstein. He was also of Polish heritage, the first generation to graduate from college.

He tries to make every day like it’s his first day, backed up by forty-two years of experience. A lot of time is spent on recruiting, because many athletes stay only a year before matriculating into the National Basketball Association. Mr. Krzyewski is reflective about the motivations of his players: “The best players aren’t interested in their individual stats. They just love the sport and are motivated to play the game.” That’s 27

why they succeed, and the outcome was a national championship in 2017. There are

plenty of “motivational indicators” with regards to Her athletic accomplishments, and

also the other extracurricular pursuits in which she engaged. What about the motivational

elements that enabled her scholastic artistry and leadership? What about her experiences

of peer and public reviewing?

Folds of Participatory Evaluation

o Understanding the Critique of Tactful, Humanizing Artistry

o Self-Reviewing

o Peer-Reviewing

o Public-Reviewing

Marya attended an excellent high school, undergraduate and graduate colleges, and probably made a well-reflected career decision. Her creative voice was crystallized in a career of psychiatric social work. The immense landscapes that were energized and informed by her classical inquiries may have been somewhat hindered by her professional calling in “by the merits and limitations of test instruments and forms of evaluation” (Henderson, 2014, p. 81). That argument will be explored at a later time.

Her experiences of peer and public reviewing were many, from informal conversations to the formal engagement with her professors, students and colleagues in psychiatric social work. I might add that this also includes her conversations and professional engagement with clients - her patients – those to whom she aimed to serve.

As to the folds of critical reviewing, or appraising their professional artistry, could the 28

arts and humanities – based elements of curriculum at Classical High School be analyzed? Would her collaborative and outgoing collaborative professionalism be characterized as “self-reviewing through personal evaluations of the arts of pedagogical tact and humanizing presence?” What would these experiences have resembled if they were subject to peer-reviewing and collegial evaluations of peer and public reviewing?

(They were) What defined her artistry in scholarship, writing and practice, and can this be conceived of as valuable in the future to educating, enlightening and awakening not only the curriculum leadership seminar students, but other “stakeholders” as well?

Would this be of value to anyone, and would it make the world a better place, improving a future vision of education? Would a historical biographical narrative of a long- deceased lead learner be valuable to the field? I believe so.

Other Emerging Folds

There will most likely be other folds to be worked through with as they emerge through data collection, analysis and subsequent writing. There is an esthetic “doing,” a

“making” in the artistry and craftsmanship to be explored. As described by Dewey,

“Craftsmanship to be artistic in the final sense must be “loving”; it must care deeply for the subject matter upon which skill is exercised” (Stuhr, 2000, p. 525). This artistry may be seen in a painting, sculpture or writing, whatever is eventually experienced as being appreciated, perceiving and enjoying (p. 524). This process embodies the folds of critical reviewing, incorporating self, peer and public review. Sensory satisfaction is connected to the artistic experience and activity: “To be truly artistic, a work must also be esthetic – that is, framed for enjoyed receptive ’ (Stuhr, 2000, p. 525). And like the 29

sandy path over sand dunes leading to a beach, eventually one makes it to the water. The salt air, the sound of the surf, the call of a tern – they foreground the eventual experience and are an integral part of it, part of the aesthetic. From Elliot Eisner (2002) “So how do the arts affect consciousness? They do so in a number of ways. They refine our senses so that our ability to experience the world is made more complex and subtle; they promote the use of our imaginative capacities so that we envision what we cannot actually see, taste, touch hear and smell; they provide models by which we can experience the world in new ways…” (p. 18). Marya was this sort of person. She was not only a scholar, not just a practitioner, but also an esthete, with sublime and refined sensitivity and appreciation to the nuances and beauty in music and art. She would have welcomed all aspects of this fourfold process. “For the purposes of my dissertation you don’t need to go deeply into the artistry associated with the fourfold process with its lead-learning implications since you are on motivational indicators” (J. Henderson, personal communication,

April 7, 2017). These motivational indicators will exclusively remain as my precise, specific dissertation research agenda.

Her esthetic sensibilities likely helped inform her capacities of intrinsic motivation, whether it was through art, music, the humanities, rigorous Greek and Latin scholarship or psychiatric social work. She always sought to improve the scope and quality of her work. As a “curriculum worker” she was a collaborator and instructor in the theory and practice of social work. Intrinsic motivation with purpose, autonomy and mastery was the driving force of her scholarship and her vocational calling. Her capacity, 30

her ability to experience, understand and do generally drove her power to perform and

withstand.

This inquiry will have to be informed with the data collected and experiences I’ve

had doing the research, and it has been an experience. Dewey describes experience as

having “tremendous importance,” such as a “meal in a Paris restaurant of which one says

‘that was an experience.’ It stands out as an enduring memorial to what food may be”

(Stuhr, 2002, p. 520). These biographical and autobiographical experiences and

entanglements point to this being – in part - the story of telling the story. Each part flows

generally freely, and vital in every way. This experience exists in a reciprocity with Her

story, but it has larger implications.

An Envisioned Future

Peter Hlebowitsh was the first to describe her as “my heroine,” but I will avoid using that label. In interviewing those who knew her, they all describe her talents, motivations and with one word: awe. Marya represents the model for an

envisioned future, delivered through biographical narrative as an alternative to

standardization, accountability and the enduring legacy of Ralph Tyler. Her story is an

intrinsically compelling narrative in its’ own right. I believe that there are provocative

constructs, and relevant histories to recount. William Pinar writes that “we will never

advance as educators if we do not at once catch sight of where we are in relation to where

we have been” (Magrini, 2012, p. 178). At issue is the “indeterminate future” of

education. Magrini (2012) writes that’s Dwayne Huebner’s (1999) concepts of solitude,

freedom and fraternity might lead to awakenings defined as that which “calls for the 31

‘willingness to be influenced,’ challenged, changed and influenced profoundly by those

with whom we share the community of learning” (p. 178). Here begins a conversation

about being and knowing that has no business being associated with disingenuous

prejudices, a portal where the past and future may be just out of reach, but nonetheless

accessible.

The Soldier’s Arch, Brown University, 2015 photo by Karl Martin, and 1944, Brun Mael,

p. 6.

Historiography and Narrative Biographical Writing

This historical writing may help better understand how we have fallen prey to standardization and social efficiency, and offer a means to shed new light through unique ways of looking at and making sense of things, and new ways of being. In this way, there will be also be future relevance to the field of curriculum studies. The Journal of

Curriculum Theorizing and involvement in the Bergamo Conference on Curriculum

Theory and Practice have pointed me toward an interest in the history of the field.

William Pinar (2008) believes that the field is “insufficiently historicized” and that its’ 32

“intellectual advancement” depends on it: “Ours is hardly the only discipline to disavow its’ past and ignore the great figures. But it is disconcerting that there remain curriculum studies scholars who fail to position curriculum history theory as central in their research and teaching” (p. 5). While challenging standardization in education, a historical inquiry and critique of the generally discredited Rationale will be situated with other theorists from 1918 to the Reconceptualization, which is roughly the time of her death.

Credited with using the all-too-familiar term evaluation for aligning measurement and testing with educational objectives,his Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

(1949) unleashed a Strangelove of standardization and accountability. Coming from a unique place and time, my heroine enjoyed an education generally lost in the present day, generally unaffected by a Fenris Wolf of accountability that is not easily contained and bound. Part of the focus of this work, then, is based upon challenging standardization and accountability. In addition, this writing incorporates “the individual and her journey, which is something that doesn’t sit well with standardized management,” which likes to depersonalize and decontextualize people…even dehumanize them” (J. Schneider, personal communication, December 19, 2017). As a critique of the Tyler Rationale, the narrative form will provide headroom for critical awareness and moral imagination. This should incorporate problem-solving tempered with kindness and a love of humanity. As we face the darkness in ourselves, what we teach and the world in general, there exists a

“moral need” for loving other people (Garrison, 1997). This is true especially in the way we see young people, our daughters, sons and students. In thinking through the problem with a heart-centered perspective, beneficial dialogue may emerge through 33

transformative curriculum leadership. We can measure a society based upon how it treats its children. Our youth - as a generation - are growing up in an unstable environment that Henry Giroux (2016) suggests is embodied by a lack of jobs, soaring educational costs and lacking in social support. Citing Zygmunt Bauman, he describes the youth today as societal outcasts: “It is little wonder that these youngsters are called

Generation Zero: A generation with Zero opportunities, Zero future and zero expectations” (Giroux, 2016, ¶ 6). Built upon transformative curriculum leadership and teaching for “3-S” pedagogy, currere examination works through a holistic journey of understanding from a Dewey heritage. Incorporating a critique of standardization through Foucault, and a biographical narrative that illustrates moral imagination and imaginative experience, the holistic anchor will be currere.

Statement and Significance of the Work

The territory to be staked out is as follows: My focus is on a biographical examination of motivational indicators for the study and practice of the Curriculum

Leadership process. Explorations as to how one becomes a “lead professional” and a recursive problem-solving process (no “steps”) are being forwarded. Empirically, however, who is interested in this? Narrative work can be engaging, especially when a reader comes to a place where they really care about a character. The humanity inherent in us all emerges through empathy and compassion. It is hoped that elements of her story illuminate curriculum leadership capacity-building through biographical narrative, pointing towards her scholarship and vocational calling. This currere-based inquiry will provide insights as to why educators would be motivated to engage in Dr. Henderson and 34

colleagues’ fourfold process. My heartfelt commitment delves into the life, motivations and implications of her lived experiences, scholarship and vocational service. Dr. Janice

Kroeger suggested that I make a visual representation reflecting this commitment.

Brun Mael, 1945. Marya Barlowski’s senior picture with overlay.

A generally speculative question could be framed as if Marya were alive today what would be her contribution to the study of curriculum leadership? After all, following her formal educational experiences she did engage in teaching, learning and curriculum leadership in her chosen field of social work. A better question suited to a dissertation could be presented in this manner, and it incorporates two mutual elements of ebb and flow: “What specifically does a biographical examination of Her vocational calling reveal about her likely “intrinsic motivations” to engage in the capacity-building 35

in Dr. Henderson’s curriculum leadership seminar? What does this examination reveal

about what was unfulfilled in Her professional life due to the fact that she did not have

this capacity-building opportunity” (J. Henderson, personal communication, February 17,

2017).

Intrinsic Motivation and Capacity - Building

I previously wrote that the work Dr. Henderson and colleagues’ work delves into

the motivational sources of inspired curriculum leadership, the study and practice of

subject, self and social understanding. Henderson (2015) points out that motivation and

curricular aims ground the guiding principles of Reconceptualizing Curriculum

Development, and that motivational and curricular aim serves as organizers. Specifically,

the preface organizes current research on intrinsic motivation into three interrelated

categories: purpose, autonomy, and mastery.

Purpose

Henderson (2015) describes the essence of Pink’s first motive in this way: “We

know that the richest experiences in our lives aren’t when we’re clamoring for validation

from others, but when we are listening to our own voice— doing something that matters,

doing it well, and doing it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves” (p. 145).

Marya likely embodied intrinsic motivation ythat incorporated the value of acquisition of knowledge. Leigh Bortins (2010) describes the kind of education Marya received at Classical high and Brown in this manner: “The classical model emphasizes that learning feeds the soul and edifies the person rather than producing employees to 36

work an assembly line. The goal of a classical education is to instill wisdom and virtue in people” (p. 5). This reflects well the demanding educational institution that Classical

High was – and is today. Requiring excellent scholarship and engagement in activities and also an excellent score on the entrance exam, Classical has nearly 100 percent college attendance. The narrow, utilitarian curriculum with reliance on testing is not the vision of education at Classical High School. Diane Ravitch (2010) believes that there should be guidelines that encourage imaginative curriculum, that is, what should be taught and how: “Students should regularly engage in the study and practice of the liberal arts and sciences: history, literature, geography, the sciences, civics, mathematics, the arts, and foreign languages, as well as health and physical education” (p. 231). The students presently enrolled at Classical outwardly seem intrinsically motivated, as were those from the past. As demanding as the work is, they have to be. The traditional education that Marya Barlowski received left her well-prepared for leading a virtuous and useful life, certainly able to think through issues. Embracing learning for its own sake, her education enabled inquiry, decision-making and discovery of solutions. For a good period of time she was able to face the joys and heartaches of professional and personal life with resolve, joy and humor.

Autonomy

Autonomy might inquire as to what, exactly, leadership engenders. Marya fit the profile of being a highly-motivated student from one of the poorest communities.

Interviews with waning family, classmates and colleagues corroborate her sense of autonomy. Her incentive to learn was not based upon reward or punishment, at least not 37

in the manner we might think. Pink (2009) argues that belief in “authentic freedom” is

built into our evolutionary heritage. “We’re born to be players, not pawns. We’re meant

to be autonomous individuals, not individual automatons” (Henderson, 2014, p. 106).

Marya fit the profile of being a highly-motivated student from one of the poorest

communities. Her incentive to learn was not based upon extrinsic motivators. She wanted to master everything she undertook.

In the literature review I referenced the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor, father of scientific management, and the ever-widening vector of influence his research made upon Franklin Bobbitt and Ralph Tyler. “Taylor believed that work could be carefully measured, and that workers would be more productive if employers identified the right combination of incentives and sanctions” (Ravitch, 2011, p. 259). It’s quite possible that the “wrong” theorists gained ground at the expense of those who were more thoughtful, reflective and democratic. Bobbitt, Charters and Tyler emerged to dominate the field, but

William Kilpatrick and mentor John Dewey were always there.

Mastery

Whether through classical or traditional, or any it’s important that a rich and rewarding learning environment is created, and this requires engendering pursuit of mastery. Well-trained, professional and knowledgeable teachers work from a well- conceived and planned curriculum. The students at Classical are intrinsically motivated, down to the last one, because they are challenged to excel. A school in a democratic society that relies on shortcuts, providing for the basic acquisition of facts will not develop agency among its students. Deweyan scholar Jim Garrison writes about 38

“teachable moments” where teacher and student are engaged and in “dynamic rhythm,” but suggests that these moments are generally rare. “Even many of our best students seem to learn simply for the sake of grades and credits and are seldom engaged in the joy of learning for its own sake. Though they may acquire considerable knowledge and skills, the lasting effect of such an education robs many students of their desire to learn, effectively undermining their future education” (Garrison, 2003, p. 526). After firsthand observations of Classical High School, it is obvious that its historical excellence continues in the present day. For most of her life, Marya considered life mastery as the end result of her purpose and autonomy, her scholarship pointing towards her vocational calling. Classical High, Brown University and Smith College are demanding and rigorous institutions. Despite the academic load the students are, with few or no exceptions, intrinsically motivated. Finally, Diane Ravitch (2011) suggests that our

“schools will not improve if we continue to focus only on reading and mathematics while ignoring the other studies that are essential elements of a good education. Schools that expect nothing more of their students than mastery of basic skills will not produce graduates who are ready for college or the modern workplace” (p. 226). Her schools expected – and still expect – the best from their students.

The Lack of Capacity-Building

The other side of the coin was that Marya didn’t have everything she needed, and unfulfilled elements of her personal and professional life possibly emerged due to the fact that she did not have this capacity-building opportunity, or at least an ongoing bastion that upheld her attitudes and principles. Impediments to her leadership existed, as if she 39

were occasionally tilting at windmills. More importantly, there were ongoing challenges to her sense of autonomy and purpose. This occurred during certain phases of her life, somewhat of a loss of agency and resiliency, and that which protected qualities of motivation inexorably eroded. This was due, in part, to limitations both historical and gender – related. All the women of Brown graduated with critical examination and capacity – building skills which became conflagrated with reality when they passed under the with cap and gown.

Van Wickle Gates, Graduation Day, Class of 1941.

Impediments

As to what this examination reveals about what was unfulfilled in her professional life due to her perceived lack of this capacity-building opportunity, there were many obstacles. The poverty of the family and subsequent loss of a father as a teenager might have begun an unraveling. Being both Polish and Roman Catholic were two strikes against the entire family. During those times, ethnicity was not accepted except as within your own communities. The Polish community was no exception, and they socialized 40

and worshipped together. A central gathering place was the Polish Home nearby in downtown Olneyville, where the Polish people had their weddings, dances and other celebrations. They all congregated there or at Saint Adalbert’s Polish Parish nearby, built by Italian craftsmen in 1903. “We Italians were the same way. Some of the others didn’t like or accept us, so we stuck to ourselves.” (E. Sammartino, personal communication,

December 11, 2014). One could also explore the prevailing prejudices with regards to the attitudes about the “place” and scholarship of women, and also the general lack of opportunities that were available. There were even “women’s colleges” at Brown and

Harvard, although their diplomas acknowledged that they were, in fact, part of the university. Undergraduate women read the yearbooks, and they often included advertisements promoting the likes of Jo-Ann School of Beauty Culture in addition to telephone operator or secretary. Surely this corporate intrusion might have marginalized young women studying subjects “informed and structured by the ideas that make us human.” Fortunately, young women had ample opportunity for both scholarship and leadership at Brown University, and “job training” was not incorporated into the curriculum.

Unfulfilled elements and challenges in many of the women graduates of Brown will be explored further and referenced through Brown Women Speak, research that built a collection of interviews from women who graduated in the 1930s through the 1960s.

There were fewer opportunities afforded to women than in the present day, and it’s a fair assumption that this inhibited their capacity-building with which they might address this issue. Some progress had been made towards gender quality, but this was still the early 41

stages of feminism. There were expectations that women should marry soon after

college. Marya never married, and this possibly stigmatized her for the duration of a

lifetime. There was also the issue of World War II and its’ personal toll on students and

the curriculum at Brown. Marya was a City Girl, and that posed many obstacles for her,

especially the inability to form deep relationships and the detached experience she had at

Pembroke because she lived off campus. These were shared with all women graduates of

the nineteen – forties, but there was one overarching challenge with which only she had

to deal – her illness. Her management of and willful partial overcoming of her

psychopathology that was with her since childhood or developed after her formal

education - permeated everything. Working with schizophrenic patients in numerous

asylums from the 1940s through the 1960s must have been challenging, requiring

empathy that increasingly became internalized. Her overreaching curiosity and

determination to determine her fate through all challenges; through heartbreak; through tragedy and also mental illness until her death fueled her own capacity - building. She provides us with a good story, a narrative that breathes life into generalized concepts.

“Generalizations, abstractions and theories need particulars, concretes and details to support and exemplify them. Professors of writing often tell their students not to write about humanity but rather to write about one human being” (Nash, 2004, p. 59). There exists a universal appeal of the reference points as regards a “real” person. Her lived experiences, scholarship, professional practice and leadership make up the elements of this story. As a grounding that will help the reader see this work and world a little differently, the work I’m attempting to build upon is scholarly. Their inquiries are peer- 42

reviewed, legitimately drawing on synthesis and recursive dialogue. Furthermore, their work is grounded on theorists that have been forerunners in the field after the

Reconceptualization. As to her credentials and qualifications, it’s easy to imagine her in a lead professional role as fits democratic living, because she actually embodied inclusivity and contemporary humanism, enlarging and expanding her horizons and understanding freedom as the construction of informed judgements. Marya was engaged in curriculum work throughout the academic year of 1959 to 1960, part of the deliberative process that determined what should be taught, and how at the Ohio State

University School of Social Work. Her work there embodies what curriculum leadership is all about, and this dissertation is, in a small way, contributing to ground this leadership.

“The study of her life is contributing in a specific way, that is, to reactive history and a live from the past to better understand the present” (J. Schneider, personal communication, January 26, 2017). She was motivated to participate in leadership at

Classical High, Brown University, Smith College, the Ohio State University, the Boston

VA, and, finally, the Department of social Welfare in providence, Rhode Island. In addition, during a time when inclusivity was not well - received she befriended the only student of color – Betty Jackson - at Brown University. They were colleagues on various organizations at Brown, including the Question Club. Marya was involved with the school newspaper (both the Record-Herald and Pembroke Record), Glee Club, Choir, dramatic productions (Sock & Bushkin), IRC, Phi Beta Kappa and student government.

These are valuable as biographical indicators in the findings, the specifics of which will be described and analyzed in Chapters four and five. 43

Brun Mael,1944, p. 78. Members of the Question Club, Marya at far right.

Betty and Marya were colleagues in numerous organizations at Brown University, including the leadership organization pictured above. The Question Club was “founded with the dual purpose of promoting better relations among the classes and organizations of the school, and of giving impartial advice to campus organizations, besides solving difficulties that might arise within individual clubs” (Brun Mael, 1945, p.78). Members included the heads of major organizations on the Brown campus, clearly a noteworthy leadership organization. There are numerous examples of her leadership in the field of 44

psychiatric social work and at Brown University, but what about her formative high school experiences?

Classical High School

She was valedictorian of arguably the most rigorous secondary school in the

United States. A strong case can be made that it still retains that spot, and in a brief interview Stanley Fish of pointed me towards a written description of his alma mater:

When I attended, offerings and requirements included four years of

Latin, three years of French, two years of German, physics, chemistry,

biology, algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, English, history,

civics, in addition to extra-curricular activities, and clubs — French Club,

Latin Club, German Club, Science Club, among many others. A student

body made up of the children of immigrants or first-generation Americans;

many, like me, the first in their families to finish high school. Nearly a 100

percent college attendance rate. A yearbook that featured student

translations from Virgil and original poems in Latin (Fish, 2010, ¶ 2).

Classical High School is my designated epicenter - and primary setting - of the writing and research. My contribution to the inquiry would encompass a biographical exploration and analysis of how Marya Barlowski – my “purposeful sample”- might fit into a curriculum leadership seminar modeled as a pilot study. Dr. James Henderson’s work incorporates a similar format to the Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, but with a very different perspective. His class is a pilot that has been defended during three 45

visiting seminars. My investigation will be part of this larger study/work, the purpose of

which is the generation of an alternative to the Rationale.

Four sections covering different aspects of the study provide me with the unique opportunity to contribute to the problems presented as part of the prospectus material, drawing on peer-reviewed material and adding to the mix in a positive manner, through biographical narrative. I will be drawing on syntheses of recursive elements from Maxine

Greene, William Pinar, Nel Noddings and Eliot Eisner. The following two questions represent the organizing references:

1. Empirically speaking, who might be interested?

2. If Marya Barlowski were alive today and a graduate student, would she want to take this seminar?

There are unknowns – what we do not and cannot know – as to how this material will be received; how it might resonate. To help answer that question, key biographical markers of her lived experiences, formal education and professional calling position her in this work. Through empathy I have to imagine her currere and resulting lead-learner plan and possible thinking as a lead professional. Through the historical narrative and surrounding Postmodern application/process of discourse, French theorists such as

Jacques Derrida and postmodernist Michel Foucault might be helpful as a means to explore the power/knowledge as accepted forms of truth.

Historical Writing as Genealogy

Power – for Foucault - is what makes us who we are, our identity and

actions. As informing the objectification and subjectification of psychiatric science, 46

Foucault outlined a strong position as to the exercise of power over the life of a person.

Foucault became interested in genealogies and the practice of imprisonment/confinement also in systems of medical psychiatry. Through the relationship between power and knowledge, objectification made human beings subjects of what Barry Smart (1992) suggests were “immature sciences” that subjectified with “technologies of power” (p.

105). Foucault held the position was that knowledge and power are co-dependent: “The institutions of the asylum, the hospital, the prison, and the ’s couch not only contexts within which relations of power have been formed and exercised but in addition

‘laboratories’ for observation and documentation, from which bodies of knowledge have accumulated about the mad, the sick, the criminal, and the ‘sexual’ subject” (Smart, 1992, p. 105). His approach was to use of the term genealogy as a substitute for history, removing the use of power and domination from the genre. This was helpful in providing an alternative definition of what history is. Foregoing this traditional view of history as an unbiased ‘truth,” Foucault believed “this is disingenuous, because it means trying to elide the very motivations that leads them to study history in the first place. In genealogy, we are trying not simply to do the history of a thing but to deliberately pick a thread. Kelly (2014) argues that Foucault does not invent or fabricate material, but that his historical references are open and selective, highlighting “the selective fiction of the exercise of writing history in general” (p. 71). This makes a strong case for relativity when approaching accepted historical “facts.”

The Legacy of the Rationale

There is a prevailing sentiment – a mythology - that educational assessment and 47

accountability, the Common Core and trickle-down economics are necessary, factual and

true. It’s valuable to consider the Frankfurt School through the theorists Adorno,

Horkheimer, Marcuse and Benjamin (among others) as an invitation to think differently

about what we are presented as undeniable fact, or truth. The Frankfurt School (here

Gramsci) offers a critique through the sociology of knowledge regarding the “temporal core” of what is referred to as a historical bloc: “Although historically relative, it has unavoidable binding effects “on us” – because there is no neutral outside from which we could compare our historical understanding with an ahistorical truth. All concepts are therefore constituted in and by the social praxis” (Demirović, 2013,p. 4).

It could easily be argued that public education has become just another means to reinforce specific economic and political ideologies, already socialized and embodied, insidious and irresistible. Stated another way, everything deserves a second look, including what we’re told by politicians about pedagogy and the classroom. Dana

Goldstein begins The Teacher Wars with writing by John Dewey, from 1895: “It is… advisable that the teacher should understand, and even be able to criticize, the general principles upon which the whole educational system is formed and administered. He is not like a private soldier in an army, expected merely to obey, or like a cog in a wheel, expected merely to respond to and transmit external energy; he must be an intelligent medium of action” (Goldstein, 2014, Kindle Locations 75-77). This hardly seems like the landscape of accountability and standardization today, and certainly does not encapsulate the type of education my heroine received, a liberal education that was meant to foster critical thinking. 48

Another Valedictorian

Another brilliant woman from Classical who helps me in giving voice to Marya is

Margaret Dorgan, and I cannot imagine a more engaging ninety year - old scholar, visionary and theologian. Sister Margaret Dorgan, a prolific writer and lecturer who graduated Classical in 1944 as valedictorian, offered her perspective during a recent interview: “We usually had to ride the streetcar past the public high school we were supposed to attend on the way to Classical. A full day of academics, activities and sports followed, and then there was the equally long ride back home. The family ate dinner together, of course, and then there were the hours of homework” (M. Dorgan, personal communication, January 26, 2017). Following Classical, Sister Margaret attended

Radcliffe, graduating Summa Cum Laude. Her calling was to become a nun who taught, lectured and wrote. A significant part of her scholarship consists of interpreting the life, religious insights and wisdom of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. As written by Sister

Margaret:

“Thérèse and all Carmelites agree with the statement of Socrates, 'The unexamined life isn't worth living'. The young French nun who never studied the wisdom of the Greeks had examined human existence from an early age and found at its core a metaphysics of merciful love. If she had met Parmenides, she would have told him the

One is merciful love. To Heraclitus she would say that all change embodies merciful love in its ongoing flux” (Dorgan, 1997, p. 36). Sister Margaret represents a unique

Catholic perspective regarding autobiographical and biographical writing, incorporating ethics and morality into education. I will visit and interview her this summer, and hope 49

to discover the specifics of what motivated her to excellence. “Just as the history of curriculum thought can be portrayed as tumultuous movements of creation, crisis, and transformation, so too can the effort to understand curriculum as theological text be characterized as a processive movement of body, mind, and spirit in the spiral of procreation, death, and resurrection” (Pinar et al., 2005, p. 660).

Marya graduated at the same time (1941) as John Dorgan, brother of Margaret.

Both were academically driven and Summa Cum Laude, but Marya claimed the distinction of being the valedictorian for the class of 1941. Their parents were disappointed, but he attended Harvard as an undergraduate and also a law student, subsequently enjoying an exemplary career as a partner in a major firm. This was at a time when lawyers were held in the highest esteem. My maternal great – grandfather was a highly-regarded attorney in Providence, even having a street named after him.

Margaret attended Radcliffe (Harvard) while Marya attended Pembroke (Brown), both heading towards an Ivy League education. Marya attended the local Ivy League institution in an effort to save money for her family, including a younger sister three years her junior. In addition to providing a living perspective in the here and now, Sister

Margaret offers a kind of transcendence, needed in this inquiry.

Higher Education

Following Classical High School, Pembroke College of Brown University was the next chapter in her ongoing education. Her vocational training Marya involved research during her internship in psychiatric social work at Smith. Following her formal education, 50

my heroine pursued her vocational calling in psychiatric social work through leadership in the emerging and evolving field as fit her earlier research. She attempted to shape her identity and discover what it means to be human, most likely gradually succumbing to psychopathology after her internship at Greystone Park. It would be speculative to suggest that her rigorous formal education helped Marya to control her subsequent , but it is a possibility.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Reward and punishment may appear unrelated, but they encapsulate well the idiom “two sides of the same coin,” both involving the use of control. Stated another way, both are used to control people, and neither work very well. The treatment of mental illness can be seen as a form of domination and conformity, and Marya occupied both sides of the aisle, attending to the mentally ill through psychiatric social work and her subsequent psychopathology leading to treatment and therapies administered by the medical profession. Accepted truths are rampant in psychiatry, and Michel Foucault explores the validity and corruptibility of the discipline in History of Madness. At the center of that critique is his claim that modern psychiatry, while purporting to be grounded in scientific truths, is primarily a system of moral judgments” (Gutting, 2013, ¶ 2). Dr. Jennifer

Fisette, with whom I took the doctoral class Forms of Inquiry, has suggested that her bouts with psychopathology should be included as part of the overall narrative. Piecing together and working through this later segment of her life will be difficult, but Bill Pinar writes that there exists “a psychic and social responsibility to bring the dead into 51

presence, a responsibility that concurrently involves learning to live with, and in relation to, loss” (Pinar, 2004, p. 9). That is where remembrance and regression may be employed. The sepia-toned educational environment of my heroine encouraged critical thinking. In reactivating the lived experiences, writing and service of Marya through this process Pinar (2004) offers these guidelines: “Remembrance, then, means regression, living with/in loss, returning to what was past, returning to a present we might not now recognize because we are different. Because the present now slips past, we become historical, conscious of our situatedness in what has happened and is happening still” (p.

9). There were two programs available in her secondary education, Classical and English.

Both were college preparatory, the primary difference being extra semesters of Latin or

Greek as you might expect from an institution aptly named Classical High. It is my hope that the experiences, education and service of Marya will afford some measure of discourse analysis that affords scrutiny and shapes alternative framings and perspectives.

The intention, therefore, is to frame and defend a dissertation problem that can be usefully informed in part by the allegorical autobiography of William Pinar, adapting his currere historical refinement as an allegorical/biographical application. The other component is the utilization of the biographical narrative as a means to understanding and building upon four themes as forwarded by Dr. James G. Henderson and his colleagues.

If there is a missing ingredient in their work, it is the absence of strong historical biographical descriptions laced with critical imagination. The narrative piece will encapsulate what the four themes look like “on the ground.” This biographical narrative piece might be elucidated by this question: If she had been part of the teacher leader team 52

as a means to facilitating Curriculum leadership, what would she say (have said) and what would she write (have written)? Dr. Henderson and colleagues’ “map” is an illustration for a specific interpretation of doing/being a teacher leader, with a possible outcome of practical wisdom. Practical wisdom, according to Dr. James Henderson, is the supreme virtue in holistic TLC artistry (personal communication, November 23,

2016). Henderson and Kesson (2004) cite Henderson and Hawthorn (2000) describing

“transformative curriculum leadership as a collaborative effort to base curriculum decisions on morally wise judgements as well as a complex set of carefully orchestrated, multileveled reform activities focusing on “deepening curriculum problem solving in societies with democratic ideals” (p. 159). Following this definition, one wonders what practical wisdom and democratic problem-solving might my heroine have shared? How might her biographical indicators contribute to collaborative and inspirational curriculum leadership work? Marya Barlowski represents a “purposeful sample,” and her biographical analysis will illuminate how these four themes come alive in her lived experiences, writing and work, an imaginative holistic interplay.

The writing of John Dewey and other pragmatists inform her chosen profession.

George H. Mead, a colleague of His at the University of Chicago, believed that interactions as members of society were paramount to the behavioral sciences. Published in 1961, his volume Explorations in Transactional “directly inspired by the

Knower and the Known, deals with many of the experiments and conclusions developed so far by the division of psychology which has been called transactional psychology”

(Miller, 1963, p. 18). The psychiatric social worker, client and the field situation are 53

interactive and reciprocal. Her story could possibly inform a multitude of wrinkles, navigating the middle ground between sanity and madness, traditional and progressive education, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and past and future. I shared an introduction to my narrative with Peter Hlebowitsh, and he responded with a description of himself as a “Deweyan thinker” and possible avenues for exploration: “Thanks for your patience with me. You write beautifully and I very much enjoyed the snippet that you shared with me on the classical tradition. It is classical indeed, in the sense that it is rooted in a working belief in the power of the subject matter to intellectualize and civilize, but it’s progressive too, in as much as its advocates argue that it offers us common knowledge and values that inform a common discourse dedicated to bringing about some working understanding and appreciation of both what we hold in common and what we do not.

You could find Dewey making this argument and you could find E. D. Hirsch making it too. Why not try this as a framework? That is, try to see if the classic tradition can be exploited for progressive purposes and look for it in the various schools you aim to study” (Peter Hlebowitsh, personal communication, December 4, 2014).

The progressivism outlined by John Dewey has been critiqued as depriving students of “transcendent truths about human nature and human fulfillment that are to be found in the Greek poets and in the texts of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics” (Dougherty,

2007, ¶ 4). Under the influence of the progressive movement, the liberal curriculum of celebrated institutions epitomizes a history of a curriculum of loss. Dewey is not to blame for any real - or perceived - decline in American education, and therefore not forhis responses to and interpretations of the Eight-Year Study. According to Pinar, we

54

educators have suffered a history of curriculum development predicated primarily on functionality. In William Pinar’s keynote address to the Opening Plenary in the First

International Congress on Curriculum and Instruction he discussed national curriculum reform as begun by the Kennedy administration, generally concerned with intellectual curriculum conservatives, who were invested in ancient languages and cultures in the

1920s-1940s, promoting the education my heroine received. Emerging during the first half of the Twentieth Century, Bobbitt, Charters, Rugg, Caswell and Tyler made careers espousing functional objectives, building upon one another as they linked the curriculum to economy and society. As outlined by Dr. Pinar: “Over the course of half a century, curriculum development became primarily procedural and systematized, starting with objectives, and, as generally attributed to Ralph Tyler, ending with assessment” (2011, p.

2). Educational standards came later, in the 1980s and 1990s, with accountability gaining ground during the presidency of George W. Bush. Perhaps my biographical narrative approach might invite curriculum leadership into productive conversations, acknowledging and adding to a new “rationale” that moves from the particular and the historical towards what Pinar (2011) calls “larger circles of influence: the regional, national and global” (p. 2). The means to this is afforded by Pinar’s allegory as appropriate to curriculum theorizing. I believe we can build bridges and positive meaning through allegory, through inquiry that honors a beautiful life and re-energized field. Curriculum understanding allegorically incorporates the past into the present:

“Historical facts are primary, but it is their capacity to invoke our imagination that marks them as allegorical. Their meanings are not confined to the past; they leak into our 55

experience of the present” (Pinar, 2011, p. 4). This inquiry will conclude in what the reader and I make of the knowledge, and the history presented becomes accessible through the heroine’s experiences as allegory. Pinar (2012) recognizes that life history and intellectual history are two sides of the same coin, dialogic and temporal. The allegorical foregrounding of Her lived experiences may be positioned in history and culture, but not to the detriment of a more universal public world perspective.

Incorporating the public world requires the use of allegory, “evident in the new curriculum metaphor of allegory which means to ‘speak publically at an assembly’” (p.

173). The following is a wonderful artifact in the form of a photograph of my heroine speaking publically at a debate competition sponsored by the Providence Public Schools.

Simon Horenstein and 1944 valedictorian Margaret Dorgan sit behind, awaiting their turns. Like most of the students on the debate club, they were scholars, given the honor of representing Classical High in the 1941 Model Congress. That spring semester Marya was a senior, Margaret a freshman. 56

Marya Barlowski speaking publicly at an assembly of the Model Congress. Caduceus,

1941.

For further clarification, a biographical narrative inquiry is appropriate as a means to tell her story, faithful to the importance of my subject, and integrated/woven with threads of currere. My story intersects occasionally, both as a part of the narrative, my journey through it and also how I’m being affected by this regression/examination. My positionality, asserted by authorship, relates to how I’m attending to myself in this writing. Stated another way, this narrative biographical writing informs a currere that she is incapable of writing write herself. A personal approach using currere as an autobiographical and biographical examination, then, is a seminal element of this journey. Marya was not solely a social worker, but also a lifelong learner. She was the historical embodiment and personification of 3-S understanding, a scholar of ancient languages and literature. Curriculum leadership (CL) as a means of exploring 3S understanding will be facilitated through the reconstruction of a life (“reactivation,” in

Pinar’s words). Taken further, what would her curriculum leadership portfolio have included? As her sole biographer, my journey is now meshed with hers, and I’ve been fortunate to have guidance and review from multiple sources during this inquiry. Dr.

William Pinar likes the narrative, and has provided an endorsement that points to the method of currere (W. Pinar, personal communication, November 11, 2014). His thoughts offer valuable clues and insights with regards to the method – and methodology

– of currere. William Pinar believes that education requires a kind of subjectivity that goes far beyond conformity and standardization. Historical narrative biography 57

adds a historical voice to the complicated conversation and my integration of narrative research with currere allegory is a powerful way to study the problem. Lifelong study points to the way of living as a democratic educator. Her historical voice may then be added to the complicated conversation where “interlocutors are speaking not only among themselves but to those not present, not only to historical figures and unnamed people and places they may be studying, but to politicians and parents alive and dead, not to mention the selves they have been, are in the process of becoming, and someday may become” (Pinar, 2011, p. 43). This points to an open-ended laminate of three primary threads of inquiry, awakening/awareness, intrinsic motivation and capacity-building leading to a vocational calling. Her “awakening” is described through the awakening of her professional identity. This will serve not only as a narrative, biographical historiography, but also a personal journey of understanding.

In a forward to James G. Henderson’s Reconceptualizing Curriculum

Development, Peter Hlebowitsh advocates for William Pinar’s ‘conceptual montage’ leading to complicated conversations, that facilitates “a holistic subject/ self/ social understanding through the practice of a balanced hermeneutics of suspicion and trust”

(Henderson, 2015, kindle location 15).

The Dean of Education at the University of Alabama, Peter is occasionally seen as an apologist for The Tyler Rationale, and has even provided the forward for the current edition. He has made suggestions regarding the connections I am attempting through narrative, and appreciates my enthusiasm and tenacity. When I described what I was trying to accomplish, Peter’s suggestion was as follows: “I would say that you need to 58

develop a theoretical lens that will allow you to code themes and create a meta-story.

You’ll need something paradigmatic – maybe among the lines of noting how the work of your heroine spoke to and accounted for the nature of the learner, the values of the society and the demands of the subject matter” (P. Hlebowitsh, personal communication,

September 23, 2015). He regards Dr. Henderson highly, and was directing me towards an understanding of 3S understanding, an element of Dr. James G. Henderson’s vision of curriculum leadership. The relationship is clear: “Nature of Learner” represents the self,

“Values of society” the society at large, and “demands of the subject matter” as the subject component. Much can be learned and distilled from these connections established through biography and narrative. What might she have contributed? I believe she would have been more than happy to be part of a seminar based upon curriculum leadership. For example, Marya herself undertook leadership in social work at Ohio State during the 1959-60 academic year. Her expertise as a lead-learner as development of social work problem-solving and curriculum design as a representative of

Brown University and Smith College integrated with experiential learning. If she had lived longer, I believe that she would have been enthusiastically engaged in this process.

Writing vicariously as if this were part of her currere or lead-learning work through biographical narrative format as a currere case study is more than appropriate – it may well become an important component of the Curriculum Leadership pilot study. Most importantly, I believe that her intrinsic motivation (s) explored through biographical narrative and currere will be a powerful way to study the problems stated previously.

Ms. Jennifer Lowers, colleague and friend, expertly summarized through peer review 59

how my integration of narrative research with currere allegory is a powerful way to study the problem:

o Her story / biographical narrative is a lead-learning allegory for curriculum

workers

o Despite her personal struggles, she was an intrinsically motivated lead learner in

the field of psychiatric social work

o Allegory has always been connected to awakening (ex: Plato’s the Allegory of the

Cave)

o Awakening is a precursor for capacity-building

o Deleuze even used an allegory (the Baroque house) to illustrate the concept of the

fold, in order to increase the likelihood of an intellectual awakening among his

readers

o An excellent example of intrinsic motivation

o Her story helps people to see that leadership has always been around, and that it

requires bravery and courage to be a leader because it often demands being a non-

conformist in society

o Karl’s dissertation also has the potential to awaken educators as lead professionals

for democratic ways of living, by providing them with a more vivid image of what

lead learning actually looks like

o Highly compatible with the fold, 3S pedagogy, and Dr. Henderson’s leadership

process

(Jennifer Lowers, personal communication, May 3, 2017). 60

Currere and Narrative

Since currere is useful for not only for teachers, but for all learners and disciplines, there is value in her individual life history as history and culture, and also the allegorical public world. Marya demonstrated compassion and empathy while providing mental health services to others with extreme needs and should be afforded the same, if only posthumously. That is where my role begins, identifying the biographical markers of her life as they apply to a biographical exploration of curriculum leadership capacity- building through narrative as a currere case study.

The stories that point to the biographical markers of her life, and my subsequent interpretations, should be seen as identifying, analyzing and reconstructing her experiences as curriculum through self and subject reflective inquiry. My dissertation is a "first step" towards further historical narrative work. If we look at the

Reconceptualization in a literal fashion, curriculum theory and theorizing had to be revisited. It became necessary to look at teaching and learning in a new way, thinking in new ways and forming new concepts. Coincidentally, this reconceptualization generally corresponds to the time of my heroine’s death. Along the way, her narrative - and those of others - have emerged. Because of the advancing age of the participants interviewed, it has been paramount to collect as much information as possible while it is still available for access. Due to recent changes in Rhode Island legal codes, loopholes enabling access to certain documents have been closed, and I am fortunate to have amassed so much material. These biographical materials presented as narrative offer unique historical 61

perspectives about curriculum leadership, and the motivational indicators work as an organizer for my precise, specific research design agenda.

If we reconceptualize the value of liberal arts, the humanities, and the social sciences such as sociology and psychology that embrace them, there might be offered critically informed humanization and democratization. Could this story be told through a biographical narrative focus as fits my heroine’s unique educational experiences? Her education at Classical High, Brown University and Smith College may then be seen historically from the emergence of curriculum as a self-conscious field, concluding with the reconceptualization. We are all familiar with the ongoing assault from the right (and, occasionally, the moderate left) on the liberal arts and sciences. Politicians and economists take issue with religions, values, histories and social systems, essentially all the humanities and social sciences. For instance, in 2011 “the National Governors

Association issued a report that called for investment in college studies plainly tied to labor market demand, while noting that the United States would need to cut back on its traditional embrace of the liberal arts” (Schneider, 2011, ¶ 2). As an example of this mentality, both Governor Rick Scott of Florida and Jeb Bush have spoken out against anthropology as an academic field, with the House of Representatives recommending cessation of funding for the field of political science. They consider the field an inefficient use of higher education budgets.

A narrative inquiry that points to the critically informed humanization and democratization of liberal arts provide is an inviting line of inquiry. The liberal arts and sciences are “envisioning” disciplines, and are “basic to participatory democracy because 62

only these studies build the “big picture” understanding of our social and physical environment that everyone needs in order to make judgments that are fundamental to our future” (Schneider, 2011, ¶ 9). There are possibilities here for valuable transformative curriculum insights that are biographically informed with curriculum leadership, is the means to illustrate curriculum leadership motivation and capacity-building as fits 3S understanding. Her lived experiences, education, writing and service might be examined through a doubled inquiry that informs two journeys – hers and mine. Perhaps the lived experiences, education and work of my heroine do speak to the nature of the learner, the values of the society and the demands of the subject matter. The education she received was not based merely upon factual memorization. Nearly everyone whose lives she touched saw her as a dynamic lifelong learner, working collaboratively with others in school and society. Her journey was meaningful in the sense that she attempted to envision and embody what we now see as the historical equivalent of 3S understanding.

This dissertation, then, may be described as a currere case study exploration of curriculum leadership capacity - building through biographical narrative. John Dewey believed that “life” and “history” have an undivided meaning, and through reflective analysis of experience, place together the “what” and “how.” John Stuhr (2000) illuminates this concept with writing directly from Dewey: “Like its congeners, life and history, it includes what men do and suffer, what they strive for, love, believe and endure, and also how men act and are acted upon; the ways in which they do and suffer, desire and enjoy, see, believe imagine…” (p. 463). CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Introduction

The review of the literature for this inquiry will be generated from a few organizing concepts which inform the theoretical, historical and narrative bases for this study.

Beginning with relevant materials relating to the curriculum of Classical High School and

Brown University, a lengthy survey follows pertaining to historical curriculum work from

1918, the generally accepted official beginning of the field. The geographical and theoretical “epicenter” is a fabulous urban high school with a student body composed of first generation Americans and children of immigrants. It’s helpful to first reference the lines of intellectual discourse and histories which surround and influence Classical High

School and Brown University.

The historical and theoretical groundwork reflect what my journey has been all about. This will be followed by the concluding section, incorporating literature and concepts which more specifically inform intrinsic motivation and curriculum leadership capacity-building.

Classical High School and Traditional Liberal Education

To define the term “Classical Education,” it’s valuable to reference Stanley Fish, who is also a graduate of Classical High School. He knows better than anyone what is being taught, and, more importantly, what was taught at Classical. To better understand the content and pedagogy of the education Marya and the other graduates of Classical

63 64

High received, Dr. Fish recommended three authors in a short phone interview: Leigh A.

Bortins, Martha Nussbaum and Diane Ravitch. Addressing accountability of the sort we see mushrooming in today’s schools, he writes “Notably absent from Bortins’ vision of education is any mention of assessment outcomes, testing, job training and the wonders of technology” (S. Fish, The New York Times). He lauds classical education as practiced during his days at Classical High in this way: “because although I have degrees from two

Ivy league schools and have taught at U.C. Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Columbia and

Duke, Classical High School (in Providence, RI) is the best and most demanding educational institution I have ever been associated with. The name tells the story” (Fish,

2012).

Leigh A. Bortins is a philosopher and educator who begins her book with Part One:

The Classical Model. She suggests that the classical model has been practiced for millennia, the application and success of the model is not confined to a single time or place, though its name refers to the Greek and Roman eras. We discovered that wherever and whenever man had achieved high levels of literacy, the classical skills of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric had been emphasized over job training or vocational studies

(Bortins, L. 2010 p. 2). The demands of daily living, then, are more easily addressed after studying mankind’s greatest thinkers. When speculating on the purpose of classical education: “There are many practical purposes for schooling: vocational skills, hobbies, earning a living, social interaction, or just enlarging perspectives. The purpose of a classical education is to equip students to discover the way our universe works.

Understanding the physical universe requires a foundational knowledge of math and 65

science. Understanding human nature requires a foundational knowledge of language, history, economics, and literature” (Bortins, 2010, 13-14). Classical High still encourages a high level of studies of the humanities because ideas are embodied that make us human. The classical model is alive and well in downtown Providence, with a few updates in their curriculum.

Martha Nussbaum, in a short but powerful book entitled Not for Profit, makes a strong case for the liberal arts and, especially, the humanities, in an age where science and technology are dominant forces in curriculum. What are these radical changes? The humanities and the arts are being cut away, in both primary/secondary and college/university education, in virtually every nation of the world. Seen by policy- makers as useless frills, at a time when nations must cut away all useless things in order to stay competitive in the global market, they are rapidly losing their place in curricula, and also in the minds and hearts of parents and children” (Nussbaum, p. 2).

Diane Ravitch is an historian and educational theorist, and has even appeared on

The Daily Show. She has been a vocal critic of both No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, and felt that President Obama hadn’t pushed back against the market-driven vision of accountability and school reform (I am with her on that). What she does recommend is something akin to what Nussbaum and Bortins reveal as a definition of true classical education: “Let us instead read, reflect on, and debate the ideas of Abraham

Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Walt

Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Herman Melville,

Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, 66

Lewis Carroll, and many others whose writings remain important because of their ideas, their beauty, or their eloquence” (Ravitch, D. 2011, p. 233). Ravitch describes a foundation of knowledge and skills that is additive, essentially a time-honored tradition that was always endorsed by Classical High School.

A young woman graduated nearly a century ago from that superlative public school in Providence, Rhode Island. She had grown up in Rhode Island, demonstrating excellence in a myriad of subjects, and had an affinity for languages, especially Latin and

Greek. She was a pioneer in women’s sports and excelled in academics. An excellent canoeist, she rode over the falls on the Patuxent River at age 16, to the great consternation of her parents. Her father, Cassius Lee Kneeland was a prominent corporate attorney, a strong proponent of education in general, and firm in his belief that women should pursue post-secondary degrees. This 1918 graduate from Classical High

School went on to study at , later becoming a teacher. This woman was Lois Kneeland, my maternal grandmother. At the time of her graduation a young theorist published one of his first papers that was to change the landscape of education, and especially, curriculum design. His name was Franklin Bobbitt.

Beginnings of Curriculum as a Field

If we could envision a chart of curriculum theorists of the 20th Century, Franklin

Bobbitt would top the list, at least chronologically. In 1918, he set out on a pedagogical journey that changed the course of public education in North America. A treatise with his suggestions concerning educational reform began with the following introduction:

“The present program of public education was mainly formulated during the simpler 67

conditions of the nineteenth century. In details, it has been improved. In fundamentals, it is not greatly different. A program never designed for the present day has been inherited”

(Bobbitt, F., 1918, p. iii). So begins The Curriculum, as imposing a title as could be imagined.

Upon this premise, Franklin Bobbitt sought to make an empirical analysis of curriculum to prepare students for their future roles in the society. This called for dynamic content in the rapid social facets to replace the old. Bobbitt showed that curriculum is concerned with adaptation and adoption. Bobbitt’s theory had five principles: (an) analysis of human experience, (b) job analysis, (c) deriving objectives,

(d) selecting objectives, and (e) planning in detail. Curriculum was to provide subjects of living, such as citizenship and leisure.

With regards to the development of the formative Bobbitt, his Ph.D. at Clark

University was imbued with Frederick Winslow Taylor’s principles of scientific management. These are his roots, his bedrock. As my grandmother was turning twenty- one, Bobbitt was studying and writing about secondary school curriculum design, and the failings inherent in what was taught. It was recommended that curriculum be aligned with society, “the latter sometimes very broadly conceived as “adult activities (in the case of Franklin Bobbitt: 1918, 153-154) and sometimes more narrowly conceived as economic expectations, even actual job preparation” (Pinar, W. 2011, p. ix).

Bobbitt discusses the traditional subjects at length. Algebra, geometry, Latin,

French, Spanish, ancient and European history, and science of the usual pure or unapplied type. The Classical High curriculum rested on traditional instruction and the study of 68

Latin and Greek. As described by Franklin Bobbitt, “The ancient history elates itself much more closely to literature and general reading than it does to social studies intended for citizenship” (Bobbitt, 1983, p. 465). French study was considered a “leisure occupation” or a means to the leisurely occupation of reading the literature. “This is probably the only justification for the Latin or Spanish in the case of most children”

(Bobbitt, p. 465).

Franklin Bobbitt employs copious use of the term “justification.” The study of

Latin or Greek, for example, might be justified on civic or vocational grounds. The intellectual discipline or “general discipline” was not recommended by the national commission.

Franklin Bobbitt may have gotten a few things right, but his work offers more than a semblance of standardization. He suggests that one school emphasizing mathematics three times as much as another is too extreme. A high school much like

Classical emphasizes Latin and Greek more than five times (p. 466). In Bobbitt’s words:

“Doubtless some of these subjects receive more attention than they deserve and others less than they deserve” (p. 467). He sees a pitfall in homeostasis, with which I’m in complete agreement, but not for the same reason: “Following precedent is valuable for

“playing it safe,” but not good for developing efficiency in work. It is the accepted and respectable mode of evading the careful and laborious study of actual needs” (p.467).

There are scholars who disapprove of the vilifying of Bobbitt, suggesting that he should not be associated solely with social efficiency, scientific management and objectification. Clearly, he advocated those ideas at a time that merits historical context. 69

J. Wesley Null provides a critical re-evaluation describing the extent of Bobbitt’s altered position, looking at four ideas from the Curriculum of Modern Education:

Curriculum of Modem Education, Bobbitt's final book, developed

four consistent ideas: (1) an emphasis on the importance of general

education, (2) the inability to predetermine future lives and roles of

students, (3) the necessity for schools to develop individuals' intellect

rather than to train them for work, and (4) a respect for many of the classic

authors of "great books" from the Western tradition (Null, 1999, p. 37).

After three decades in the field of curriculum studies, then, Franklin Bobbitt had altered his thinking about social accountability and scientific management. He retired from the University of Chicago at the conclusion of the spring semester 1941, coinciding with Her graduation from Classical High.

Bobbitt’s theorizing is generally grounded in the work of Werrett Wallace

Charters. Words such as “utilitarian” and “functional” stand out in the text.

Furthermore, it’s easy to link Charters to the future work of Ralph Tyler. Charters was a major player in curriculum building from preschool (“nursery school,” at that time) through secondary education. On short notice, he fashioned instruction protocols for the armed services during World War II. Ever the follower and proponent of “function,”

Charters applied these principles to dentists, veterinarians, secretaries, ministers, and, unfortunately, teachers. Missing in his influences are any reference to John Dewey and the esthetics of teaching and learning, evident in the following from his 1897 proclamation entitled My Pedagogic Creed: 70

Education...marks the most perfect and intimate union of science and art

conceivable in human experience. The art of thus giving shape to human

powers and adapting them to social service is the supreme art; one calling

into its service the best of artists; that no insight, sympathy, tact, executive

power, is too great for such service. Every teacher should realize the

dignity of his [or her] calling; that he [or she] is a social servant set apart

for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right

social growth” (Dewey, 1897).

The accountability and standardization climate of today’s reform efforts began over 100 years ago in the United States. It seems as if “reform has been one of the only constants in education while every other aspect of the system has remained in flux, in a never-ending reactionary state while each new reformation comes and goes” (Hank,

2015, ¶ 9). Critical to understanding the current state of affairs is a historical look at curriculum history as it has led to the current climate. Pinar (2007) calls this

“verticality,” which he defines as, "the intellectual history of the discipline,” including consideration for “What ideas formulated in earlier eras inform those in ours" (p. xiii).

The theorists overlap. “In the spring of 1926 Tyler started work on a doctorate at the University of Chicago, studying with the educational Charles Hubbard

Judd. Schools of the 1920’s were generally unchanged - and unsullied - by early incarnations of school reform. There was population growth however, since people were living longer and keeping their jobs for 5 – 10 more years. As a result, the schools were required to “absorb” youth who were unemployable during those times. Many pupils, 71

among them my grandfather, dropped out of school to enter available vocations, but society still had to address the surplus who weren’t employable, and the obvious answer was school. “During the decade from 1921 to 1930 there was a marked increase in enrollments in the upper grades of the elementary school and the high schools

(Lagemann, 1940, p. 402). Lagemann’s inclusion of Judd’s speech to school administrators was statistic laden: “the pupil population of the seventh and eighth grades increased by 791,000, the pupil population of public high schools by 2,200, 000” (p.

402).

Donald Judd was a psychologist and educator, originally preparing for a life in the ministry at Wesleyan College. “While at Wesleyan Judd renounced all religion, and replaced it with a lifelong allegiance to science. Throughout his life, however, he maintained a forceful evangelical speaking style that reflected his pietistic upbringing”

(Blumenthal, 2000, ¶ 4). In short, he replaced religion with a scientific religiosity. Judd was president of the American Philosophical Association, and appointed the successor to

Dewey as chairman of the School of education at the University of Chicago. Judd acknowledged that the public schools did a few things well, such as development of insight gained by thoughtful contemplation of experience and power of concentration on tasks leading to achievement. Where he balked was how public schools addressed vocational education, and his self-described “youth problem” was linked to the tenacious dedication to the traditional programs of instruction. The following from Lagemann as described by Judd: “The ordinary school program sets up incentives which are either remote or abstract, not to say artificial. When teachers urge pupils to write compositions, 72

telling them that someday they will have to express themselves clearly and effectively in order to persuade their business associates or the public, the goal is remote. When a pupil is rewarded with a mark of 97 or 98 and has his name entered on the school roll of honor, the reward is abstract” (Bobbitt,1918, p. 4).

Judd completed his Ph.D. dissertation, "Statistical Methods for Utilizing Personal

Judgments to Evaluate Activities for Teacher-Training Curricula," which in its technical protocols advanced Judd's conviction that schooling methods could be assessed by quantitative measurement” (Finder, 2008, para 2). Wundt argued that clues to the operation of human consciousness are to be found first in carefully controlled experimental studies (exploiting controlled reaction times, perceptual discriminations, and measurable emotional reactions). Despite succeeding the noted Pragmatist at

Chicago, Judd stood in sharp contrast to Dewey. Another Chicagoan, Ralph Tyler, continued with this statistically - laden method of inquiry.

At Chicago, Ralph Tyler also lent his services as a statistician to the

Commonwealth Teacher-Training Study directed by W. W. Charters, an education reformer who called himself a "curriculum engineer" and sought to connect classroom subjects with the particular needs--especially the vocational needs--of students.

Tyler was influenced as well by George Sylvester Counts, then a professor of educational sociology at the university and a liberal political activist. Soon after he defended his dissertation, Tyler accepted an appointment as associate professor of education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; in 1929, he joined Charters 73

at Ohio State University, serving as assistant director of the Bureau of Educational

Research and as the director of its division on accomplishment testing.

Analyzing data from the Eight-Year Study, Tyler found that graduates of the thirty secondary schools did as well in college as those who entered after standardized tests. He also found that success in college could be predicted by competence in reading, writing, and just one high school subject. Mathematical ability, it appeared, correlated with success only in engineering and technical institutions. Influenced in part by the study's findings, James Bryant Conant, Harvard's president from 1933 to 1953, persuaded the College Entrance Examination Board to reformulate its main aptitude test so that the test would be independent of any particular curriculum; today's SAT is the result. absorbed information given to them by their teachers. Measuring to what extent students absorbed material disseminated by teachers, “the study showed that children learned best at their own pace and students best retained information compounded by experience. This program led to national testing for pre-college students”

(Tyler, Papers, Box 2 Folder 1). 74

University of Chicago Photographic Archive, 1957/58, [apf 1-08410], Special Collections

Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Ralph W. Tyler (left) is pictured in his office in the above photograph with administrative assistant Preston Cutler (right). At that time, he was chairman of the department of Education, and dean of the division of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. Later in his career, Dr. Tyler helped establish the Center for the Advanced

Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and served as its director from

1953 to 1967. I like this image of Ralph Tyler. There is a human side to the photograph.

It captured a good moment, and he is leaning back, spread out, comfortable with himself and others. Nature is readily visible outside his office window. It seems unlikely that this cheerful theorist might have caused all this trouble, setting into motion a widening vector of reform and accountability that brought us to No Child Left Behind and Race to

75

the Top, but he did. It has been suggested by Dr. James Henderson and colleagues that not enough “safeguards” were built into his Rationale; that leadership, imagination and artistry weren’t present. It was too simplified, linear and systematic, not embracing a complex and fluid conception of curriculum. Eliot Eisner describes the theory and research that prefaced the Rationale in the following way: “The efficiency movement, which began in the USA around 1913 and ended in about the late 1920s, was followed by the work of Franklin Bobbitt who is affectionately remembered as the father of curriculum theory (Eisner, 2000).

In 1938 Robert Maynard Hutchins, the president of the University of Chicago, persuaded Tyler to head the university's department of education and agreed to provide support forhis staff for the Eight-Year Study. At Chicago, Tyler also assumed the role of the university examiner, and from 1948 to 1953 he served as dean of the university's

Division of Social Science. Tyler taught a course known as Education 360, for which he developed a syllabus that he titled "Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instructions." In

1949, the University of Chicago Press published the syllabus as a book with the same title, and it has remained in print ever since. Basic Principles was a codification of what

Tyler had learned while working both with W. W. Charters at the Bureau of Educational

Research and on the Eight-Year Study, and it has had a lasting influence not only on curricula but on American education in general. In what became known as the "Tyler

Rationale," he argued that curriculum design had to be organized around four basic questions:

1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? 76

2. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?

3. How can the purposes be organized?

4. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained? (Tyler, 2013, p. 1).

The scholarship of curriculum theorizing is best performed by specialists who assess an existing program or theory. Even when used as criticism, it provides a positive, informed and insightful approach for analysis and evaluation. According to Walker and

Soltis (2007), Herbert Kliebard offers a fine example of a critique of the Tyler Rationale.

He takes issue with the needs of students as criteria for selecting objectives, value judgements disguised as scientific objectivity, organization and selection of learning experiences, and evaluation as meeting a stated objective. “Kliebard also questions the wisdom of an evaluation that merely checks on the attainment of previously stated objectives. He suggests that achieving the aim of an action is not necessarily the most important of its consequences; ancillary or concomitant results are often more important”

(Walker and Soltis, 2007, p.71). They use learning the names of instruments as opposed to learning to appreciate music as an example.

Returning to Tyler, in 1954 he became the founding director of a Ford

Foundation-sponsored think tank called the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral

Sciences, located in Stanford, California. Over the next twelve years he built the center into a highly selective fellowship program. While Tyler was at the center, Francis C.

Keppel, the U.S. commissioner of education in the Kennedy administration, asked Tyler to devise a plan for measuring the nation's educational progress. Tyler conferred with two statisticians who happened to be at the center, John W. Tukey of Princeton and Fred 77

Mosteller of Harvard, as well as the psychologist Clyde H. Coombs of the University of

Michigan. The result came to be known as National Assessment of Educational Progress

(NAEP).

Secondary education was not immune to the effects of the Eight Year Study.

Conducted by the Progressive Education Association, it researched the American high school in the 1930s. “This study was an effort to determine if high schools could deviate from the mandated courses outlined course - taking patterns required for college admission without jeopardizing students’ chances for college acceptance” (Barboza, S. A.

2007. p. 36). Curriculum studies were – and are – interdisciplinary in nature, dedicated to understanding curriculum. During this time devoted to improving school curriculum internal structures such as subjects, content and sequencing. “During the great progressive experiment during the 1930’s known as the Eight-Year Study, the school subjects were expanded, as history was recast as social studies, incorporating material from the various social sciences” (Pinar, 2011, p. ix).

Having the democratic sympathies of the early Progressive educators, along with a dedication to quantitative rigor and to the paramount importance of evaluation, Tyler defies easy categorization. His considerable influence no doubt reflected a preference for results-oriented pragmatism over ideological doctrine. What began as a method of organizing curriculum design and solving some contemporary concerns became a life’s work. It evolved into something much farther reaching, for him and us, in the business of teaching and learning: “For Tyler, evaluation was not simply a way to measure a student's or teacher's success or failure; it was an integral part of the educational process, ensuring 78

an alignment between the classroom experience and pedagogical objectives” (Finder,

2008, para 8). Tyler was the director, from 1953 to 1963, of the Center for Advanced

Studies. He was interested in what he called “The Curriculum Rationale,” which helped decide what children should learn based upon looking at “the society in which they are going to use what they learn and find out the demands and opportunities of that society”

(Nowakowski, 1983, p. 27). This is what those in the realm of edTPA know as context for learning. The final summation of the perspective on Tyler and the future of education is as follows: “…we've got to work on more effectively is the transition of youth into constructive adult life, which means being able to move easily from school to work, being able to accept and carry on effectively the responsibilities of citizenship”

(Nowakowski, 1983, p. 29).

Tyler has been called the “father of evaluation.” As far as his paternal culpability goes, Tyler himself assumes responsibility only for the naming of evaluation as it applies to educational practices, not what the industry has become. He eventually began to distance himself, substituting “assessment” at a later date. Educational evaluation has grown into something else, something that has little to do with curriculum theorizing.

His small Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, known as the Tyler

Rationale dimensionally approximates William Pinar’s counter point, Curriculum Studies in the United States. They are figurative bookends, a yin and yang of seemingly contrary forces. At first glance, it seems as if they are actually complementary and interconnected in the world of curriculum theorizing. Nothing could be further from the truth, however.

Perhaps there is a possibility for dialogue that might a lead to a common ground, but this 79

would require more than a “complicated conversation.” Dana Goldstein feels that education reform is best when empowering teachers, as opposed to something “imposed on them from outside and from above— by politicians with little expertise in teaching and learning, by corporate philanthropists who long to remake education in the mold of the business world, and by economists who see teaching as less of an art than a science”

(Goldstein, 2014, Kindle location 4310-4312).

“An invitation for “complicated conversation” by Pinar (2007) and Chambers

(1999) involves the verticality and horizontality geographic qualities of curriculum theorizing. What is meant, then, by “verticality” and “horizontality?” In this model

“verticality is, as Pinar (2007) explains, the historical and intellectual topography of a discipline. Conversely, horizontality refers to analyses of present circumstances, both in terms of internal intellectual trends, as well as in terms of the external political and social milieus influencing the international field of curriculum studies” (Ng-A- Fook &

Rottmann, 2012, p. 6).

With regards to the horizontal and vertical axes, then, “the horizontal axis refers to the current contexts of curriculum work. Curriculum scholars display a horizontal discipline in their studies when they address a wide range of educational subtexts: political, cultural, psychological, ethical, aesthetic, spiritual, and so on” (Kridel, 2010, p.

222). As an element of integration, Pinar (2007) proposes that the concepts of verticality and horizontality should structure the disciplinarily of curriculum studies. For Pinar, verticality epitomizes the historical of the curriculum field, while horizontality describes the analysis of present circumstances. “Pinar’s schema, proposed as an alternative to 80

Schwab’s (1978) syntactic and substantive structure of the disciplines, intends to provide a new framework to guide curriculum inquiry; one that takes account of the past and the present on the way to articulating alternative possible futures” (Parkes, 2013, p. 116). I believe that the historicism of my writing will embody this imagining and articulating.

Looking vertically at the curriculum field, the process of learning historically has been an important consideration for early philosophers and educators that continues today. The future of education has been based, for the past twenty years, on standards- based reform. “A standards-based vision was enacted in federal law under the Clinton administration with the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education

Act (ESEA) and carried forward under the Bush administration with the No Child Left

Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001” (Shepard et. al, (2009), p. 1). These two major schools, one believing that reason is the path to knowledge (Rationalism) and the other extolling sensory perception (empiricism), dominate the landscape like billboards competing for the pedagogical eye. Educational policies reflected by the current standards-based movement, are grounded in standardized-testing strategies justified by the Western heritage of rational dogmatism and positivistic empiricism (Ryan, 2011). The empiricist wing of educational consumerism has been quite well tapped by mega – evaluation companies such as Pearson. Apart from this, it’s quite possible that future theorists and educators can provide meaningful teaching practices resulting in student learning, and standards-based models may not always be our chosen path. Individuals and groups currently holding the power in our educational arena will be replaced, and new theories – or old - about teaching and learning will replace what we currently have. Much is rooted 81

in belief about what constitutes learning and being. An understanding of how learning

happens will always be up for debate, and His solutions for navigating the abyss between rationalism and empiricism elucidate how learning occurs and it why it has been a concern for philosophers and educators for millennia. Frank X. Ryan has written that

Pragmatists in general, and John Dewey specifically, resolved the issues presented by the rationalists and empiricists. The schism is represented by the unscientific nature of unbridled rationalism and empiricism as only perceived by the senses. “At the turn of the

20th century, philosophy remained historically divided between rationalism, which claims the world is mind-like, and empiricism, which endorses a physical world perceived by the senses. Both views were easily discredited: rationalism is unscientific; empiricism locks our knowledge into perceptions isolated from mind-independent reality” (F. Ryan, personal communication, January 22, 2014).

Cognitive knowledge is the result of attending to encountered problems. Through the Dewey Circuit of Inquiry, we attain an objective – an “object.” Problem-solving is what we use to understand objects, but Dr. Ryan cautions us about the “philosopher’s fallacy,” the careless assumption that some idea or theory that is actually the reflective outcome of an analysis of experience must be there at the beginning” (Ryan, 2011, p. 20).

Transactional knowledge through experience and reflection begins with a nonreflective state and an encountered problem. A hypothesis is formed and acted upon experimentally with the senses and data, resulting in an object. The attainment of an object returns us to nonreflective state, until we encounter another problem or the object needs to be reassessed through this inquiry. Dominated by habit, “the disruption of this unity by 82

something unexpected or problematic initiates the cognitive distinction of thing and thought, self and other” (Ryan, 2011, p. 26). The sociopolitical forces that guide - rather, dictate - standards – based education will slowly change, and curriculum theorizing will still be a necessary and welcome epistemological and ontological part of effecting change. “If change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial, doesn't logic demand that you be a part of it?” (Roddenberry, 1967).

Taking one more hop to the underpinnings of No Child Left Behind” (Jardine,

2014, p. 79), when the No Child Left Behind act was signed into law in January of 2002 by then president George W. Bush, each student – every single one – was supposed to perform at grade level on state assessments. The formal language of NCLB as presented by Anya Kemenetz is as follows: "Each State shall establish a timeline for adequate yearly progress. The timeline shall ensure that not later than 12 years after the end of the

2001-2002 school year, all students ... will meet or exceed the State's proficient level of academic achievements on the State assessments" (Kamenetz, 2002, ¶ 4).

The blame for all this does not rest exclusively with the Republican Party, since there was a bipartisan consensus. Even Senator Edward Kennedy was on board, present at the signing. At that time, the post – 9/11 climate and culture framed this as a bipartisan effort that was supposed to close the achievement gap with accountability and choice.

Therefore, truly no child would be “left behind” (NCLB, 107-110). It was subsequently known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and also NCLB, it reauthorized the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). 83

Educational policy is currently tied to the standards-based movement, which is grounded in standardized-testing strategies justified by the Western heritage of rational dogmatism and positivistic empiricism (Ryan, 2011), and there are implications of this

‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ analysis (Pinar, 2007) for the future support of pedagogy as the

“supreme art” of a society (Dewey, 1897). It is possible that empiricism and rationalism also exist in the Taoist realm on interdependence. The Western heritage of rationalism vs. empiricist thought was effectively bridged by Dewey. Dewey examines this phenomenon as change that requires a redirection of “adaptive behavior.” “A prior adaption constitutes a threshold (better called a platform or plateau); what is consciously noted is alteration of one plateau; readjustment to another. Similar events may mean cold at one time or place and warmth at another” (Dewey, 1988, p.237). Further, more knowledge has been gotten from error as we work through the “tissue” of experience.

Mistakes are as “genuine” as the things we call truths. “The problem and its solution thus become essentially dialectical. For empirical facts indicate that not error, but truth is the exception” (Dewey, 1988, p. 234). This suggests the possibility of a third approach, a way of looking at objects and events, a transactional approach. transaction is “the right to see together...much that is talked about conventionally as if it were composed of irreconcilable separates.” Where self-action and interaction look at a whole as the sum of its parts, transaction sees the parts as determined by the whole (Ryan, 2011, p. 34). Can we examine the presuppositions that created the climate of education – of teaching and learning during the past 100 years? As in the circuit of inquiry, might we agree that teacher assessments and problems encountered today be resolved through constructive 84

alternatives? That is my hope. The philosophy of knowledge and reality may be applied to ethics and education. Frank Ryan believes that John Dewey offers a philosophical middle ground, and there is no better:

In Dewey's time (and ours, too) ethics was divided between rationalists preaching

absolute goods or commandments and empirical social scientists who relegated

human conduct to valueless physiological or psychological factors, thus denying

the need for ethics or moral philosophy. The middle ground described by Dewey

affirms genuine value, and thus genuine morality, not as unchanging absolutes,

but rather as long-term solutions to identified problems that are tangible yet

revisable. This experimental outlook influences his view of education as well.

Rather than rote memorization, teaching to tests, or preparing individuals for

specific slots in life, Dewey claimed that the proper role of education was to

prepare individuals to be innovative, experimental, lifelong-learners skilled in

working with others and consensus-building. His educational goal was promoting

democracy--not as a narrow political activity--but as a way of life where everyone

is fully enfranchised and provided the opportunity to flourish” (Frank X. Ryan,

personal communication, January 22, 2014).

To address the horizontal element it’s valuable to look into Dwayne Huebner.

William Pinar offered a graduate class during the summer of 2015 that dealt exclusively with Huebner, having studied with him in 1969. At that time, Dr. Pinar was teaching

English at Charles E. Schrivener High School in Port Washington, Long Island, and attended a series of Huebner’s lectures at Teacher’s College. Pinar was dissatisfied and 85

disillusioned with the country and education after the murders at Kent State University.

Briefly, Huebner was interested in many pedagogical issues, but concerned also with the art and craft of teaching. “The crafts of teaching have only been hinted at, for this is an infrequently explored area. The uses of language, space, movement, time, tension and other components of the crafts essential to the various arts may be fruitful fields for educational search and eventual research” (Huebner, 1999, p. 34). Single answers and sound bites are not in Huebner’s vocabulary: “Education needs to follow many roads if teachers are to find greater comprehension and satisfaction in teaching. Postulating that teaching is an art opens roadways of exploration which could lead to new horizons”

(Huebner, 1999, p. 34). Now that is an irresistible invitation. The planning element of teachers can be seen, at least, as a means to turn inward. “The teacher’s own mundane and vividly profound experiences are brought into juxtaposition and put up against his memories, purposed, and idiosyncrasies until the compressed, channeled and heightened experiences are gradually composed into a seemingly workable plan” (Huebner, 1999, p.

31). The act of teaching does not begin with the planning process, and is not a scientific empiricist model. There is intuition involved too, a Deweyan model of transaction that might be rationalist and empiricist. Writes Huebner(1999): “Teachers have been conditioned to observe as scientists, not as artists or art critics. Both modes of observation, of course, are necessary” (p. 30).

There is a certain faith-based belief we all share that has compelled us to become educators. Dewey has referred to this faith – based religious experience in a secular way.

We, as teachers, seek to revitalize our commitment to teaching and learning, and "... 86

human experience may naturally acquire a religious quality, and this is brought about most often by what had been the common faith of humanity, that is, a unifying moral faith in the ideals and values that guide the ongoing development of human relations and culture" (Rockefeller, 1991, p.481). I'm also hoping that there will be some new knowledge and understandings as a result of the coming together of this community.

This new knowledge is the Deweyan “object” that I’m seeking. John Dewey felt that teaching and learning could be an elevating process. He envisioned a democratic classroom that embraced transformative learning. “Dewey harbors no illusion that this is achievable without basic changes in our approach to education. He rejected the still prevalent belief that student success is measured by the ability to recite blocks of information or to perform well on standardized tests” (Ryan, 2011, p. 71). Built upon his

Pragmatism, curriculum espoused an experimental process as opposed to only providing correct answers.

Accomplishing this work through a process of transformative curriculum leadership surely requires utilizing past and present to imagine a brighter future.

Therefore, historical literature has had to be explored and analyzed. In this review of the literature, I began with John Dewey at roughly the turn of the Twentieth Century, moving from there to reporting the writing and work of early curriculum theorists. Beginning with education before the work of Franklin Bobbitt and W. W. Charters’ work that eventually metastasized into a reform of the schooling of America, Tyler and Schwab will follow. A healthy measure of this material emerges from the University of Chicago, 87

beginning with John Dewey. Fifty years of subsequent curriculum work from the same institution may be described by three major players: Franklin Bobbitt, Ralph Tyler and

Joseph Schwab. All three are considered prime examples of social efficiency and

“educational science,” although some view their collective work as a progression of well- developed and expansive help for contemporary schools of the “real” world. Peter

Hlebowitsh has occasionally been seen as a proponent of this mentality, with “the characterization of the traditional field in terms of technicism and/or scientism in the service of social efficiency is simply wrong” (Westbury, 2005 p. 90). As we shall explore later, he might not be as much a proponent of efficiency as described by

Westbury. Joseph Schwab did indeed appear to build upon his predecessors in Chicago describing an “incoherence” due to the perseverance of theory in the field of curriculum.

In 1970, he pointed towards a curriculum renascence if the grounding were to be situated upon the practical, quasi-practical and eclectic, in other words, the concrete (Schwab,

2013, p. 591). Schwab offered three points that year regarding the state of the field, the first of which still resounds: “…the field of curriculum is moribund. It is unable, by its present methods and principles, to continue its work and contribute significantly to the advancement of education” (Schwab, 2013, p. 591). The second and third incorporated the pitfalls of reliance on theory and the coming “renascence” and renewed agency for the field of curriculum studies. Who were the predecessors to Bobbitt and Charters, and what did they embrace?

There was a generous amount of curriculum activity at the turn of the Twentieth

Century at about the time my maternal grandmother was born (1900). Charles Eliot’s 88

controversial report was released by the committee of Ten, looking at whether high school should prepare one for college or “life.” The work of Augustus Nightingale placed confidence in college entrance requirements while Johann Friedrich Hebart focused attention to curriculum. The work and writing of Dewey at the laboratory school at the University of Chicago was clearly evident, although he was not identified as a curriculum specialist. In his manifesto entitled My Pedagogic Creed John Dewey broadened our concept of pedagogy, endorsing education as fundamental for improvement of the human condition. For example, he blurs the distinction between life and education in the following manner: “I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. I believe that school must represent present life – life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood or on the playground” (Dewey, p. 7). This concept built upon William

James’ idea of “double-barrelledness,” in that divisions did not exist between subject and object, and not built entirely upon reflection. To Dewey, life is comprehensive, and in sharing his essential essays Stuhr (2000) includes that the “scope of “history” is notorious: it is the deeds enacted the tragedies undergone; and it is the human comment, record and interpretation that inevitably follow” (p. 463). In writing a “history,” I believe it needs to be paired with “life” so as to have this fullness of meaning, and this drives my intrinsic motivation. It is the passion, the Eros, of this writing.

Dewey was not primarily considered as a curriculum theorist, but there are others

–notoriously invested in accountability or not, who followed in the early 1900s. It is generally accepted that 1918 was the “actual year when curriculum emerged as a self- 89

conscious field of study” (Kliebard, 1968, p. 71). Considered a “vintage year,” the publication of the first full-length work in the field, The Curriculum was released by

Franklin Bobbitt, Principles of Secondary Education by Alexander Inglis, The Project

Method by William Heard Kilpatrick article and the Commission of the Reorganization of Secondary Education Cardinal Principles with its’ “Seven Aims” encouraged curricular objectives. Kliebard (1968) suggests that the work of Inglis and Kilpatrick

“must be regarded as works of individual genius, while Bobbitt’s and the Cardinal

Principles report were distinctive products of their time and their intellectual and social milieu” (p. 71).

As the stage is set, issues of curriculum liberalization driven by economic instrumentalism may follow a study of her life, a biographical narrative with educational, political and religious critical insight. This writing will be introduced with writing accomplished by John Dewey at the turn of the twentieth century, followed by a brief tribute to my lovely grandmother, Lois Allen Kneeland. Her graduation from Classical

High in 1918 and the death of Marya Barlowski in 1974 establish the temporal parameters. Lois Kneeland attended the Rhode Island Normal School and became an excellent teacher. A pioneer in women’s athletics, her high school graduation coincided with the publications of Bobbitt, Kilpatrick and Inglis, opening the door for a social efficiency movement. Vintage curriculum work by Franklin Bobbitt such as How to

Make a Curriculum followed in 1924, furthering the process and paving the way for efficiency-oriented school reformers. 90

Marya was born in 1925, she and her sisters growing up as the first generation of

Polish immigrants. Her younger sister graduated from Classical High School just a few

years after Ralph Tyler, known as the “father of educational evaluation and

measurement,” published his Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, otherwise

known as the Tyler Rationale. Her sister Lillian graduated from Pembroke College at

Brown University in 1949, when the Rationale was published and released. When

writing about Tyler I will use primary sources from the University of Chicago whenever

possible, whether correspondences, essays, course syllabi or photographs. The same will

be true when discussing Franklin Bobbitt and other theorists. Marya Barlowski is gone,

but another brilliant valedictorian of Classical High is very much alive, and can provide

details about the same instructors, administrators and students. Margaret Dorgan

attended Radcliffe and became a nun, currently living in Maine. She is a member of John of the Cross Monastery, situated in the coastal town of Orland, Maine. A prolific writer and lecturer, her articles have appeared in numerous publications, and she has a degree in philosophy from Harvard/Radcliffe. Margaret has sponsored and directed workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Ireland, and allowed some interviews, providing hopeful and informative narratives during our conversational interviews. Sister

Margaret offered an invitation to visit and talk during the upcoming summer. After speaking with her, I feel refreshed - and renewed. Talking with her is a transformative experience. Sister Margaret awakens me to new perspectives; to look beyond the literal, common, humdrum and mundane. She suggests that the best education encourages critical thought and inquiry, the kind she received at Classical and Radcliffe. I’m 91

including some text she directed me to in her Freshman yearbook that describes the interdisciplinary work that instruction at Classical High exemplifies:

“St. Vincent Millay is studied, and after reading these, the pupil is

expected to write an original poem, having an assigned meter and rhyme

scheme. Oral themes are eliminated at this time, giving way to informal

discussions arising from the pupils themselves. Mr. Fisher conducts an

honor class for Juniors, and Miss Roberts one for Seniors. The Debating

Society, the Dramatic Society, and the Classical Review are three of the

extra-curricular organizations which, although not directly affiliated with

the English Department, demonstrate the practical value of classroom

instruction in the language. The Classical High School Debating Society,

in its ninety-fifth year, convened in September under the sponsorship of

Mr. Gleeson. A team consisting of John Hall, Margaret Dorgan, Marya

Barlowski, Simon Horenstein and Melvin H. Morgan, was selected to

represent Classical at the fourth annual Rhode Island High School Model

Congress, which was held at Rhode Island State College” (Caduceus,

1941).

Sister Margaret works biographically through personal histories as narratives of hope, and I believe there are elements of currere in play as well: “Memory is precious to us as Christians and as human beings. Memory gives us the capacity to retain what has taken place in our own lives and to empathize with other lives no matter how long ago they made their earthly journey” (description from CD, retrieved from 92

http://carmelclarion.com/dorgan.html). Marya and Margaret are pictured in the following photograph. At the desk is Vernon Alden, future president of Ohio University.

Caduceus, 1941

Recently I shared this with Dr. William Pinar. A year ago, he attended what was described as an "intense encounter" on Catholicism and education and I am sharing her lecture Your Personal History as a Narrative of Hope with him, where Sister Margaret discusses memory, empathy and personal history. I suggested that it might dovetail a bit with the method of currere. and was reminded of Dr. Dwayne Huebner's writing: "To ignore theological language today, however, is to ignore one of the more exciting and viable language communities" (Huebner, 1975). In response, Dr. Pinar wrote the following: “Love the photos, Karl, and the formal prose, as well as the yellowed paper.

The past is so much more powerful than this paltry (if nightmarish) present. You’re kind to send them and kind to send me the lecture. Dovetail indeed…. Bill” (personal communication, February 4, 2017). 93

At the time of Her death, a curriculum theorizing Reconceptualization and two major conferences serve as the defining final bookend at the conclusion of a life’s journey: The first was the 1973 Xavier University curriculum theory conference in

Cincinnati. The second was the 1974 curriculum conference in Cincinnati in 1974, the place and time where Janet Miller met Maxine Greene. If we were to extend the temporal parameters just a bit further, we might consider the Virginia conference where

“Bill Pinar and Madeleine Grumet presented portions of their important work in autobiography that drew on existentialism and and that soon thereafter would appear in Toward a Poor Curriculum” (Miller, 2004, ¶18). The writing I am proposing, then, will take us through curriculum history starting in 1918 and take us to the Reconceptualization. Some of this will be accomplished through allegorical means from a remote space and time, distant to all that weren’t there to experience it. I have previously discussed Pinar and his curricular approach to allegory, but it is valuable to examine the use of allegory in literature. C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of

Narnia, was a Medievalist who appreciated allegory and wrote about the genre. He was invested in the fact that the Medieval Era was not just a stepping stone between the

Classical world and the Renaissance. Medieval art, architecture and literature is difficult to fathom in the here-and-now because our experiences of the world are so divergent compared to someone from that era: “We can’t appreciate medieval allegory until we make a concerted effort to imagine what it was like to inhabit the world as they saw it, as a divinely ordered universe in which “certain sympathies, antipathies, and strivings [are] inherent in matter itself. In allegory, “everything has its right place, its home, the region 94

that suits it” (Miller, 2016, ¶ 11). Marya is both person and symbol for me, and the dark

woods in which Dante was lost represent a part of her – and our – journey through life.

Hopeful that my writing generally suits the inquiry, it will shed meaning on multiple

issues. Referencing historical writing, I have to be aware that during the early and mid -

twentieth century people spoke, wrote and even thought in a different manner. For

example, in the 1920’s and 1930’s there were Civil War veterans still living. Individuals

who had heard Abraham Lincoln speak as a child were plentiful until World War Two

(News - Herald, 1943, page 6). A few had actually heard his final speech of April 11,

1865 from the White House balcony when he addressed 3000 people. There were no

recording devices at that time, but those attending revealed how his oratory presentations

unfolded, the timbre of his voice. There were qualitative descriptors of the occasion from

eyewitnesses. A historiography will have to be mindful of what urban culture, social

issues, religion, schools, leisure, and recreation embodied during the Roaring Twenties,

through The Great Depression - and beyond. Generally revered in the early Twentieth -

Century as now, John Dewey gave an address to launch a program establishing the

Abraham Lincoln University in 1930. The intent was to “promote world understanding

through education of promising youth of every race and creed, from every state of the

Union and every nation of the world” (Dewey, 1930, ¶ 2).

The Vertical

In establishing parameters, my inquiry begins in 1897 with the publishing of My

Pedagogic Creed by John Dewey and the subsequent birth of Lois Kneeland, my maternal grandmother. Her secondary education at Classical High School and graduation 95

in 1918 coincides with the publication of John Franklin Bobbitt’s The Curriculum, considered the beginning of curriculum as an academic field. From there we might bookmark Bobbitt’s 1924 How to Build a Curriculum, “an unabashed testament to his atheoretical orientation, coinciding with the birth of my heroine, my “purposeful sample.”

Bobbitt was not a philosopher and didn’t take much interest in theory, seeing instead his work along strictly practical lines” (Hlebowitsch, 2005, p. 78). Moving into the Twenty-

Sixth yearbook of the NSSE, the Great Depression and concluding in 1974/1975 after

Joseph Schwab declared the field “moribund” and pointed toward the beginnings of The

Reconceptualization. As Huebner laid the groundwork for this process, suggesting that empiricism and scientific language unheard of at that time. “There exists, he insisted, a need to examine curriculum historically, with the present situation very much linked to the past and the future…” (Pinar, p. 213 Understanding Curriculum) MacDonald 1973

University of Rochester Curriculum Theory Conference.

From the early 20th Century to the present, education has become a curriculum of loss, remade into a factory model based upon making school a business. This scheme is one in which teachers are positioned as factory workers, children the raw material, and curriculum the assembly line producing sensible and practical products. As a means to explore multiple perspectives in a dialogical manner, this compelling, researchable topic builds upon the work of William Pinar, dedicated to imagining future possibilities through the lived experiences of an historical figure through currere: "Reactivating the past reconstructs the present so we can find the future" (Pinar, 2015, p. 32). When The

Lure of the Transcendent was published in 1999, Huebner’s essay Curriculum Field: Its 96

Wake and Our Work was included as a response to Joseph J. Schwab’s diagnosis of the field as “moribund.” Huebner was interested in a dialogue of eclecticism that might embrace diverse theories used for educational practice that maintained the integrity of educational contexts and educational theory. Unfortunately, the mere mention of the term “curriculum” served to divide us then and does to this day. Historical groundwork was, and is, lacking. There were studies that provided a temporal look at the evolution of curriculum, but more historical critiques were considered necessary “to reinterpret our task and suggest the work before us” (Huebner, 1999, p. 243).

Huebner (1999) posited that “if the diverse interests and collectives that have been gathering over the past seventy years were cleared away, we might be able to see the original conception of curriculum and to do and describe our work more effectively” (p.

243). Instead of promoting divisiveness, therefore, a sense of diversity of new associations and possibilities might be imagined. I believe this could be accomplished through the eyes of a scholar who believed that teaching and learning were paramount.

From early childhood, her parents and the Polish community of Providence nurtured the belief that education was the means to self-improvement and the betterment of the world.

This was mirrored in her formative educational experiences, high school journey and the further scholarship at Brown University and the Smith College of Social Work. She became what she loved. In

1976 Dwayne Huebner wrote that “if the publication of Franklin Bobbitt’s The

Curriculum marked the early maturity of the curriculum field, then the past ten to fifteen years were its golden years” (Huebner, 1999, p. 242). This generally reflects the lifespan 97

of my historical personage that informs a larger story. A wealth of material (with more

pending) is available there is an intent to become convergent that was recommended by

Dr. Pinar himself: As a means to inquiry, William Pinar suggests “I would stay focused

on her and acknowledge context only as relevant to the story you’re telling” (Personal

communication, William Pinar, 12/1/2014). As the teller of her story and author of her

currere – and mine - I’m in a powerful historical place, and with this power comes with

responsibility. Respect and humility, without narcissism should be paramount in this

inquiry.

At roughly the time of Her passing, the curriculum field had been declared

“moribund” by Schwab (1969) and “dead” by Huebner (1976). Her life - and that of curriculum as a field – both ended at relatively the same time I began teaching (1974).

The field’s beginnings are tied to the early twentieth century, specifically to 1918 when

Franklin Bobbitt published The Curriculum. This was the herald of the establishment of professional curriculum work, but there were individuals previous to this that were thoughtful and insightful, believing that teaching and learning were elevated endeavors, having a higher purpose. One of these was Alexander James Inglis, a traditionalist

Classical educator and scholar, later turned progressive. The other is a theorist and educator that has been labeled “America’s greatest philosopher,” John Dewey. The landmark date of 1918 that defined the field of curriculum work as a professional field will establish the beginnings of this story, and the setting - Classical High School, in

Providence, Rhode Island, will define the “place,” at least as informs part of the

narrative. A history of the educational experiences - and those narratives that encapsulate 98

it - will define the “place” and “space” of curriculum decision-making (Henderson &

Kesson, p. 11).

Beginning with curriculum work being established as a professional field in 1918

(Bobbitt) followed by two subsequent decades of professional curriculum study

(Caswell), we can study two large scale programs of curriculum revision (Denver and

Winnetka) marked by “concerns for efficiency and tendencies toward oversimplification

of the complexity of learning; tendencies that, according to Kliebard, still plague

curriculum development” (Ponder, 1974, p. 462).

Harold Rugg’s 26th yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education

(1926) and Rugg’s American Life and the School Curriculum (1936) may be used as primary sources and interpretations of early curriculum history. Both discuss the foundational grounding of 20th century curriculum work, with the latter concentrating on the key ancestors of the Progressive theories. The facets of curriculum history in the

1920’s and the 1930’s will ultimately revisit Tyler and the NSSE Yearbook and

Vars/Wardeberg and Progressivism. Most of the winnowed insights will emerge from the lived experiences and educational experiences of Marya and the family, colleagues and friends surrounding her in life. As to the struggles, handicaps, challenges and tragedy she faced, Garrison (1997) has described such an existence as one in which its inhabitants might seek escape: “It is understandable that in a world of toil, trouble, and tragedy people would seek escape into a realm of perfection like Platonic heaven. It is a flight from freedom, living and growth” (p. 50). She was promised salvation by the Roman

Catholic Church since childhood but her intellect and curiosity always wanted to make 99

meaning in a living, changing world, one that included her confusion about loss and death. Her demise was the end of a singular, beautiful individual. The irony, tragedy and pervasive sense of loss has been with me from the beginning, and there is no better description of the grief from the deprivation of a valued human being than offered by

Dewey scholar Jim Garrison (1997): “Each individual is unique, a one-time-only event.

The loss of one human being leaves a larger scar on the cosmos than if a galaxy that contains no conscious beings should suddenly flame out” (p. 52). This writing is meant to address the loss of a human being as a “celebration of life” that includes lived experiences, educational scholarship, writing, research and service, its’ relevance to the present moment and hopeful imaginings for the future.

Her journey was one that will inform the history of the field from a historical perspective. “I am convinced that the study of history - whether educational, psychological, or political, is necessary, if not to help us avoid errors committed in the past, then definitely to help us understand the present” (MacDonald, 2000, p. 15). The writing will be guided not only by the lived experiences, formal education and writing of my historical personage, my purposeful sample, but also colleagues and family still living and viable. I intend to provide a voice for an individual who has largely been forgotten, a scholar turned social worker and a lifelong learner. Her narrative will provide insights into traditional and classical education, and also historical and contemporary feminist issues. I am writing not about a single episode or event, but an entire life, as fits a potential dissertation. An intensely personal narrative, I am hopeful that it will generate new perspectives and curriculum understandings, if not practices. It will be relevant to 100

education, because Her experiences inform her education, and vice-versa, written as they relate contextually to a larger story. This “larger story” and the resultant writing is a form of curriculum wisdom problem-solving, emerging through the ongoing support of professors and colleagues. It is meant to expand upon “the current dominance of narrow technical teacher training and the standardized management of education” (Henderson &

Gornik, 2007, p. iv). My goal is to provide an historical perspective with the help of a real personage whose experiences may be examined as a form of curriculum wisdom, a means of refining curriculum deliberation and envisioning a future “as practicing a form of professional artistry that is vital to their society’s democratic well-being.” This requires an historical narrative biographical approach. “One of the disturbing aspects of the curriculum field is its lack of historical perspective” (Kliebard, 2000, p. 70). My aim is to provide another means to addressing that perspective, including another means to approaching curriculum leadership.

Leon Battista Alberti, Italian Humanist, defined a description of the methodology of the 1400’s: “You can’t pull a string without having a dartboard to aim at.” My aim/focus is full range of Her contemplative experiences, making efforts to catalogue them and understand their phenomenology. This is akin to looking a “third person” perspective with “first–person.” Her scholarship in ancient languages, philosophy, the arts and literature led into a career in psychiatric social work was engendered conditions of human flourishing, empathy and compassion. Always comfortable in a discussion about The Iliad or Shakespeare, Stoics or Pragmatists, Italian Humanists or scientific theory, she was multi-disciplinary during a time when liberal and creative arts were 101

valued. The humanities were revered, with beneficial balance among diverse academic

specializations to revisit and reflect upon. Her educational experiences at Classical and

Brown revolved around the study of classical humanities: “the skills and ideas that reveal

the nature of being human (as in Cicero’s concept of humanitas, or “human nature,” and

the studia humanitatis, or “studies of humanity,” of Italian humanists in the Renaissance)

— was gradually replaced with man’s interpretation of what was true for him alone”

(Bortins, 2010, p. 36). Classical content is still evidenced in these two Providence

institutions, including math, science, literature, history, Greek and Latin.

The Providence locales explored in this writing I hold sacred: The city in Rhode

Island where I was born, relatives remembered from those times, the little boy that I once

was, the fabulous people that I have come to know, and the events that actually happened

or that might have happened. The central story has, I believe, great power, and there is

material for a compelling narrative. I have to occasionally stop my wandering and catch

myself, because too much could be included as I explore minor characters and ephemeral

issues. To foreground, some of the elements may appear to have little in common, but

they do. Ms. Barlowski’s lived experiences may provide an understanding and rekindle

this spirit, a pedagogical union of traditional and progressive education. I believe that

Dewey encapsulates her endeavors as well as any: “Education, in order to accomplish its ends both for the individual learner and for society, must be based upon experience – which is always the life experience of some individual. “There is no discipline in the world so severe as the discipline of experience subjected to the tests of intelligent development and direction…” John Dewey, Education and Experience (1938) pp. 89-90. 102

The lived experiences, education, scholarship, writing, service and illness of a brilliant woman make the heroine a personification of curriculum leadership. Therefore, the narrative’s last scene will not delve into platitudes and sweeping visions, and must be as well-aimed as the arrow from Leon Battista Alberti. The small stories of her life must add up to something. Her life must have worth, but it will be up to the reader to interpret its’ meaning.

Narrative Inquiry is based upon these premises set by Dewey, since narrative inquiry is the very study of experience. Literature that frames this is rooted in pragmatism: “Experience, as John Dewey taught, is a matter of people in relation contextually and temporally. Participants are in relation, and we as researchers in relation to participants” (Clandinin & Connelley, 2000, p.189). Experience has what the authors describe as a “wholeness” and “integrity” that is a living, breathing thing in itself: “The purpose of this retelling, like retellings in any aspect of the narratives of our lives, is to offer possibilities for reliving, for new directions and new ways of doing things”

(Clandinin & Connelly, p. 189). These authors base much of their qualitative work on

John Dewey. Experience is a profound element of grounding of Dewey. To them, experience is part of inquiry: For Clandinin and Connelly (2000), “Dewey transforms a commonplace term, experience, in our educator’s language into an inquiry term, and gives us a term that permits better understandings of educational life” (p. 2). Directly from Dewey, his explanation rests on the previous work of pragmatist William James:

“William James aptly compared the course of a conscious experience to the alternate flights and perchings of a bird” (Dewey, 1934, p. 56). All these experiences grow out of 103

previous experiences, leading to a completed whole, and “object.” Like the perchings and flights, there is a continuous – and consistent - process of these successive rhythmic acts. Dewey describes the outcomes as a result of this unity that saves our endeavors from aimlessness: “An object is peculiarly and dominantly esthetic, yielding the enjoyment characteristic of esthetic perception, when the factors that determine anything which can be called an experience are lifted high above the threshold of perception and made manifest for their own sake” (Dewey, 1934, p. 56).

In extrapolating this experience to the art of teaching, we might envision a craft informed by poetry, visual art and theater. This is valuable for understanding proficiency in esthetic teaching, incorporating a “rhythm” of involvement and withdrawal.” Huebner makes meaning from the creation of mood and awareness, saying “the teacher needs to be aware of the shape of the movement of the experiences created during the day or over a period of several days” (Huebner, p. 34). He does not simplify, but revels in the complexity of the art of education. Unfortunately, the esthetics of classroom experiences are described by Huebner as “neglected elements in most classrooms, though, for the flow of events tends to be a mechanical rhythm determined by purpose and its accomplishment.” (p. 34.) This is what makes for valuable inquiries into curriculum theorizing and even teaching methodologies. We still seem to be mired in the fight with those who channel us into assessment centered learning environments.

Dana Goldstein, author of The Teacher Wars, suggests that the endless new information and dialogue about school reform is old. She summarizes school reform brilliantly in one sentence: “The reform wave eventually produced organizations like

104

Teach for America and the “no excuses” charter school movement. Its agenda recalled the school efficiency progressivism of the early twentieth century: standardized testing, numbers-driven evaluation of teachers, and merit pay” (Goldstein, 2014, Kindle

Locations 3121-3123). Avoiding that antiquarian exchange, then, we should aspire to find productive alternatives to the Tyler Rationale, to convey a sense of hope to preservice and veteran teachers. Dr. Henderson’s and colleagues aspire to the creation n of a worthy alternative. Their fourfold process of awakening, teaching, collaborating and reviewing will be a vast improvement on the Rationale, not relying upon sequential and structured objectives and assessments.

All preservice teachers will eventually encounter the offspring of Bobbitt and

Tyler, and it’s easy to rail against that legacy. Nonetheless, I have grave concerns when I overhear examples of attacks on teachers and their union representatives. As a member of Kent City Schools teacher’s union for 36 years, I was occasionally part of negotiations that soured. Late in my career, our Ohio governor and recent presidential hopeful, John

Kasich, introduced a bill that was happily defeated with union support. On Feb. 8, 2011, state Senator Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, introduced SB 5: “The proposed law was a direct attack on public employees that would strip them of their collective bargaining rights. The first time anyone other than Jones and her insiders saw the massive, 1,000- plus page bill was when she unveiled it that day in a Senate committee. No one representing public employees was asked for input” (Weinman, 2012, ¶ 1). A group known as We Are Ohio was formed that led the attack and subsequent veto by a 62-38 percent margin. This would have eliminated the right to collective bargaining and 105

charging fair share dues to public employees. There is a similar measure that the supreme court considered recently, initiated by a third - grade teacher from California.

Deadlocked due to the death of Justice Scalia, Friedrichs v. California may return to the

Supreme Court and confirmed, and the landscape of curriculum design in the United

States might be change drastically. Public employee unions and first amendment protections will disappear, making it “harder for unions representing teachers, police and firefighters, and other government workers to maintain their power by affecting their pocketbooks” (Wolf, R., 2016, ¶ 5).

Since I referenced Franklin Bobbitt and Ralph Tyler, describing Providence as the epicenter of my work, it’s fitting to return to my home state of Rhode Island with a disquieting narrative. The story is representative of the problematic nature of our inexorable march to standardization and assessment. There is a small city, just north of

Providence – Central Falls – that has struggled economically for 100 years. It’s appearance, even on a beautiful sunny morning, is run-down and drab. The environment is reflected in the community, public schools and even the individuals. It’s also had a reputation as being one of the poorest – performing high schools in Rhode Island. The climate is not much improved considereing the treatment of their public-school teachers.

The local high school has been under a microscope for years, and was recently showcased in a special on NPR radio. Administrators abandoned a proposal to fire all the teachers if they agreed to a "transformation" plan, but since this “restructuring” began, twenty-six teachers have either been fired or resigned. The transformation plan was, in actuality, a thinly-veiled increase in Central Falls’ teacher evaluation policies. “The 106

debacle at Central Falls High has gotten national attention because President Obama and

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have publicly sided with administrators arguing that teachers must be held accountable for students' dismal test scores.” (Sanchez, 2011, ¶11).

These sensibilities aren’t monopolized by the low regard that Central Falls places upon teachers. “And so, as the Obama administration considers how to turn failing schools around, Central Falls High has become a cautionary tale about the complexities of school reform and whether the federal government should be dictating what those reforms should be” (Sanchez, ¶10). The “Transformation” paradigm was funded by the Obama administration in the amount of one million dollars in federal funds. Rhode Island’s former Education Supervisor, Dr. Deborah Gist, criticized educators and administration for not achieving a kind of consensus, and has come under fire for inadequate negotiations. She was subsequently hired as superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools. The announcement prompted teachers to walk out of a school board meeting because of her responses to the crisis in Rhode Island. Gist had even suggested shutting down Central

Falls High School and reopening it as a charter. In her tenure as the Rhode Island

Education Commissioner, Gist “has engaged in an intense battle with teachers’ unions over the use of standardized test results in teacher evaluations - noteworthy because that has been a growing source of controversy in Tulsa Public Schools and the rest of

Oklahoma in recent months” (Eger, 2015, ¶ 4). Epitomized by the school board as a solution to the needs of the educational community, they describe her as having a deep conviction that all kids can learn. Board member Suzanne Schreiber says that “Tulsa’s children and teachers will benefit from Dr. Gist’s ability to turn reform into real results 107

that positively impact children” (Eger, 2015, ¶ 4). The solution seems always to be grounded in the need for reform. This is what Emily Wade, a TPS parent and teacher at

Rosa parks Elementary School considered this one candidate as unacceptable, preferring local qualified people instead of bringing in someone who is a proponent of high-stakes- testing.

Perhaps we might begin with outlining some ways in which standardized-testing methodology could be challenged. This should begin with conversation, debate and a strong critique of the perspectives and tactics forwarded by Deborah Gist and others like her. Unfortunately for teachers, when we demonstrate against perceived injustices negative connotations are engendered in the public. All the media has to do is run a photograph with teachers in T – Shirts demonstrating and chanting, and all semblance of professionalism is gone. With the prevailing climate in school reform and assessment standards, there still might exist a place where Dewey can find a home. What are the implications of a ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ analysis for the future support of pedagogy as the “supreme art” of a society as outlined and proclaimed in My Pedagogic Creed?

I introduce the Deweyan perspective on pedagogical artistry in education to my preservice teachers, inviting them to an appreciation of his work, especially as his writing relates to teaching and learning. After hours of trying to align standards and objectives, they appreciate the concept of “Pedagogical artistry” as outlined and described by

Huebner. School reform and assessment standards will here to stay, at least for a decade or two. It does seem as if the Common Core and standardized assessments of students – 108

and teachers - is thoroughly entrenched, but there has to be a middle ground, a path that

provides for teacher artistry.

In a sense, I’ve become the face of teacher assessment. Gabe Swartz, a colleague

from the University of Wyoming, walked by my class recently, visiting briefly. He

observed that my students were skeptical, concerned about the relevance of the edTPA

assessment. They were wondering collectively if it were just a meaningless exercise, a

form of political and societal teacher evaluation. They’re right, of course, because it is

exactly that. It mirrors what they can expect as prospective new teachers in the

workforce, because they will face a similar assessment every year in the form of OTES.

I bring in a leading authority on OTES (Ohio teacher Evaluation System) as a guest

speaker towards the conclusion of each semester. His demeanor is generally positive,

and he works the room like an educational evangelist. His message: See the assessment

as an opportunity, a means to improve your teaching. It is another manifestation –

offspring - of the Tyler Rationale, an instrument of teacher evaluation disguised as a

means to meet the challenges of planning, instruction and assessment of our children.

There is hope on the horizon. Even Tyler was known to cite John Dewey, often reflecting that Dewey would point out the problem - solving nature of individuals: “This suggests that the environment where people will continue to develop is one where goals require effort and problems must be solved” (Nowakowski, 1983, p. 29). Is Tyler himself pointing the way to challenging standardized testing and pedagogical artistry? He knew that austere and difficult times may be ahead, but for people like teachers that are 109

committed to serving others, this is always the guiding and underlying principle. We are all in this to help children learn.

As to the core beliefs of teaching, there is a reaffirmation of our collective teacher identities to be had. This faith-based belief we all share has compelled us to become educators. We believe that education is valuable. We believe that kids can, and should, learn. John Dewey is a means by which this can be attained, because his secular references to religious experience are revitalizing to a teacher’s commitment to teaching and learning: "Human experience may naturally acquire a religious quality, and this is brought about most often by what had been the common faith of humanity, that is, a unifying moral faith in the ideals and values that guide the ongoing development of human relations and culture" (Rockefeller, 1991, p.481). My preservice teachers do research and presentations about leading educational theorists, among them, John Dewey.

I believe that my class creates new knowledge and understandings as a result of the coming together of this community, as opposed to merely designing best practice lesson plans and tying planning to assessment.

As a means of continuously nurtured Deweyan perspective of artistry throughout a teacher’s career, Dana Goldstein might offer the best solution to the ills of teaching and learning: “If we are truly going to increase the prestige and effectiveness of American public school teaching, we must do what we have never done before: Conceive of teachers as intellectuals, and allow them to collaborate to exercise real professional discretion and leadership” (Goldstein, 2015, p 35). To conceive of teachers as intellectuals and artists, as Goldstein proposes, we also have to reconceive what teaching

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is, allowing teachers a measure of freedom, time and opportunities: “As in all arts, the source of the discipline patience, and concentration required to master the art to master the media of the teaching art is a dedication and love for the art” (Huebner, 1999, p. 32).

Classical and Traditional Materials

Bill Wraga from the University of Georgia personally suggested the following books and was quite invested in the narrative thus far. Writes Dr. Wraga: “Hi Karl.

Thanks for your note and the materials. It will be interesting to see how Barlowski's approach relates to classical pedagogy of the time. For context, I recommend Winterer's

Culture of Classicism and Waquet's Latin, or the Empire of a Sign. I discuss Al Inglis's progressive classicism also in Progressive Pioneer: Alexander James Inlgis and

American Secondary Education. I look forward to your study. Good luck! Best wishes,

Bill Wraga” (W. Wraga, personal communication, February 12, 2016). This literature will be relevant (and enjoyable!) as I navigate the waters associated with the historical roots of Classical Education. For example, on the date of my maternal grandmother’s graduation from Classical high, Alexander Inglis wrote: “The study of ancient languages and literature, therefore, has an unbroken history since the beginning of secondary education in America” (Inglis, 1918, p. 447). He goes on to report that the study of

Greek, my heroine’s preferred subject, had tended to disappear since 1900. The assumed popularity of Greek was probably never as high as reported, and Inglis surmised that this was exacerbated by the protections of college admission requirements (p. 447). 111

Narrative Literature

Michael Bamberg of Clark University does research in narrative inquiry regarding the field of identity analysis. Bamberg refers to this as a “Small Story” approach, naturally-occurring when people engage in storytelling. He speculates about why they use stories in the first place and what they accomplish through storytelling that is different from other kinds of “spoken or unspoken activity” (Bamberg, 2012, p. 202).

Recently he shared his thoughts regarding the retelling of stories: “Well, Karl – telling stories…We (and me included) are more committed to working with stories – and this in an analytic fashion. Telling + retelling (even if it is done using allegory or metaphor) are presuppositions to start working with them ~ don’t know whether this helps, but best of luck, Michael” (Michael Bamberg, Personal communication, January 28, 2016) I’ve become involved on the acquisition of narratives as inform the overall narrative, trying to come to an understanding of her identity – and mine also.

The lead is a gifted woman who struggled with adult-onset psychopathology after her formal education was completed. Her name was Marya Barlowski, and the following will guide the narrative. Writes William Pinar: “I would stay focused on her and acknowledge context only as relevant to the story you’re telling” (personal communication, 12, 1, 2014). The others will introduce and elucidate the story as fits her life story. The dictionary (citation) defines elucidate in the following manner: “…to make lucid or clear; throw light upon; explain…” Artists and photographers will follow light, waiting for the appropriate time that light defines the moment. In a pure sense, I’m following light also, a quality that illuminates what I feel is the truth in context of human 112

interactions and human concerns. This is the metaphor which frames my journey - and mission. Perhaps the writing – even allegorically – may be classified as nonfiction. With regards to telling stories, “we (and me included) are more committed to working with stories – and this in an analytic fashion. Telling + retelling (even if it is done using allegory or metaphor) are presuppositions to start working with them” (Michael

Bamberg, personal communication). In this endeavor of nonfiction writing, I’m not looking for one truth – there will be many. Truth can have multiple meanings depending on the perspective of those claiming to own it. John Dower suggests that it is best to call this writing narrative nonfiction. John W. Dower is a professor of Japanese history at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a master of the genre. He believes that factual writing should read like a good novel, surfacing in books, magazines and only occasionally in newspapers. This is likely less prevalent in contemporary literature.

Dower suggests (Boxer, 2000) that the best nonfiction books “are not just about school busing in Boston or a flood in the Mississippi Delta. They are about what it means to be human in these circumstances” (p. E3). There are some theorists and writers who believe that even the category of “nonfiction” is “fictitious.” They might say that the concept of nonfiction being “true” is absurd. “If nonfiction were true, there would be one biography for one life, and it would be updated as new facts came to light.” (Boxer, S., 2000, p. E3).

This is reminiscent of Dewey Pragmatism as described through his “circuit of inquiry.”

This inquiry does utilize pragmatic problem-solving. I’m not after “truth,” because there may not be any truth to be found, only insights that the researcher must separate from all the chaff of an avalanche of data, placing materials in a contextual form. As forwarded in 113

an interview by Sarah Boxer, Dr. Dower suggests that “There is no one truth, any more than there is a single Japan. A writer of history relies on sources who may or may not remember things accurately. And in the end, he said, the way that people actually remember an event, whether they are right or not, can be as important as the facts themselves” (Boxer, 2000, p. E3).

Currere Literature

In a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Research Association

(Washington, D.C., 1975), William Pinar clearly outlined the evolution of his methods to formal curriculum studies. As a means to “reconceptualise” curriculum meaning (s),

Pinar welcomes modifications as part of an experimental approach. The “biographic past” to which he refers will be modified as a means to braid in elements generally associated with case study and narrative inquiry. Currere may be seen as a process or method, and generally the methodology follows a meditative approach to imagining the future after

“slowing down” (Pinar, 1975) and re-entering the past. Nearly all the assembled work outlined and described in this proposal deals with currere in one form or another.

Regarding the use of allegory, we have to translate – Pinar (2012) uses the term

“transfigure” when we interpret lived experience as educational experience, that is, a methodological analysis of a personal past to an “envisioned future.” “Informed by L.

Fowler’s and Pinar’s methodological work, we believe that good curriculum work involves the creation of narrative montages of allegorical autobiography centered on holistic pedagogy.” Fowler recommends seven points when doing curriculum work: storytelling, psychological analysis, ethical examination, narrative construction, 114

hermeneutic engagement pedagogical reflection and teaching poetics. “Narrative is a fertile ground for listening and witnessing all lives in a world where all beings matter”

(Fowler, 2006, p. vii). MacDonald’s (1995) more ecumenical neutral term centering is our referent interposition is consistent with the constitutional separation of state and religion in the United States in many countries.

Allegory in literature literary attempts to convert abstract concepts, beliefs and historical events into characters and/or events as narrative. Paradise Lost, for example, is a well-known example of allegory. To address this problem, the history needs to be described, ordered in a temporal manner, and analyzed. This will help uncover and reveal the evolution of the current curriculum of loss. It will be accomplished allegorically through the lived experiences and phenomena surrounding a brilliant woman. This is an allegorical narrative, a complete story where elements such as characters, events and plot have both literal and symbolic meanings. Conveying a deeper symbolic narrative partnered with the surface narrative, this allegory will take the form of biography. By integrating the narrative research with currere, the two stories (also mine, as the autobiographical piece is “feathered in”) have more power, more relevance, and are more accessible – and engaging - to the reader. The importance of the research lies in its’ unique qualities and the specific contributions I seek to make. I can build upon the ongoing work of both James Henderson and William Pinar, and his four-step method of currere allegorically through the lived experiences of my “protagonist.” Marya was a

Greek and Latin, scholar, as was her younger sister Lillian, who described the etymology as derived from Greek allēgoria, or “figurative language” that in Latin translates to 115

“speaking openly at an assembly” (personal communication, February 24, 2014). As clarified by Bill Pinar: “In my view, allegory embraces both “resemblance” and

“difference,” the particularity of history and the past’s significance for the present moment” (Pinar, 2012, p. 50).

Brun Mael, 1943, p. 67. Sophomore Elisha Benjamin scholars after their acceptance speeches Marya Barlowski, center.

“A speech at once concrete and abstract, through allegory one narrates a specific story which hints at more general significance. Its characters are at once particular and symbolic, simultaneously historical and metahistorical, even mythological” (Pinar, 2012, p. 50). I do recognize a tendency to mythologize, embellishing to make a story more interesting. Since this is not a short story, the facts do not have to presented up front.

Some of the writing may place items off to the side of the narrative, as contextual elements that are a series of short stories. I believe this inquiry is relevant since it will be framed and usefully informed by Pinar's allegorical autobiography, adapting his currere historical refinement (Pinar, 2012) as an allegorical/biographical application. By moving 116

in the past, I can tell stories about my experiences in concert with those others have told, defining and understanding our commonalities. In generalizing to the “significance” of academic studies and their significance to our lives, Pinar (1975) writes that we can use these stories as evidence for understanding “our present in the way that allows us to move on, more leaned, more evolved than before (p. 15).

The allegorical, the broader implications of currere move through allegory, at least as far as the curricular definition is concerned: “When we speak allegorically, we do not do so for the sake of a future in which such information will, we imagine, become usable. Rather, we self-reflexively articulate what is at hand, reactivating the past so as to render the present, including ourselves, intelligible. As an ethical, political, always intellectual undertaking, the complicated conversation that is the curriculum enables educational experience” (Pinar, 2012, p. 50). This complicated conversation, this curriculum work, is also based upon Dr. James G. Henderson and Colleagues’ vision of curriculum leadership. This points towards some of the relevant reading recommended for his graduate seminar.

Curriculum Leadership and Relevant Literature

There is, according to colleague Jen Lowers, a theme that runs through my writing, one of awakening. Dr. James G. Henderson (2017) informs curriculum leadership with some leading questions in his doctoral CL seminar:

How do educators awaken to becoming lead professionals for democratic ways of living?

How do educators cultivate repertoires for a diversified, holistic pedagogy?

How do educators engage in critical self-examinations? 117

How do educators critically appraise their emerging professional artistry?

This conceptual repertoire from Dr. James G. Henderson’s doctoral seminar in

Curriculum Leadership (CL) outlines eight fundamentals of curriculum, and allows for the emergence of additional curriculum folds, presented in a nonlinear fashion below:

• Practicing curriculum criticism,

• Cultivating curriculum liberalization,

• Contemplating democratic general education,

• Composing currere essays on journeys of understanding.

• Engaging in deliberative conversations on relevant curriculum topics,

• Undertaking reflective inquiries on 3S pedagogy, which refers to teaching for

Subject understandings deepened by democratic Self and Social understandings,

• Negotiating and navigating the standardized-management and practical-wisdom

paradigms,

• Initiating and inspiring lead learning with colleagues and other curriculum

stakeholders.

Collaborative Lead-Learning

From Jen Lowers and Karl Martin’s Curriculum Leadership presentation:

• Lead-learning that takes place among two or more lead learners

• Lead learners do not merely share resources, but add to them in some way in

order to create and exchange a unique learning experience 118

• Helpful in terms of developing a mental image of what Dr. Henderson’s

leadership process would look like, and for understanding complex concepts and

terminology pertaining to curriculum work

• Provides lead learners with the opportunity to practice explaining complicated

curriculum concepts and terminology to colleagues who are unfamiliar with them

• Can take many forms, such as: peer review, deliberative and/or complicated

conversations, advice/recommendations, clarification, drawing, homework,

activities, worksheets, brainstorming, e-mails, text messages, comparing and

contrasting personal experiences and perspectives, etc.

o This biographical narrative adds a piece to what Dr. Henderson’s

leadership process resembles, removing it from the “ahistorical” realm,

awakening the process with a genuine historical figure in a “real” setting

of an unfolding story. This “unfolding” will reveal more than casual

understandings as fit curriculum leadership, intrinsic motivation and

capacity-building, from family, school, college, graduate work, vocation

and leadership. This unfolding is more than a casual association. It

emanates from the writing of a philosopher named Gilles Deleuze.

Deleuze and The Fold

As a means of understanding the inherent connections incorporated into curriculum leadership, a philosophical concept from Deleuze’s 1992 book The Fold:

Leibnitz and the Baroque offers a few insights. Hhe considered the entire universe to be in a continuous process of folding and unfolding, with a connection existing among all 119

forms of matter in the universe. Everything that exists in the universe is constantly folding in and out of everything else, including human beings and physical objects, including the unfolding of the human soul. Deleuze’s work also appears in architectural discourse. The universe is not composed of individual moments that occur independently in time, unconnected to other events and matter, but rather Deleuze’s concept of the fold involves a sense of continuity that centers on the existence of infinite potential. Stated otherwise, there will never actually be an infinite number of folds, only the potential for the folds to exist. From Deleuze (1992):

Thus, a continuous labyrinth is not a line dissolving into independent

points, as flowing sand might dissolve into grains, but resembles a sheet of

paper divided into infinite folds or separated into bending movements,

each one determined by the consistent or conspiring surrounding. A fold is

always folded within a fold, like a cavern in a cavern. The unit of matter,

the smallest element of the labyrinth, is the fold, not the point which is

never a part, but a simple extremity of the line (Deleuze, 1992, p. 18).

The aesthetics and principles of the fold are not confined exclusively to origami.

The fold is reflected in a sense of continuity and possibilities of unlimited potential. It is found in architecture, the classroom, and even mirrored in the structure of the human brain. The universe is not composed of individual moments that occur independently in time, unconnected to other events and matter, but rather Deleuze’s concept of the fold involves a sense of continuity that centers on the existence of infinite potential. In other words, there will never actually be an infinite number of folds, only potentially. 120

Educational Experiences and The Fold

There are implications of the fold regarding educational experiences and pedagogy. The classroom is not exempt from the continuous process of the folding and unfolding of everything in the universe. According to this concept, an infinite range of possibilities exist within the classroom. Every moment in the classroom is connected to every other moment; these events are not separate points in time, and happenings within the classroom are connected to everything that occurs outside of the classroom. By viewing the classroom as the fold, we are acknowledging and embracing an infinite process of the unfolding of potential that exists outside of time and space. Jen Lowers suggests (and she is correct) that “The Fold is a powerful allegory for curriculum workers, and highly compatible with Dr. Henderson’s concept of 3S pedagogy and his vision of curriculum leadership” (J. Lowers, personal communication, May 2, 2017).

A visual conceptualization of the fold informed by a collaborative lead-learning conversation between Lowers and Martin (2017). 121

Reconceptualizing Curriculum Theory

Dr. James G. Henderson’s vision of collegiality is highlighted in his recent addition to William Pinar’s Studies in Curriculum Theory, which includes work by Petra

Hendry, Tom Popkewitz, William Doll and Dwayne Huebner, among others.

Throughout this book, Reconceptualizing Curriculum Theory: Inspiring and Informing

Action, Dr. Henderson presents a warm, “human” side to curriculum work through a conversational, narrative approach. Five of the authors who collaborated with Dr.

Henderson are colleagues, and when I read their words I hear the character and quality of their voices, their inflections. Advancing a unique vision and approach to curriculum development, with summaries (called “snapshots” here) of pedagogical artistry through holistic teaching. As fits a “noble vocational calling,” Dr. James Henderson describes intrinsically-motivated lead professionals: “There are many educators who don’t see themselves as bureaucratic functionaries, corporate employees, or compliant technocrats.

They view themselves as lead professionals with important visionary, progressive responsibilities” (Henderson, 2014, p.1). It is though inspiring writing like this that I imagine a historical personage – my heroine - forwarding characterizations – her own artistry - as “instructive and inspirational” text. Jen Lowers sees Her biographical narrative as a lead-learning allegory for curriculum workers. Despite the challenges

Marya faced and endured, perhaps because of, she was an intrinsically motivated lead- learner. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s capacity for empathy, compassion and leadership come to mind, a result of his struggles in the aftermath of Polio. Was it those struggles that drove him to be arguably the most influential president of the Twentieth Century? 122

There is an emergent iceberg metaphor about my heroine, with the visible writing, scholarship and service informing the submerged motivations and capacities. If we describe autonomy as personal and professional interdependence, being free from external control, her education prepared her for this kind of agency, for making independent decisions and charting a vocational course. She was energized by collegial study in her chosen vocation through practicing, inquiring, collaborating, and teaching.

These gave her a sense of agency, that she was doing important work. Dr. Henderson

(2014) describes agency as “locus of control.” “The feel for autonomy underlying this book’s design is based on a particular interpretation of professional responsibility” (p.

106).

Motivation

Daniel Pink’s research is the bedrock literature as pertains to intrinsic motivation.

Specifically, and of great import, his book Drive is referenced by James G. Henderson as salient work in reconceptualizing Curriculum Theory. Pink’s A Whole New Mind (2006) is valuable as a tool for understanding right-brained thinkers, describing human abilities and problem – solving skills that are essential to success: “Design, Story, Symphony,

Empathy, Play, and Meaning—are fundamentally human attributes. They are things we do out of a sense of intrinsic motivation. They reside in all of us…” (p. 247).

From Dewey: Genuine freedom, in short, is intellectual; it rests in the trained power of thought, in ability to “turn things over,” to look at matters deliberately, to judge whether the amount and kind of evidence requisite for decision is at hand, and if not, to tell where and how to seek such evidence. If a man’s [or woman’s] actions are not 123

guided by thoughtful conclusions, then they are guided by inconsiderate impulse, unbalanced appetite, caprice, or the circumstances of the moment. To cultivate unhindered, unreflective external activity is to foster enslavement, for it leaves the person at the mercy of appetite, sense, and circumstance. (p. 90)” (p. 100).

The feel for autonomy underlying this book’s design is based on a particular interpretation of professional responsibility. James G. Henderson’s Reconceptualizing

Curriculum Development (RCD) challenges educators to recognize that, if they want to argue for professional autonomy for 3S pedagogy, they have the responsibility to develop their capacities to engage in sophisticated reflective inquiries informed by multilayered deliberative conversations” (pp. 100-101). They also must cultivate and facilitate collegial relationships as part of a lead-learning peer review that adds voices to the conversation. Building peer and public trust through responsible problem solving is central to professional autonomy in education; and though this theme pervades the entire text, it will be highlighted in chapters four and five. Throughout this journey, I have endeavored to cultivate collegial relationships, beginning with the exercises in Dr.

Henderson’s Fundamentals of Curriculum and Theory and Research in Curriculum. The result was a healthy measure of peer and public review, which in turn has shaped this writing. Chapter III

METHODOLOGY Narrative Inquiry From 1951 forward, I will not have to speculate about how people in Providence, Rhode Island went about their lives. I was a part of it, holding onto the hand of a parent, grandparent, uncle or aunt. As a teenager, I drove my grandfather’s 1959 Ford Fairlane all over the state, washing it lovingly each day. The summers during my first decade of teaching were spent in Rhode Island, roaming the various neighborhoods of Providence and surfing the best breaks their beaches had to offer. My hometown, Providence, Rhode Island – also that of Marya Barlowski - is the epicenter of this narrative. My grandfather and I drove to her neighborhood for “New York System Hot Wieners” often. To this day, when I arrive in Providence I feel as if I’m home. Always with an ear open to good storytelling, I listened to my elders spin their narratives and express opinions as New Englanders are inclined to do. My grandmother told stories when we did the laundry with her wringer washer, hanging the clothes outside to dry in the warmer months, the basement during the winter. She would recount episodes of The Great War (later renamed World War I) which clouded her years at Classical High. Grandma deftly balanced the fanfare accompanying enthusiastic volunteers sailing off to Over There with the aftermath that left thousands of them dead. Tales of the Great Depression, hurricane of 1938 and World War II often followed.

124 125

Episodes of tragedy and miraculous heroism during the Great Hurricane of 1938

(nicknamed the Long Island Express) could be coaxed out of a great uncle. This occasionally unraveled into descriptions of his internment in the prison camp at

Konigsburg during World War II, and he would become dark. The spell would be broken by my Aunt Lillian, accompanied by a stern reprimand for “encouraging him.” I always wanted to be able to understand the past, to be a part of decades not experienced. Since time travel didn’t seem to be an option, listening to stories and retelling them was my invitation into that world. Therefore, the how of my work rests upon narrative work, collecting stories and artifacts, using writing as the means of analysis and synthesis, to work with and through them.

Historiography

It will be necessary to theorize curriculum historiography as a means to address the ahistoricism and atheoretical nature of curriculum in the present day. As to what the necessary curriculum theory is, I will present the findings, and let the readers form their own opinions and conclusions. I will avoid advocacy, suspending judgement by looking at this inquiry with a skeptical focus, aiming for generative lead-learning.

This is, then, a biographical narrative with historical content: a biographical historiography. Dr. Henderson and colleagues study and practice agenda is dependent upon intrinsic motivation and vocational calling. You have to be a good traveler, mapping what you are doing, involving a larger picture and community. This biographical historiography focuses on the vocational calling of Marya. Our conception and definition of “calling” goes beyond the spiritual but does speak to a kind of 126

“conversion.” Her “calling” will refer back to the circumstances and setting in which the calling took place. Life experiences, education, mentors and spiritual grounding all point to vocational calling. Lee Hardy forwards a perspective of the presence of God in the work of our hands: “Through the order of stations [social roles] God sees that the daily needs of humanity are met. Through the human pursuit of vocations across the array of earthly stations the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, the sick are healed, the ignorant are enlightened and the weak are protected” (Hardy, 1990, p. 45). Hardy is suggesting that there exists a spiritual – and ethical – grounding with ongoing providence for the human race, a larger purpose to our vocational pursuits. This describes well what the role and calling of what, I believe, a psychiatric social worker should embody.

The vocational calling themes are those that describe Her intrinsic motivation for educational excellence, leading her to become a lead professional in her field of psychiatric social work, and her developing and teaching the curriculum and practice of social work. Conversely, her scholarship, successes and service provide opportunities for multidisciplinary insights as we reflect on the past, with positive consequences for the present and imaginings toward the future.

Perhaps teachers and social workers are called away from pursuing a job in the business sector, working cooperatively with others to “go forth” in a spirit of love and humanity. In my analysis, I will speculate as to whether these themes might point to

Marya becoming interested in Dr. Henderson’s model of curriculum leadership, providing a historical element that informs his research. 127

Marla Morris (2015) suggests that curriculum theorists are required to ethically incorporate historical memory. It is interpretive work, working through a period in the past of which they were not a part. She considers memory work a public act that links both memory and history. “What is private becomes public when scholars write about it.

The purpose of memory, says Huebner, is the ‘building of public, or shared worlds’”

(Morris, 2015, p. 40). Writing about memory is made public by publications. Writing these memories tells us much about the history into which the writer is thrown. “So, autobiography is not a solipsistic act: the writing of a life, as Huebner points out, a sharing of a world” (Morris, 2015, p. 40).” When a private life becomes public it makes memory history. William Pinar has suggested that my currere case study is an important

“reactivation” of history (W. Pinar, personal communication, December 6, 2014).

Curriculum history as memory work ensures that there is a preservation and public sharing of valuable insights. “These memories, Huebner points out, are ‘protected from loss or forgetfulness” (p. 187). And that is why it is imperative that academics write.”

Historiography incorporates a narrative element that invites explanation, understanding and writing. Marla Morris, a former student of William Pinar, offers helpful perspectives and encouragement regarding the ambiguities of scholarship. Using the metaphor of the “forked road,” she describes false starts and dead ends as a metaphor that eventually lead to awakenings and finding one’s way (p. 9). Historiography involves working “through” the past, not merely reporting but writing for understanding. She incorporates the work of Dwayne Huebner (p. 29) into the conversation in the following manner: “The job of the historian is not merely to report. To theorize history, critique is 128

necessary” (p. 433). The practical and theoretical, work together in concert. Therefore, in my reconstruction of the past there should be a humble approach that encompasses more than a cursory ordering or explanation. I have a responsibility to write as factual and forthcoming a historiography as is possible. While there may exist an inherent subjectivity in a scholar’s approach to historiography, there are differing perspectives on reflexivity. Constructed from interviews and collected documents, my analysis will take the form of a biographical narrative. “If myth, literary fiction, and traditional historiography utilize the narrative mode of discourse, this is because they are all forms of language use” (Morris, 2016, p. 37).

William Pinar studied with Dwayne Huebner during the 1960s, and believed in being “historically aware,” looking back for “threads of continuity.” Curriculum studies is a field with a past. It has a vocabulary. It has a history. The field should be presented as such. “Reconstructing the past is not explaining but interpreting and gathering together in idiosyncratic ways that explore what historically came before us” (Morris, 2016, p.

32). According to Morris(2016), past knowledge of curriculum studies ensures that each new generation of curriculum workers will not have to rediscover the problems/issues of the field:

It is absurd to suppose that, because a historical discourse is cast in the

mode of narrative, [or that it is constructed from the choice of materials

and documents] it must be mythical, fictional [in the sense of being made

up ex nihilo], substantially imaginary of otherwise ‘unrealistic’ in what it

tells us about the world (p. 37). 129

This work will be approached as non-fictional, based upon interviews with real people, insights gleaned from collected writings, scholastic work and relevant artifacts. It is in the writing of a historiography that it may seem fictional: “Historiography is like literary fiction because of the way in which both are constructed and put together, but a historian is more constrained. “Novelists are not constrained. If you make the claim that history is fiction, then you play into the hands of the Holocaust revisionists who say that the Jews made the Holocaust up to get to Israel” (Morris 2016, p. 38).

There is another element to consider, that biography and autobiography are interrelated. A developing biography about a subject is directly related to the developing autobiography of the biographer (Morris, 2016, p. 42). Both are historical, and one informs the other.

To bring the history into life requires the “embellishments” provided by interviews

I’ve conducted and also those from the Pembroke Center at Brown University. A project begun two decades ago, they fill in a lot of gaps in the everyday engagement with college life. This material is valuable as scholarship and engaging, stimulating and capturing the imagination. Marla Morris writes: “Because the genre of biography is popular, though, doesn’t devalue its scholarly worth. A scholarly biography is scholarly, popular or not”

(Morris, 2016, p. 46). My concerns have been what material to incorporate into the historiography, and what information to exclude. My purposeful subject in this case study has been deceased for over forty years. Her legacy is part of my concern, but her lifetime defined through friend, family and professional relationships. 130

This historiography is an “educational biography,” a case study “about” a social worker who also taught the theory and practice of her vocation. It is possible that that she incorporated a cosmopolitan outlook into her calling of psychiatric social work. She studied, researched and provided relevant scholarship to the field, extending beyond the bounds of her discipline and taking her work far beyond the ordinary. Thinking and acting with concern for humanity is what psychiatric social work is all about.

Evolution of the Inquiry

First, I had to locate her. That outwardly seemed easy to accomplish, but there are quite a few burials in Rhode Island. After contacting an ample number of funeral parlors, one director was able to find the gravesite. He liked the story, and the inquiry gave him a respite during a slow week. As it turns out, there are many professionals that may become interested – then invested – in a good story, especially when there is an element of mystery or poignant reminder of the passage of time, of history turning another page. It was exciting for me also, to open up an email and see a subject heading that read: Found her! My contagious enthusiasm may have helped, and my journey took me to dozens of librarians, archivists and a few remaining family members. Most of the time it was exhilarating and positive, except when occasionally being threatened with litigation. That only served to validate the research, since I knew I was on to something.

This made me more determined to dig up every photograph and artifact I could find, and

I began collecting and reading all her writing that was available. This included her master’s dissertation work at Smith College, from 1947, entitled Appraisal of a clinical pastoral training program, Part III: a study of the contacts with psychotic patients by 131

theological student: a dissertation based upon an investigation at the New Jersey Mental

Hygiene Clinics, Greystone Park, New Jersey. Following this, I built one book with all five installments of this research. The overarching subjects were psychology, pathological, pastoral psychology and their relationship with mental hygiene clinics. I used her material to inform my doctoral classes at Kent State University, and began contacting people in the curriculum field for advice. Dr. William Pinar offered the following: “Seems like a potential dissertation to me, Karl. But I would stay focused on her and acknowledge context only as relevant to the story you’re telling. Best to you and

Dr. Henderson…. Bill” (W. Pinar, December 1, 2014, personal communication). I felt myself being validated in with Dr. Pinar’s own words. As part of the course requirements for Theory and Research in Curriculum, I began the historiography, hopeful to find implications for curriculum theorizing. Dr. Henderson suggested that I did more deeply into the “metaphysics of experience” described by Dewey, taking a Pragmatism class taught by Frank X. Ryan the following semester. The process then moved to identifying what was relevant about her emerging narrative for curriculum and teaching studies. Dr. Henderson’s feedback was as follows:

How does the study of Her educational life serve as a ‘platform’ for your

research agenda? What’s the new knowledge (the Deweyan ‘object’) that you

hope to generate? I think there are a number of possibilities, as indicated by Bill

Pinar’s response to your inquiries. And, of course, your ongoing biographical

work may overlap with your own autobiographical examinations; and that could 132

be an interesting synergy and a launching pad for a research trajectory (James G.

Henderson, personal communication, December 18, 2014).

This was the beginning of the process of identifying a topic of inquiry, relying on a review of historical writing and the lived experiences of historical personages. It also predicted the overlap of autobiographical and biographical work examinations through narrative work. As such, this historical narrative currere case study evolved naturally over time. It is a way of understanding and inquiring into experience through the

“collaboration between researcher and participants, over time, in a place or series of places, and in social interaction with milieus” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 20).

As noted, the method of currere compliments the inquiry when used judiciously in tandem with narrative biography. There are also elements of case study in this work that revolve around the lived experiences of a historical personage, which had its’ beginnings years ago. As part of the coursework for Forms of Inquiry class, I discovered that Marya collaborated on research conducted through Smith College in Massachusetts.

Collaborating with four other graduate students at Smith, her piece was the third, undertaken as part of a survey of the clinical training program for theological students and ministers at the New Jersey State Hospital at Greystone Park. “In this program, the student learns about human nature and its problems through regular visits with patients and a supplemental education program” (Barlowski, 1947, p.1).

Typewritten Research

Typed exclusively by the author on her on the Paillard Hermes Rocket portable typewriter, I can study her while she observes and comments about patients at Greystone. 133

The discourse concerning the use of a typewriter has led Darren Wershler-Henry to

Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, who deconstruct some truisms associated with use by writers. He recounts that “in the age of the typewriter – the twentieth century, more or less, there was a prevailing mythology that what was typewritten was fact, that the machine somehow caused writers to bare their souls. Wershler-Henry also contends that

“people believed that what was typewritten was dictated, by a voice separate from the person typing; even people composing at the typewriter thought they were receiving dictation from elsewhere” (The Typing Life, ¶ 5).

The process of typing on an old typewriter is much different from using the Qwerty keyboard on a computer. One has to strike the keys, and a page produced is a record of a process of thought, reflecting the immense hardship of writing. There is also a supposed element of channeling something extraordinary: “But in the cool climes of the book there is one burning ember, and that is the notion that typewriters made writers feel they were being dictated to (The Typing Life, ¶ 8). Weshler-Henry writes that not only Burroughs but also Paul Auster and others felt haunted - even controlled - by their typewriters. The archivists at Smith College were good enough to make extremely high-resolution scans of

Her typewritten work. That enabled me to “read between the lines,” the darker letters reflecting a confidence about the passage. My heroine was quite superstitious about using the same machine for her typewritten work, E. Paillard & Company Hermes exclusively (L. Runyon, personal communication, May 2, 2014). Her Baby Jubilee model was launched in 1940, and good industrial design like that is hard to find. She always wrote decisively on the Hermes, and used it throughout her entire lifetime. The 134

typewriter, in a sense, became her muse. Her inquiries were dependent upon the clickety- clack of the machine, and her writing process became a transcript of her intellectual and spiritual experience. I was able to borrow her original typed manuscript for a time, and it was an experience just to hold it in my lap, appreciating each page, each line, missteps and corrections included. Her writing helps drive the story, and also the story of me telling the story. Always motivated, always engaged, her leadership and writing pointed towards her vocational calling. The missing piece involved the incorporation of curriculum theorizing, now identified and titled Exploring Curriculum Leadership

Capacity-Building through Biographical Narrative: A Currere Case Study.

Biographical Case Study

My biographical interest fuels the work, and that interest – to many others who have influenced and been influenced by the narrative – suggests elements of intrinsic case study. My person of interest, my “purposeful sample,” was a brilliant first - generation daughter of Polish immigrants. Their journey from Poland to Ellis Island in 1907 marked the beginning of her parents’ experiences in the United States, and is intrinsically interesting in its’ own right. The same can be said of their establishment in a Polish working-class section of Providence (Olneyville) and their insistence that their daughters embrace study as a means to self-improvement. The intrinsic case is often exploratory in nature, and the researcher is guided by his or her interest in the case itself rather than in extending theory or generalizing across cases” (Mills, Durepos & Wiebe, 2010, p. 500-

501). Case Study is not necessarily a methodological choice, rather a chosen path of study that points us in the direction of what it is we’re interested in. Since I’m interested 135

and invested in the life of a scholar and social worker, the writing of Robert Stake is relevant: “The social worker studies the child because the child is neglected. The symptoms of neglect are both qualitative and quantitative. The formal record that the social worker keeps is more qualitative than quantitative” (Stake, 1995, p. 134). I firmly believe that the subject of my study is of enough intrinsic interest that I may subordinate other inquiries so the narratives of my heroine and others in her circle will be revealed and illuminated, those that are “living the case.” I described my “doubled narrative” earlier, and Stake again (1995) offers clarification if and when an intrinsic case study helps a researcher pursue an external interest: “I call it instrumental case study if a particular case is examined mainly to provide insight into an issue or to redraw a generalization. The case is of secondary interest, it plays a supportive role, and it facilitates our under standing of something else” (Stake, 1995, p. 137). Stake ddoes not believe that there is a strong distinction – or divide - between intrinsic and instrumental case studies, because while looking at the intrinsic case in depth, the researcher is allowed pursuit and discovery of other interests. Furthering this argument as fits my historical inquiries and writing, Robert Yin (2014) suggests that case study is valuable as an historical method dealing with the past (“dead”) when “there are few relevant persons still alive to report” (p. 7). This description is surely representative of my inquiry, establishing the necessity of the resultant methodology.

Rousmaniere (2004) suggested that “there is no history until historians tell it, and it is the way in which they tell it that becomes what we know of as history” (p. 33).

Narratives have been a significant way for people to record and make sense of their 136

experiences. Denzin (1989) clarified that “A life lived is what actually happens...A life as told...is a narrative, influenced by the cultural conventions of telling, by the audience, and by the social context” (p. 30).

Narrative Inquiry is a tool of the researcher for gathering the stories and for the subsequent representation of the stories to the reader. The transcriptions, or narrative texts, of these told stories may be interpreted as evidentiary documents of real life experiences. The text is checked against the reality of each reader and acquires meaning beyond the sharing of remembrances of the past. “Once a story is created, it opens up new possibilities for understanding—a point nicely made by Stefinee Pinnegar (1996):

‘When a story is reinterpreted it becomes not just a new story but a new experience’” (p.

13).

The use of narrative and biography are what my peers say makes me “uniquely me” as I explain larger outcomes and perspectives through storytelling. Yang Gao described it best: “Karl, everybody knows you’re the story guy. Stick with what got you here; what you do best. Then do more of that when you’re finished with the program” (Y.

Gao, personal communication, November 3, 2015). Here, then, is a small story: On a dresser in Deerfield Beach an ashtray spills over by a small photograph of two sisters. It belongs to the daughter and niece of the girls pictured, a former Ice Capades star with an expired real estate license. Janina, her mother was a scholar and librarian, eventually succumbing to dementia. Janina lived out her final years in a steamy golf community far from Rhode Island. The daughter, also Janina, smokes continually, lighting one cigarette from another. On bad days, she seldom emerges from the bedroom, much less the house. 137

While mother Janina was still solvent she mourned her sister Marya, dead since 1974.

Janina would ask if her mother could recall specific episodes of their lives. Before a confirmation mass at Saint Ambrose Catholic Church in Deerfield Beach Janina wondered aloud “Mama do you remember when Ciocia Marya (Aunt, pronounced sho- sha) was baptized and confirmed,” and show her the photograph. Occasionally her mother would smile and nod, recognition on her face.

Since the telling of a story is a narrative, the question of whether or not narratives

“explain” is illuminated by an analysis of Clifford Geertz’s well-known paper Deep Play:

Notes on a Balinese Cockfight. Paul A. Roth (1989) suggests that narratives do more than mere formal paraphrasing, lacking in formal and semantic features, and that

“instances of narrative explanations include histories, ethnographies and psychoanalytic case studies” (p. 449). In writing his story line, Geertz tells a story of a specific event – a cockfight - that alludes to a larger story about Balinese males and society: “…to construct a particular story line, that is, a way of reading the event of the cockfight as a tale about

Balinese society. This is the cockfight as narrative. But his narrative presents each event narrated as a token of an event type. Geertz's various narrations recapitulate the general tale he tells; everyday life in Bali instantiates general facts about its social structure”

(Roth, 1989, p. 450).

My own ‘doubled’ narrative work has been situated in/as Dr. Henderson’s curriculum leadership as a constructive alternative tohis curriculum development rationale. This will also be representative of a larger, more general narrative. While unearthing and co-constructing insights as a basis for human understanding, narrative 138

inquiries to have something to say about the human condition; what it means to be human. Ordinary conversations and interviews about my heroine from others in her family, church, community and academic settings have provided me with histories, and I have amassed a wealth of assembled stories. Polkinghorne (2007) contends that personal descriptions of life experiences “can serve to issue knowledge about neglected, but significant areas, of the human realm” (p. 472). The unfolding of events as storied may well have a basis in fact, but the personal meanings represent the salient material as her story is told. In the process, participants also want their stories told. They want a voice in this inquiry. Ms. Barlowski was a universal woman, with erudition practically unlimited. She knew all the languages that her academic subjects required her to know, as comfortable in ancient Athens and Rome as in Poland and Providence. After reflecting on her own education and experiences, how would the heroine of my

“doubled” narrative have retold her story? Had her life been longer, what future possibilities might she have imagined? What possibilities might be distilled from her lived experiences? Since she is the “purposeful sample,” dying in July of 1974, I’m compelled to do the currere work for her. Her lead-learning story should emerge from this, because for a few decades she was able to find her voice, resisting forces that might have pointed her towards becoming a telephone operator or secretary and furthering her scholastic and professional development. Marya was problem-solving every day, inquiring, assessing and prescribing. “Lead learning is about finding ways of disrupting and being different despite the habits standardized management paradigm perpetuates”

(Henderson et al, p. 212). Her sister Lillian said that she often described psychiatric 139

social work was a relevant and emerging profession, emancipatory in its’ own right. Like many present-day teachers, she was often on a journey of isolation, pushing hard to increase her wisdom through study and practice. A professional in every sense of the word, she had regrets and difficulties in life and work, but stories about her journey awaken us to successes and brilliant service to her fellow man. This is worthy of a biographical narrative as imagined currere becoming part of the dialogue for 3S (Subject,

Self, Social) pedagogy. Currere was a way of letting us view curriculum not as a static document or material rather as a process of working from within through the reading, writing, and processing our subjectivity in relationship to the world alongside our pasts, presents, and futures (Fowler, 2006; Pinar, 1994). I am hopeful that this work will validate and honor her voice. In doing so, I am hopeful that it will promote and empower the voices of others, awakening the reader to the possibilities of capacity-building.

“Historically preceding Greene’s (1995) discourse of wide-awakeness is Freire’s (1998) critical consciousness or conscientization, related to raising consciousness in students to unmask oppression and liberate the capacity to learn, imagine, act and openly dialogue with the world” (Rautins, C. & Ibrahim, A., p. 26). During the ongoing inquiry and refinement other themes may emerge, and already have. For example, since the chosen profession Marya pursued was psychiatric social work, it is intriguing to examine and deconstruct how the identification of “mental disorder” is attributed to children and adolescents in schools – and beyond. The diagnosis of mental illness could be exposed

“not as psychopathological afflictions, but as the products of entrenched certainties of professionals and the policies, practices and techniques that follow from and persistently 140

reconfirm these” (Youdell, 2015, p. 793). Stated another way, being “different” may easily be categorized as “madness.” The transactions involving this psychiatric social worker and her interactions and interventions with patients may have contributed to her malaise. It’s conceivable that she was able to manage her episodes through superlative academic rigor, succumbing gradually to psychopathology after her formal educational experiences. Dr. John Stuhr, author of Dr. Ryan’s Pragmatism class textbook, made the following suggestions:

Dear Karl, Thanks for your note. I am not very familiar with theories or specific

experiences with mental illness or substance abuse (or philosophy as a means to

controlling illness or problems). I am not sure that James on an ongoing basis

controlled mental “episodes” with philosophical rigor—both because it is not

clear that he favors much rigor (in the professional, Ph.D. Octopus kind of way)

in philosophy (I am with him on that!) and because in his own life it seems that

there was a particular period of depression that had a kind of philosophically

willful overcoming—but that did not continue to reappear. You may know far

more about all this—you probably do—and that would just be further proof that I

am right to say I don’t know enough to provide much in the way of feedback. Of

course, there is a huge literature on mental illness, and some small part of it is

philosophical in nature. I am not aware of any of this literature informing issues

of curricular theories or pedagogical practices—perhaps because this kind of

theorizing is usually addressed to what it considers to be mainstream or normal or

common kinds of students and experiences. In any case, I wish you well (and 141

imagine that Dr. Ryan can give you more helpful thoughts). (J. Stuhr, personal

communication, November, 7, 2014).

The methodology is qualitative, to be accomplished through narrative inquiry.

There are elements of a case study in evidence, and Dr. Henderson and I have identified it as a currere case study. It involves a strong dependence upon narrative inquiry as might befit the telling of large – and, especially, small stories. Michael Bamberg describes this methodology quite well: “In sum, what the claims to narrative exceptionalism have in common is the attempt to endow the person with something like a ‘narrative essence,’ something that anchors narrative ‘deep’ in the existence of the person, and ties the person and his/her existence to narrative as the roots of the human condition” (Bamberg, 2012, p. 207). Narrative endeavors are ubiquitous and happily pervasive, with prominence in literature and literature theory. This narrative research will employ a focus on ordinary events and stories form and narrative content as legitimatizations for narrative inquiry.

Narratives form and smaller stories as outlined by Bamberg, having “people (characters), who act (events) in space and time; typically, across a sequence of events (temporality).

The narrative form (structure) is said to hold the content together (what the story is about

— its plot) and sequentially arrange the story units (orientation, complication, resolution, closure) into a more or less coherent whole” (Bamberg, 2012, p. 203). There is some essence here that has merged my story with hers, and my life is also part of the story that

I’m telling. An interesting wrinkle for the future concern Michael Bamberg and Marya

Schechtman’s theories of identity. For now, the question of “Who am I?” might be answered through a continuing discussion – “complicated conversations,” if you will – 142

that take us to places we haven’t yet visited, or to revisit places that deserve further review and genuine investment.

This historiography has biographical and autobiographical narrative elements, but is not exclusively either. It incorporates elements of narrative and currere. While working generally from outside, from “without” through historical narrative and “small stories,” the theoretical roots of the method of currere as a methodology are available employ a combinatorial for a cognitive and creative process by which I use interdisciplinary appropriations. To make sense of multiple areas of knowledge and draw upon multiple perspectives and inquiries, the implementation of bricolage is appropriate in research contexts: “The etymological foundation of bricolage comes from a traditional

French expression which denotes crafts-people who creatively use materials left over from other projects to construct new artifacts” (Rogers, 2012, p. 1). The late Joe L.

Kincheloe incorporated bricolage in educational research to describe multi-perspectival research methodology, helpful when working through divergent perspectives. Kincheloe

(2005) writes that “bricolage is typically understood to involve the process of employing these methodological strategies as they are needed in the unfolding context of the research situation” (p. 324). Plainly stated, while generally a historiography it is also a hybrid, using multiple research tools to accomplish this inquiry.

Reflexivity

Using multiple research tools helps ensure a genuineness adding elements of reflexivity. “Reflexivity not only highlights how human positioning influences the research processes, it exposes how an object of inquiry can be interpreted 143

from multiple vantage points. In this way, reflexivity adds depth and plurality to the inquiry process” (Rogers, 2012, p. 4).

In an interview by John Kenny Crane, Mary Settle had an interesting perspective on reflexivity: One has to have the energy to stay on course and the obsession to let nothing stop you. If you lose energy it shows in the work, and if you lose obsession you become a cynical imitator of your past work. Energy, obsession, and a good sustaining arrogance are what is needed, I think” (Settle & Crane, 1990, ¶ 30). This represents well her advice on the process of research and writing, but there is more that informs a methodology. She goes into a quiet room and waits for… the voices! From Ms. Settle:

“I think that that period of being able to wait until the sound and vision of a book forms unconsciously like a dream, and then is allowed to reach your conscious mind so that you can hear it, see it, and tell about it, is the single moment that separates the fiction writer from all the others who depend on craft, real memory and intelligence” (Settle, ¶40).

This is not a pure act of intelligence, but a reflective manner of free association akin to that which William Pinar has described as part of the process of currere.

I believe that I’ve recognized something that’s more than technique and memory.

The raw material comes from I’ve learned, what I’ve lived, what I’ve heard or observed, and especially what I’m absorbed by and invested in, what I’m passionate about. This proposed work has a voice of its own, unimpeded, and I’ve learned to recognize it. As regards to working with the material, Settle suggests that it’s an alchemy process, translating and transmuting it all “into something that isn’t any of it” (Settle, ¶ 7).

With regards to narrative thinking and the organization of experiences, 144

Bruner makes a distinction between paradigmatic and narrative thinking. Narrative thinking accrues stories of happenings of the past into some sort of diachronic structure that permits a continuity into the present – in short, to construct a history…”

(Bruner,1991, pp. 18-19). Paradigmatic thinking is concerned with structuring experiences into categories or concepts, but is temporal (Polkinghorne, p. 395). There is a vertical component that might build upon the aforementioned work, inquiry that points to the future. Polkinghorne employs Martin Heidegger: “Narrative thinking can analyze how past events and actions led to a past outcome, it can also be employed imaginatively for planning what actions to carry out to achieve desired future ends” (p. 395). In

Bringing Out the Dead: Curriculum History as Memory, Petra Hendry writes of "memory being the raw material of history, a living source from which historians draw." and cites

Bernadette Baker and William James in a spirit of "disruption," while Pinar refers to

"collective memory" and dipping in and out of memory work.

Personages

I have a number of characters available for an allegorical biographical sketch, complete with plot and relevant contextual lived experiences. The lead is a gifted scholar who struggled with adult-onset psychopathology after her formal education was completed.

Her name was Marya Barlowski, and the following is an introduction to the narrative.

There are others, but Dr. William Pinar offers a cautionary note: “I would stay focused on her and acknowledge context only as relevant to the story you’re telling” (personal communication, 12, 1, 2014). She and the other “characters” will illuminate as fits 145

curriculum leadership through their education and experiences, their biographical markers. The process will make lucid or clear, explaining by throwing light upon, or following light as a photographer might do. This involves a process of awakening. My calling in this inquiry, is based upon illuminating dark places. Picture, if you will,

Howard Carter looking through a small breach, seeing “wonderful things.” The

“regressive” piece of currere does just this, bringing the past into the present, “in an effort to enter again and make sense of that which has constituted our existence” (Hauver, 2006, p. 163). In “reactivating” history I’m attempting to restore a life to its original complexity. There is an investment here, and it actively constructs and reshapes my story. It has been valuable and enlightening to clear away the dust of the past and restore/resurrect the sepia-toned to a living, breathing into inquiry a life of its own. I have a “responsibility as the storyteller to venture beyond what is safe. History is a powerful place, and with this power comes responsibility” (Jen Schneider, personal communication). Artists and photographers follow light, or wait for the appropriate time that light defines the moment. In a pure sense, I’m following the light also, a quality that illuminates what I feel is salient, or at least has a ring of truth and value. William James addressed this in the sense that he felt pragmatism was a method. “His pragmatism is a new name for a way or method of thinking that makes it possible to settle otherwise interminable metaphysical disputes by tracing the practical meaning of beliefs and so determining what practical difference it would make if one rather than others were true”

(Stuhr, 2016, kindle locations 489-491). In context of human interactions and human concerns, pragmatism is more than mere problem - solving. Stuhr describes this process 146

as a “matter of evocation, suggestion, resonance, illumination and interruption, imagination and re-imagination, signification and re-signification…” (Stuhr, 227-228).

Democratic, pluralistic and visionary worlds may be discovered and/or created. There certainly must be a means here to illuminate and awaken fresh historical biographical perspectives about curriculum leadership.

This is the metaphor which frames my journey - and mission. Perhaps the writing

– even allegorically – may be classified as nonfiction. With regards to “telling stories,” we (and me included) “are more committed to working with stories – and this in an analytic fashion. Telling + retelling (even if it is done using allegory or metaphor) are presuppositions to start working with them” (Michael Bamberg, 1/8/2016, personal communication). In this endeavor of nonfiction writing, I’m not necessarily looking for one truth. I will be looking for many. Truth can mean many things, depending on the perspective of those claiming to own the truth. Instead, by taking a page – and methodology - from John Dower, we’ll call it narrative nonfiction. “It is factual writing that reads like a good novel. It happens in books, in magazines and occasionally in newspapers, or at least it used to.” (Boxer, S., 2000, p. E3). For my purposes, the newspapers from Classical High School and Brown University are most valuable.

Engaging and informative, the writers were – and still are - intrinsically motivated to draw the reader into their reporting and editorials. The student editors, writers and reporters were often the most engaged with academics, activities, student government and sports. 147

School Newspapers

Illustrations, and, later, photographs, worked in concert with the text. Many prominent writers had been reporters first, and descriptive material in the best nonfiction books “are not just about school busing in Boston or a flood in the Mississippi Delta.

They are about what it means to be human in these circumstances” (Boxer, S. 2000, p.

E3). There are some theorists who believe that even the category of “nonfiction” is fictitious. The concept that nonfiction is “true” may, be obsolete. My goal is to write in a manner that reads like a novel, hopefully rising to the level of good fiction, yet as factually accurate as is possible. My version of “truth” will be tinted with my personal experiences and imbued with my biases, but I do not believe this will become an issue.

“If nonfiction were true, there would be one biography for one life, and it would be updated as new facts came to light.” (Boxer, S., 2000, p. E3). We might apply the Circuit of Inquiry described by Dewey, in the sense that every object may be subject to revision, if we agree that writing is an evolved object presented as a unified whole.

John Dewey circuit of Inquiry, from Logic: The theory of inquiry, p. 105-122. 148

John W. Dower is a professor of Japanese history at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, and a master of the genre. Sarah Boxer interviewed Dr. Dower, who

professed: “There is no one truth, any more than there is a single Japan. A writer of

history relies on sources who may or may not remember things accurately. And in the

end, he said, the way that people actually remember an event, whether they are right or

not, can be as important as the facts themselves.” (Boxer, S. 2000, p. E3) These things

clarified, my narrative begins…

Research Setting

The epicenter of the research has an overarching setting of Providence, Rhode

Island. There are three subcategories, the first being the neighborhood where Classical

High School is located, on the near west end. “Classical High School, founded on March

20, 1843, is a coeducational college preparatory school in the Providence School District.

The student body is selected on the basis of a rigorous entrance examination (High

School Placement Test and Naglieri Non-Verbal Test) as well as superior academic achievement” (Classical High Alumni, retrieved from: http://classicalalumni.org/classical-today/).

Olneyville, Rhode Island is located on the far west side of Providence. After the indigenous people were systematically pushed out, it became the area where poor new arrivals to the country could find work in the mills that followed the Woonasquatucket

River. It has always been home to immigrants, Poles and Armenians arriving in the late

1800s and early 1900s, Mexican and Hmong since 1970. As in the past, some of the first-generation children have been admitted and thrived at Classical Senior High School 149

in Providence. Part of a large urban public school system, Classical integrates challenging study in the arts, sciences, language and humanities. “Classical incorporates a wide variety of extracurricular activities that include academic competitions, content- specific field trip experiences, athletic programs and sports events, art presentations, theatre productions, music groups/shows and many diverse student clubs and organizations.” In addition to Classical High, the inquiry will involve the Women’s

College at Brown University (Pembroke), The Smith College of Social Work in

Massachusetts, and The Ohio State University. There are also the educational pieces of the Roman Catholic Church and the Polish community to weave into the narrative, since they incorporate their own pedagogies that inform the theory and practice of education, with their own ideas about “what is of most worth?” Her education comes also from

Providence’s Polish Roman Catholic community, with unique vocabulary and ideas about curriculum, the what should be taught and how? There are differing approaches to these questions, but all point towards some kind of educational transactions that have value.

James Macdonald offers a unique perspective on the transactional process of creative self-actualizing that is based upon meaningful experience informing “personal growth and potentiality” (Macdonald, 1995, p. 20). A compelling future requires meaningful experience; something to move towards. “Meaning schemes are the ways in which one personally relates oneself to one’s past experiences, present situations and aspirations in his existent world, and to his understanding of himself, others and objects in his object world” (Macdonald, p. 20). As experience and relatedness of meaningfulness informs this inquiry, the collegial love and friendships of my professors 150

and colleagues have encouraged me to work hard on myself. If you work hard on yourself, you can add value to other people, which is my ultimate goal of this journey.

The destiny I am here for is to tell a story that informs larger issues of teaching, learning and curriculum studies. I have a means to tell a story, a story which unfolded during the past 100 years in the curriculum and theory and teaching and learning principles. I appreciate the uncertainty of what might happen – and has happened - every day. This writing is a place to go to uncover what contributions my heroine made historically and individually, and also who I am at this stage in my educational life. Writing and words have a capacity to pierce the conscious mind, take it to a different level, an elevated place. This “place” is continually in flux, unpredictable and unique. The method of currere and the methodology of historical narrative are the means to address this autobiographical/biographical inquiry. The thoughts, emotions, beliefs, values that ruled my heroine were largely from her experiences of learning. Her entire life changed in an instant, the moment she began her education. I am working through my own journey while reactivating history and writing a currere for an historical figure. Her world was defined by education and scholarship during the first half of the twentieth century, a period when fewer opportunities were afforded to women. Nonetheless, she was involved with her own actualization. MacDonald (1995) describes this transactional relationship with the world in this manner: “The process of human development is considered here to be a process of becoming” (p. 16). 151

When one confronts a narrative historiography, it’s like starting with a screenplay of sorts, as if writing a play. In other words, things are happening that aren’t quite known yet.

It should be as if I am writing the dissertation without consciously doing it, with improvised scenes from real settings that are authentic. What Marya does or says must seem perfectly natural and appropriate to her. The writing should feel “fresh,” as if it were the first dissertation someone has ever read. I hope the readers will free their mind of preconceptions and associations. They will just read it.

The Emergence of Research Informed by Currere

There are myriad forms of inquiry, and the method of currere seemed well-suited for a portion of my ongoing work. Pioneered and described by William F. Pinar, it has helped revitalize the field of curriculum theorizing as a way to reconceptualise curriculum. An intensely personal methodology, currere may tap into my existential experience for data “and using the psychoanalytical technique of free association, one can not only build not only a linear but a multidimensional biography based on conceptual and preconceptual experiences” (Pinar, 1975, p. i, abstract). Allowing me see what is reconceptualized through time, facilitating the process of uncovering/discovering brings more attention, characters become revitalized from the collection of artifacts, writing and personal stories. A currere narrative, however, incorporates more than simple storytelling. Not easily pigeonholed, the process facilitates bringing the past into the present. The challenge is to “slow down, to reenter the past, to imagine the future, and to act with love and wisdom as our students embark upon their journeys of democratic 152

growth.” (Gornik, dissertation, 2003, p. 22.) Rosemary Gornik (2003) suggests that the focus is the “integral relationship between individual educational lives and their society’s politics and culture” (p.23). There are, and should be, contextual elements that highlight instances of personal growth and change, with ongoing critical analysis and synthesis.

As a means to curricular discourse, autobiographical writing emerged in the

1970’s through the work of William Pinar. Pinar and Grumet described this as an act of reflection, exploring deeper meaning that requires a reflexive approach. Past remembrances become integral to the present through currere. “The analysis of currere is like phenomenological bracketing; one distances oneself from past and future so to become more free of the present” (Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery, & Taubman, 2006, p. 520).

According to Pinar (1975), involving experience helped provide grounding for the reconceptualization of curriculum studies: “questions of design, development, instruction, and evaluation— the perennial foci of the curriculum field— are no longer useful or interesting” (p. 397). Dewey didn’t believe that all experiences were beneficial, but encouraged those that lead into other productive experiences. Understanding through educative experience was more a comment about quality of education than about condemning traditional education: “It is quite for another purpose. It is to emphasize the fact, first, that young people in traditional schools do have experiences; and, secondly, that the trouble is not the absence of experiences, but their defective and wrong character” (Dewey, p. 30). Foregrounded by Dewey, and as a means to integrate both traditional and progressive education, my biographical narrative might address the application of his philosophy of experience. Currere, then, would be the means by which 153

I make an understanding that educational experiences have made not only to my heroine’s life, but also my own. Currere was introduced as a method allowing us to

‘bracket’ the educational aspects of a “taken-for-granted” world. Bracketing was utilized by my heroine in her research and social work practice as her work involved mediating private lives of individuals in the public sphere. Her own research, in fact, addressed the need for non-interference with the voices of the participants during the interview process.

“A researcher’s ability to hear previously silenced voices and shifting centers of oppression relies on the ability to silence, for a time, his or her own voice and give precedence to the voice of the participant” (Tufford & Newman, p. 93). Her social work was somewhat, therefore, much like qualitative inquiry. The infinitive of currere, which

Dr. Pinar first explored in 1974 and published in 1975, enables one to think of curriculum as method and process: “The student of educational experience takes as hypothesis that at any given moment he or she is in a biographic situation” (Pinar, 2006, p. 520).

Connecting biographically with Marya, her Greek and Latin became the foundation for her loving profession. In Latin, “to love” is an infinitive. Building upon Dewey, describing a poetic evocation of Deweyan philosophy of continuous growth, Garrison

(1997) writes, “Those who are in love with life desire to grow. Those who love to grow, love and care for others and let others care for the question of when may well be left to the investigator) the analysis has begun” (p. 408).

Using verbatim transcripts from in-depth interviews and a plethora of narrative materials, this research aims to seek an historical understanding of the field of curriculum studies that points to a hopeful imagining of the future. Accomplished through allegory, 154

the educational experiences, scholarly pursuits, writing and work of the heroine and selected individuals in her “circle” will inform the narrative. In attempting to gain an in- depth understanding of hers – and others - lived experiences my interview questions have been mostly open-ended, with a semi-structured somewhat conversational approach.

Her life ultimately mirrors a sense of loss, perhaps pointing to a “renascence”

(Huebner) and her lived experiences frame the changes and issues surrounding the evolution/devolution of teaching, learning and curriculum discourse. Her unwinding was controlled for years, but could never be completely healed or staunched. How can her lived experiences begin to contribute to a “healing,” a journey that finds a dialogical

“middle ground” that embraces collegial discourse and understanding? Her story is a journey of love, one that tried to negotiate the religious and secular, mentally ill and those of sound mind, traditional and progressive. My story is collapsed and embedded/braided in hers, geographically, and conceptually, if not always in a sequential manner. There is an investment at work that shapes constructive solutions to an educational problem: the hopeful, necessary and essential movement.

This gift of a narrative has been given to me. What is remarkable is that often a project, research or writing will choose you. Initially – and profoundly - influenced by my ongoing coursework, I’ve continually been working through the process of currere.

Primarily autobiographical, biographical elements keep encroaching, informing the ongoing narrative. This given story provides “a great background for research. Depth.

Family. Passion - not only your Father's, yours now” (Theresa Rishel, October 3, 2014, personal communication). On a purely unvarnished level, I suppose that Marya came to 155

me quite by accident, since I did not initially seek her out. The coincidental material was discovered later on. My dissertation initially was going to be a boring meld of art and curriculum, now relegated to the “dustbin” of subjects considered but not pursued. The inquiry has been instructive, informing about educational history and classical education.

The possibilities point to a dialogical middle ground, a place that brings out the humanity of the protagonist, informing a larger story, a “doubled” narrative. For example, her life exists in the shadow of depression and psychosis, a reminder of the delicacy and fragility of human endeavors. It’s very likely that she was able to control her cognitive processes through engagement with critical thinking for a long time, somewhat like William James. I’m examining what is there “on the page,” the immediacy and depth of an artifact, free-associating new meanings and messages through writing a currere for someone whose lived experiences invite being worked through, and tying them to a larger story. This is an opportunity to analyze and reconstruct a unique story through the reactivation of history. In question form, why do I need narrative inquiry if I already have currere? This dissertation is a currere case study, an appropriate methodology by which to frame the inquiry. Narrative inquiry is appropriate in tandem with currere. There are things narrative inquiry allows me to do that currere does not, and vice-versa. They complement each other through the biographical narrative form. As in most biographies, there are lighter moments, awash with family, friends and fun. The lighter material makes the reader feel safe and engaged when things go awry. With a reverent regard for history and reflection on historical narrative, value is assigned to the past. Another Rhode Islander, Henry Giroux, might agree: “Maybe this is all 156

understandable in a corporate-controlled neoliberal society that uses new communication technologies that erase history by producing a notion of time wedded to a culture of immediacy, speed, simultaneity and endless flows of fragmented knowledge” (Giroux,

2016, ¶ 3). This kind of thinking provides a freedom from happenings in the present, providing historical moments that contribute to curriculum leadership. Curricular issues might not be able to be settled by historical analysis, but may add perspective to Dr.

Henderson’s and colleagues’ work.

Cremin (1966) has cited the need for studies of individuals. Others have called for interpretation of the decades of the 1940’s and 1950’s. As of 1974, there existed no comprehensive survey of the curriculum field from its beginnings to the present day.

Curriculum history might be employed not only to rediscover its’ own characteristic ahistorical past, but also new perspectives. Kliebard (1969) points to C. Wright Mill’s work suggesting that the history of the field must be studied not to solve our current problems, but to rid ourselves of the past. Mill generally asserted that human nature is determined by both historical and societal structure, writing White Collar about the time I was born. The population at large is “oblivious” to societal forces, but to understand experience, we have to consider historical and economic forces (Mills, 1951, p. 274).

While quite an early book about sociology, it is relevant to understanding a family of

Polish immigrants during the Great Depression and wartime within their historical context. With the curriculum field in disarray in 1974 following the reforms of the

1960s, the potential value of a dialogue with the past has increased” (Ponder, p.462). This dialogical means will point the way for my dissertation, not as a means to solve the 157

problems still facing the field today, but as a means to keep the dialogue going. Gerald

Ponder (1974) suggests that a “rediscovery of the past can serve as a partial corrective to

a long-standing characteristic of the field – that of ahistoricism” (p. 463). My

biographical narrative will offer a means to address this “ahistorical” outlook, with its

lack of regard for historical antecedents. Her story will facilitate an avoidance of

selective and superficial understandings. We can rediscover the problems that

characterize the field through the perspective of a brilliant scholar’s lived experiences

from an earlier day, reactivating the immediacy of earlier years that mirrored her life in

the twentieth century. This is the larger story, the allegorical “doubled” research that has

an inner and an outer drama (Mooney, 2000, p. 175). It is a statement about multiple

areas of concern, conditions upon which we might improve, difficulties to be eliminated,

some troubling questions that exist in theory and practice, pointing to the need for

meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation. This inquiry will not provide

directions about how to do a task. Instead, I will be introducing the reader to the

importance and relevance of narrative and currere as curriculum inquiry by placing the problem in a particular context that defines the parameters of what is being investigated.

The framework for reporting the results emerges from at least two stories. What is necessary to conduct these inquiries is an openness to present information without taking sides. The findings will be presented through information as a biographical narrative, especially through the characters/participants, their writing, what has been written about them, and artifacts found over the course of years. The reader is free to make her own conclusions. In blending/braiding stories together, we “conflate’ them into a new story, 158

essentially “restorying” and examining larger curriculum issues. The work of a Greek and Latin scholar invested in ancient languages might offer suggestions informing traditional and progressive education during that segment of time (1939). From here one might inquire into Latin pedagogy, or meander through United States history of curriculum according to Kliebard. The Classical Investigation could be understood in wider historical and cultural context. We could look into the negatives associated with

Classical education (social class status and identity) as opposed to Progressive education

(social efficiency and social control). Wraga has researched and written at length on the subject of classical vs. progressive education: “The Classical Investigation can be understood as an attempt to co-opt progressive commitments to educational ‘science’, as a manifestation of social efficiency–social control ideology, and an effort on the part of educational traditionalists to preserve Latin as a source of class status and identity”

(Wraga, 2009, p. 79).

“More than forty years ago, curriculum theory underwent what Thomas Kuhn might call a paradigm shift, with the scholarly focus shifting from an emphasis on development to one that took curriculum as something that needed to address a broader range of topics informed by multidisciplinary insights” (Smith, 2013, p. 3). Emerging from this transitional period was William Pinar and the development of his method of currere in during the reconceptualization of curriculum work in the early 1970s. In order to further clarify why my integration of narrative research with currere and allegory is a powerful way to study the problem, it’s necessary to work through William Pinar. His

What is Curriculum Theory (2012) addresses this well in chapter two. From 159

Autobiography to Allegory envisions the need for “complicated conversation,” i.e. a multiply referenced conversation in which “interlocutors are speaking not only among themselves but to those not present, not only to historical figures and unnamed peoples and places they may be studying, but to politicians and parents alive and dead, not to mention the selves they have been, are in the process of becoming, and so someday may become.” (Pinar, 2012, p.)

In qualitative research a researcher is emphasizing a holistic, detailed description

(Fraenkel & Wallen, 2003) “In most cases, all aspects of a participant’s life are an important piece of the resulting texts” (Church, 2006, p. 32). The process of researching becomes a seminal piece of the inquiry, and research questions are formed and reformed again, a process of continuous revision. To understand how individuals experience their lives, storied interpretations of the participants.

This is narrative biographical work about a woman who represents a purposeful sample, a currere case study. The feminist lens might be a sidebar to the ongoing narrative, but I’m avoiding using any single feminist perspective such as Feminist

Postmodern or Feminist Empiricism, using “gender in its focus on oppressive social structures and the means to challenge and change them” (Schram, 2006, p. 49). Merriam cautions about positionality regarding gendered power relationships and social structures, citing S. Smith (1987) as a way not to fall prey to reproducing masculinist and humanist ideologies, i.e. “phallic logic.” I have a responsibility to both subject and reader not to imbue women from a perspective of male selfhood, characterizing through - or permeating with - privilege. Merriam contends that “women’s relationships in 160

autobiographical narratives have always been troublesome because the genre is constructed according to the ideologies of male selfhood that posit women as the incomplete man or the essentialized other” (Merriam, et al. 2002, p.295).

There will be some feminist issues addressed, but I’m not setting out to write a feminist biography about my heroine. Born in 1925 as the first generation of Polish immigrants, Marya grew up in a patriarchal dominated society, entrenched in home, church and school. The ongoing emergence of the feminist movement helped give her some of the rights she and other women deserved, and this inquiry should provide at least an explanation of the visible – and invisible – inequalities with which they struggled. A staunch, unbending feminist lens may not be helpful (especially coming from a white male), so perhaps with the advent of postmodern feminism I might treat my subject with the proper adjustments to give a balanced look at the societal obstacles she faced. The majority of those to be interviewed are women. It’s possible that postmodern feminism has influenced – or should influence - the structure and interaction of the interviews. Due to power relationships within a traditional interview model, Pamela Chapman Sanger

(2003) suggest that dialogic methods combat a hierarchal relationship between the researcher and participant because through a feminist lens, the interviewer and interviewee are assumed to be individuals who reflect on and communicate experience.

The researcher’s responsibility thus becomes a commitment to the participant’s rights

(Chapman Sanger, 2003). Power relationships cannot be avoided since the researcher has control over the questions, topics (sometimes) and presentation. Exposing these power 161

relationships and minimizing bureaucratic relationships in interviewing is an obligation that any researcher –feminist, postmodern feminist or whoever – must fulfill.

The methods I’ve employed thus far – especially interviews and data collection - have demanded expediency due to the advanced age of many of the participants as a result of the historical nature of my inquiries. Three interviewees have died within the past two years, and one other developed severe dementia. Further, some historical materials were compromised over a year ago in rising water that devastated the

Providence Historical Society and their archives. Some have been restored and moved to their new facility, others lost forever.

Initially I employed interviews using a structured, open-ended approach and interview guide. The IRB has a script and includes a letter of introduction. (research questions) as well as artifact collection of historical documents, photographs and related materials. The participants are former classmates from Classical High school and

Pembroke College (Brown University). The researcher is myself, a White male with a background in the visual arts. I have 36 years of teaching experience, some in higher education, and have only outside of a classroom environment for only 5 of my 65 years.

There are biases which might arise from the researcher being the interviewer, and

I try to be cautious so as not to affect the generalizability of what I collect. Merriam et al suggests that “foremost is the possibility that the researcher would find what she was looking for through selective attention to details and selective interpretation of data”

(Merriam,2002 et al, p. 147). 162

Newman & Benz address validity as pertains to qualitative research design, and suggest that “the validity of historical methods is based on two assumptions: that the interpretation of history varies with the subjective experience of the historian and that the reporting of history should not go beyond the database” (Newman & Benz, p. 73) One has only to watch a Ken Burns documentary-pick any - and compare the chosen subject with another historian, and we can readily see that history is “constructed.” It is probably that there are societal facts about the period of time between 1918-1974 that one can know with confidence. However, beyond these “facts” one must rely on interpretations.

There must be some principles that guide the inquiry, ethics that protect all persons – and their legacies.

Ethical Considerations

Initially I was unconcerned as to whether my inquiries were the “right” thing to do, or even a “good” thing to do. My deceased heroine, Marya Barlowski, should be treated with a measure of sensitivity and respect. After all, she was a person, a real person, and is deserving of that. Bill Pinar knows some of the narrative, and believes that

I’m “reactivating” her history (W. Pinar, personal communication, December 12, 2013).

Other individuals, dead and living, are also involved, however intimately or peripherally.

A sense of ethics is paramount, since this is not investigative or sensationalist journalism.

Humility is also an important ingredient, since research should not interfere with the relationships we build, and Merriam recommends acting in an ethical manner from the inception of an idea to the representation and sharing of our work. “In between, ethics should drive our fieldwork conduct, our theory choices for interpretation, and our 163

conscientious attention to self-reflexivity” (Merriam et al., 2002, p. 312). Researchers have a moral responsibility and obligation to give back to their participants (Chapman

Sanger, 2003). A reciprocal relationship must be built to ensure that the researcher does not become a taker. Instead, the researcher and the participant are interconnected. “We need to link our statements about those we study with statements about ourselves, our reality, neither stands alone” (Keiger, p. 321, quoted in Chapman Sanger, p. 35).

Regarding the appropriate protocols for participant and researcher interactions. Seidman

(2006) suggests that people’s stories are ways of knowing and through the interview process stories unfold. The process should, therefore, be somewhat open-ended. Without excessive rigidity, the inquiry is open to possibilities. Therefore, the questions I’ve used begin with a semblance of structure and, as with His method of inquiry, are open to change, to revision. Seidman (2006) writes, “At the root of in-depth interviewing is an interest in understanding the lived experiences of other people and the meaning they make of that experience (p. 9). The goal of a qualitative interview, according to deMarrais (2004) is to create a picture of the participants’ experience from their words.

Following this, I often have asked – and ask - my participants to tell stories of their teaching and learning experiences. Further, I then ask them to reflect on any connections they perceived in their educational experiences. I believe that this is valid as based upon

Seidman: “…as long as structure is maintained that allows participants to reconstruct and reflect upon their experience within the context of their lives, alterations to the three- interview structure and the duration of spacing of the interview can certainly be explored” (deMarrais, 2004, p. 21-22). Interviewing is integral as a method for narrative 164

inquiry. Initially I had concerns that, if my heroine was my mother or aunt, would I want a researcher to be involved? If so, I surely would want to know that they were good- hearted, or if they saw their professional and social interaction with me only as a means to an end. Are there conflicts of interest, for example, in the overlapping of my roles and relationships with the participants? The historical element has forced me to work more quickly than is suggested by protocol, since some available participants are dying off quite rapidly. Therefore, I have been motivated to collect as much data as possible and do the analysis later. One thing is for certain: I’ve become secure in my motivations.

I’m trying to tell a story - a good one - and feel that it is a calling. Moreover, I believe that I’m supposed to help more stories emerge, finding complex and persistent questions and inquiries. Being familiar with some of David McCullough’s work, I recently read an interview about his genre and process. He never wanted to write in any other but narrative form, the strong narrative. “In E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel he talks about the difference between a sequence of events and a story. He says, “If I tell you that the king died and then the queen died, that’s a sequence of events. If I tell you that the king died and then the queen died of grief, that’s a story—you feel that” (Gaffney &

Howe, 1999, para 19). He does not appreciate being pigeonholed, and has very specific avenues to his inquiries. During the interview, McCullough described the engagement of his readers, and also his own: “Not only do I want the reader to get inside the experience of the events and feel what it was like—I want to get inside the events and feel what it was like” (Gaffney & Howe, 1999, ¶ 16). He is not merely working on a book, but thoroughly invested in the subject, in the time and in the place. The author and the 165

writing have become one and the same, with little distinction between subject and object.

The same is true with my endeavor. Her story – and mine – are bound together inasmuch as we share some of the same people and the same geography. I am immersed in the subject.

Limitations

As is typical of a case study, one of the limitations of this study is its small sample size. Using my heroine as the “purposeful sample,” the direction of this research is not to generalize to larger populations but rather present a detailed and descriptive historical inquiry in narrative form. The unique nature of the context justifies the use of an historical case study that includes family, friends, colleagues and anyone who might be able to inform the narrative. This information represents the participants’ own perceptions of those lived experiences, and may be interpreted by the reader. Though not the primary focus of the inquiry, the educational and lived experiences of others are important because they can fill in the gaps as they recount how they learned Latin, Greek or choir music in class. These individuals have their own perceptions and observations about teaching, learning and life which unfold and inform the larger story, the “doubled” narrative. Their remembrances may inform her journey, but their stories also beg for inclusion. Most all want their lives included in some manner, and I must honor that as best as is possible and relevant. The overriding concern is the scope of the work. By way of explanation, my heroine’s favorite popular author as a teenager was Virginia Woolf, reading Lighthouse and A Room of One’s Own often. Woolf herself clarified limitations and reflexivity: “One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does 166

hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker” (Woolf, ¶ 1). Finally, I’ve already tread onto soft ground when referring to my purposeful subject as “heroine.”

Connelly and Cladinin caution against what they have called the ‘Hollywood Plot,’ where everything works out well in the end: “It is a process that goes on all the time in narrative both during data collection and writing” (Clanindin and Connelly, 1990, p. 10). They call this narrative smoothing, a process that should be balanced with what is missing. In other words, for the benefit of opening a door for the reader it is “a question of being alert to the stories not told as to those that are” (p. 10).

Summary of Methods

The present study is being proposed a qualitative case study (Merriam & Tisdell,

2016). My data sources include interviews, observations, field notes, semi-structured interviews, and historical documents such as photographs, writing materials, school and college reports, school newspapers, journals, legal documents such as death certificates, e-mail correspondence, field notes and participant observation and a myriad of other artifacts. Data analysis will be conducted as included in an historical narrative format.

Formal comparative coding (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) should not be necessary, since diving the data into categories and themes will be accomplished in a more informal manner. There may be an ongoing unearthing of archival material at the Rhode Island 167

Historical Society, Classical High school, Brown University, the Ohio State University and the Smith College of Social Work. In addition, the renovated facilities at Greystone

Park in New Jersey may become a source of artifacts and information.

Trustworthiness will be established through the implementation of procedures for maintaining credibility and dependability of the data. The study is limited by its small sample size, but transferability of findings will be achieved through thick description through narrative work – depth and breadth - of the cases in question.

William Pinar believes there is a risk in remembrance that releases that which is suppressed, such as Simon’s resolve in navigating histories that exist between hope and despair. He writes of the need for “reactivation” of the past, because there is no reparation - no future – without this process. Pinar describes remembrance more as regression: To reactivate the singular and complex knowledge of a “traumatic” past is, according and to be breathed into life” (Pinar, 2014, p. 2.) I am hopeful that my regressions engender new knowledge. The historical facts cannot be undone, but they can be reactivated, analyzed and reconstructed.

It’s impossible to place arbitrary boundaries on a life, but in discovering and analyzing what describes a person with all the accompanying contextual associations, there is no better than the following from William Pinar. If there was ever any writing that encapsulated who she was, it is the following:

Exhausted by an unrelenting daily psychological intensity and an acute, even

physical, sense of threat, many retreat from a public sphere that no longer seems

safe, let alone supportive or worthy of their emotional investments. In the 168

apparent safety of private life, however, many discover no solace. “On the

contrary,” Lasch (1978: 27) notes, “private life takes on the very qualities of the

anarchic social order from which it supposed to provide a refuge” (Pinar 2011,

keynote, p. 3).

Narrative research describes more than a life or record historical events. As a

researcher and inquirer, I hope to learn from the participants within the setting of this

research. The narrative, and the experience of writing the narrative, involves individually

told stories of wonderful individuals, each contributing and informing the work. They

become interested in the story through the process, sometimes extremely invested in what

is uncovered, analyzed and written. They like the story, and with their reports and responses, they become part of the story. Most are amazed that anyone would care enough to even bother reaching that far back in time, and many have died since we had our interviews that eventually became conversations. For Clandinin and Connelly

(2000), these stories report “personal experiences in narrative inquiry (what the individual experiences) as well as social experiences (the individual interacting with others). This focus on experience draws on the philosophical thoughts of John Dewey, who saw that an individual’s experience was a central lens for understanding a person.

One aspect of His thinking was to view experience as continuous (Clandinin & Connelly,

2000), where one experience led to another experience” (Ollerinshaw & Creswell, 2002, p. 331).

The best elements of this process occur when the individuals become engaged and energized with a memory from the past. I can feel the folding and unfolding of the 169

narrative. Narrative research is a means to providing a method for storytelling, “giving voice to those traditionally marginalized, and providing a less exploitative research method than other modes” (Hendry, 2007, p. 489). Petra Hendry describes narrative research involvement as “heroic,” providing a more complex picture of social life.

“Furthermore, it highlights the ways in which culture and society shape and are shaped by individual lives. It also provides what seems like a more egalitarian research relationship that honors the intersubjective modes of knowledge production” (Munro,

1993). Duly noted and cognizant of the promises, responsibilities and contextual nature of telling stories, the narrative may begin, following some correspondence with Dr.

William Pinar. I shared Sister Margaret's lecture Your Personal History as a Narrative of

Hope with Dr. Pinar. I described it as a discussion of memory, empathy and personal history through theological text, and suggested that it dovetailed with the method of currere. I was reminded of the writing of Dwayne Huebner (1975): "To ignore theological language today, however, is to ignore one of the more exciting and viable language communities" (p. 259). I wondered if Bill might agree, since Dr. Dwayne

Huebner had been his professor in the late 1960s. He responded in the following manner:

Love the photos, Karl, and the formal prose, as well as the yellowed paper. The

past is so much more powerful than this paltry (if nightmarish) present. You’re

kind to send them and kind to send me the lecture. Dovetail indeed…Bill”

(personal communication, February 4, 2017).

Endorsements like the above are the “wrinkles” in the folds that help inform the discourse. Pouring through “yellowed paper” is a virtuous undertaking, involving 170

awakening, revealing and pursuing knowledge that lays buried. Whether from archival caches or in-depth interviews, the specific “biographical indicators” will point this inquiry in the right direction. There is a diversity in the accumulated artifacts and other supporting materials, but I believe this is a positive element: “Such an approach does not suggest that researchers should discontinue inquiry with the emergence of ambiguous findings, but instead suggests that new knowledge is discovered in ambiguities” (Hesse-

Bieber & Johnson, 2015, p. 88). This “marginalized knowledge” may become what I’ve previously described as an “emerging fold.”

Indicators

Despite the “wrinkles,” the findings and analyses need to be organized in a specific manner. During a peer review session co-author Daniel Castner recommended that I follow the organizational model of Dr. Henderson using the curriculum map and fourfold phases to illuminate intrinsic motivation and capacity-building. Dr. Henderson agrees: “For purposes of your dissertation, you don’t need to go deeply into the artistry associated with the fourfold process with its lead-learning implications since you are focusing on MOTIVATIONAL INDICATORS. Keep that as the organizer for your very precise, specific dissertation research agenda” (J. Henderson, personal communication,

March 1, 2017).

Motivational Indicators

o Intelligence quotient measurements and qualitative assessments of intelligence

o Standard indicators of multiple 171

o High School activities

o Model Congress and debate club

o Excellence in athletics

o Externally observable examples of all school leadership

o Publications as indicators of excellence

o All writing available from reporting and editing

o Research conducted at Smith College

o Religious beliefs and practice

o Polish Culture leadership

o Librarian vocation

o Observed indicators by relatives and colleagues

o Examples of overcoming extreme adversity, such as the persecution of her Polish

relatives by the Nazis, the death of her father and other supporting family

members

o Social Indicators research

o Educational scholarship

o College campus activities

o Excellence in the arts

o Vocational leadership

o Examples of Chronic psychopathology

Her death, in 1974, represents an unfinished life that deserves currere consideration - regressive, progressive analytical and synthetic inquiry - and something to 172

move beyond that awakens and illuminates her life and ours. Remembrance is painful.

Following a process of peer review during the 2016 Journal of Curriculum Theorizing conference at Bergamo, my colleague Jane Blanken – Webb wrote the following:

I can see that you are fascinated with this all but forgotten women, a brilliant

schizophrenic who captured the heart and imagination of your father so long ago

and who has captured your imagination today. She came from a very unique

place and received the type of education that may also be said to be all but

forgotten in today's era of hyper-accountability and standardization. There is an

interesting wrinkle in your account; namely, that it is not clear what her education

got her. It is not clear what it meant for her rather tragic life. It wasn't an

education that could quiet her voices. It wasn't an education that could give her

peace. Yet, this is an intriguing tale and I am interested to see what there is to

learn from Marya and Classical High School. Perhaps you will find a way to tell

her tale such that it might offer some amount of peace to the rest of us.

Warm regards, Jane (Jane Blanken-Webb, personal communication, November 7,

2016).

Saint Ann’s Cemetery, Cranston, Rhode Island, photograph by Karl Martin CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Foregrounding

Grob, Krings and Bangerter (2001) indicate that human development may be seen through life markers in biographical narratives, “often understood as an interplay between biological, sociohistorical, and social factors, as well as individual developmental actions.

However, historical influences on development have rarely been investigated” (p. 1).

Therefore, examining biographical markers in the past may reveal motivational and spiritual indicators. “Were there indicators that provide provocative information regarding the awakening of human spirit? I believe that’s what Marya provides. Two key threads are awareness that has a spiritual capacity” (J. Henderson, personal communication, September 22, 2017). I believe that she also provides a moral, ethical component. Marya was successful in developing her interests and capacities, doing so in a manner that contributed to the welfare and well-being of others. Her uniqueness as an individual made Marya well-suited for her profession, actualizing herself through a moral community. There is a uniquely human element at work here, involving cooperation and collaboration with expressive outcomes in service to self and others. “Individuality – ‘the realization of what we specifically are as distinct from others,’ did not mean separation or isolation from others but the ‘performing of a special service without which the social whole is defective” (Westbrook, 1991, p. 44). Her chosen vocation – psychiatric social worker – made use of her capacities in service to others, among them a superlative

173 174

intellect, inquiring mind and genuine heartfelt empathy. It is hoped that the photographs and other artifacts illustrate and inform her motivations.

Through this process, “the Intimacy of the photograph should balance the distance of the theory” (T. Hawley, personal communication, November 20, 2017). Stated another way, transitioning from quotidian narrative to research and theory balances the writing. Genres of autobiography and biography require some conventionalized narrative expression of life experiences. A conventional, vertical organizational format is best in this historiography, offering a sequential framework to the narrative. These involve how a life story may be told and written with at least two perspectives in mind, mine (author), and hers (the other). Goodwin (2012) numbers and orders them:

…the following problematic presuppositions, and taken-for-granted assumptions:

(1) the existence of others, (2) the influence and importance of gender and class,

(3) family beginnings, (4) starting points, (5) known and knowing authors and

observers, (6) objective life markers, (7) real persons with real lives, (8) turning

point experiences, (9) truthful statements distinguished from fictions (p. 66).

These indicators and markers of Her real life might be seen in many forms.

Personal values and beliefs might structure the text, as well as the house where one grew up, the death of a father or mother, a scholar’s work, intrinsic motivation, capacity building or the vocational calling of psychiatric social work. I will address these and many more indicators in a structured manner open to flexibility that illuminates Marya, her life and the research questions. Goodwin (2012) adds that “lives have objective and subjective markers and that these markers reflect key, critical points about the life in 175

question” (p. 68). In a qualitative study the information to be reported is called findings,

encompassing emergent themes found in the collected data. These represent the product

of my analysis. Since qualitative research is about understanding and insight, it’s best to

start at the beginning of the author’s interest in the topic, in 1979. The following serves

as a narrative introduction.

Introduction

On a balmy July night during that summer, a friend and I were walking near the

John Hay Library, on College Hill. After crossing Waterman Street, we paused to read the centuries-old bronze signs on ivy-clad stately buildings. We passed Faunce House, a beautiful structure decorated with wrought iron that had been part of the women’s college of Brown. From there sidewalks meandered through a beautiful promenade called the

Main Green, also known as the College Green. It was midsummer, and the Linden trees were still in bloom. The blossoms are generally small and inconspicuous, compensating well by exuding one of nature’s most powerful perfumes, a mix of honey and lemon peel.

The moonlight, in concert with the scents, provided an enchanting presence. Known also as Basswood, or Tilia Tomentosa, the tree has a lifespan potential covering a millennium, and the few examples growing on College Hill are at least 100 years old. The same

American Basswoods provided the fragrance throughout the Twentieth Century, beguiling the most scholarly of academians. 176

College Green, Brown University. Photo courtesy F. Philip Skok

In the midst of this beautiful sensory assault rose the most imposing of structures. It practically leapt into vision, reaching skyward, impossibly distant.

A magnificent tower erected in 1904 at the corner of Prospect and Waterman

Streets, it is a tribute to Caroline Mathilda Brown, granddaughter of the founder of Brown University.

The tower of red brick is 95 feet high, and is elaborately adorned with stonework,

done under the direction of John L. Thorpe of Boston. There are festoons of fruit

near the base, and at the top, above four clock faces on the sides of the tower 177

flanked by eight panels of fruit, are in rising succession, 32 carved urns, eight

capitals, four shields, and at the very top, four urns with flame. On the foundation

is inscribed “Love is Strong as Death” (Mitchell, 1993, p. 77).

A presidential report during the 1903-1904 academic year stated that the

tower “serves no ‘useful’ purpose,” meant to serve instead as a monument to

“undying memory.” Robert Emlen, university curator, said that the tower bell

never chimes because the Green is not the center of campus anymore. I promised

my friend that I would write a book incorporating the Carrie Tower at some point

in my life. It was my awakening, and this writing is inspired, in part, by that moment.

My father talked of shared picnic lunches with Marya in this place,

reading and discussing the epic poems of Homer, Virgil, and more obscure writers

of ancient Greece that remained a mystery to him. He confided that it was during

World War II that he became separated from her. One evening, without warning,

his ship deployed unexpectedly. It was close to graduation, and his letters never

reached her. When he returned at war’s end, she was gone. At a Providence

dance he met my beautiful Mother, Carol Florence Patterson. 178

Carol Florence (Patterson) Martin, 1941.

Bill and Carol dated for a year, marrying in 1947. They moved away while my father finished his undergraduate work at Union College in

Schenectady, New York, courtesy of the G. I. Bill. Upon returning to Rhode

Island my father’s National Guard unit was deployed, and I was born in the

Providence Women and Infant’s Lying-In Hospital, in 1951. Since he was away on an extended tour of duty in Korea, and we met when I was 6 months old. I’m told that it was a good moment.

A few years ago, our family was vacationing in Weekapaug, Rhode Island. There was a heat wave during that entire week, the temperature oppressive even at the beach.

Choosing a Friday morning to venture into the city, I made the 50 – minute drive north into my hometown. Hoping for some good photographs of the Carrie Tower and its environs, I was dismayed to see it covered for restoration, closed off and inaccessible.

The entire structure was wrapped like a Christo and Jean-Claude “project.” 179

Nearby, a Brown University professor was conducting a graduate class over a

picnic luncheon, and he beckoned to me, wondering why I was visiting during a thermal

inversion. Much of the city was shuttered, and introductions were made in the 105-

degree heat. I was glad to give a synopsis of the research beginnings and accompanying

narrative, and they agreed that it provided a fresh historical perspective about their

institution, the traditions and heritage that were – and are – Brown University. Therefore,

my second peer and public review was presented “on site.”

The narrative began with my recounting of their chance meeting on campus at Pembroke College, the women’s school at Brown University. My father was a Navy midshipman, stationed temporarily in Providence, she a Latin and Greek scholar. They dated through a season, fell in love on College Hill, and planned for a future together. The couple often walked past The Carrie Tower

with the accompanying inscription Love is Strong as Death. That was to be the

representation of their everlasting love, an intimate symbol of their devotion, their

commitment to one another. If that seems antiquarian, outlandish and hopelessly

passé, it was the way people actually thought in 1942. There were very real

possibilities that an individual might not survive the war, and all future plans

would cease to exist.

Always admiring photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson and his images of

humanity, I’ve learned to appreciate and revere all images of persons.

Occasionally an unknown photographer finds a way to go beyond a generic

headshot that reveals a soulful quality, subjective but clearly evident, and this also 180

applies to architecture. I’ve photographed the Carrie Tower at least a hundred times, and the results never adequately expressed the visceral impressions of the inscription. A photographer friend recently visited Providence, and he provided the following image. It’s a good photograph. The light is perfect, accentuating each detail in the garland and every word of the inscription, giving the viewer an enduring image. Photos like this may be more valuable than we realize.

Beaumont Newhall (1937) writes that not even eternal objects are immune to the ravages of time: “Though the stones on Chartres cathedral are still with us, no photograph taken today can never show the crispness of detail which eighty years of weather have dulled” (p. 90). Now imagine the effects of time on very mortal human beings. The photographs uncovered during the course of this research are captivating, mesmerizing. People are relieved of the burden of years, and even death, helping the reader connect through the still image. Participants interviewed also supply their own photographs, contributing to the unfolding of the narrative.

They often want their own stories included. Following a chronological path, they became part of the shared work as they and I examined Her spiritual awakening and capacity-building from early childhood to death. Marya passed away on July

20, 1974, and this writing examined as much of her life’s journey as possible.

Perhaps love – eros - is strong as death. 181

Photo courtesy of F. Philip Skok

I had the good fortune to work with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross as a graduate assistant at Westminster College, during the winter of 1974. As the audio-visual specialist and instructor with the department of education, I was called upon to set up projectors and show her cinematic work during a seminar on a winter weekend. We talked often during the three days, and I was the projectionist for the likes of With Lazarus and also a newly-released film about her own book describing experiences with terminally-ill patients; On Death and Dying. Despite the inevitability of human mortality, I hope that a sense of eros pervades this work, a love and humanity present in Her story – and also those of others.

Kathy M. Cadwell

Kathy Cadwell is a professional genealogist and researcher who loves engagement with a mystery. We crossed virtual paths five years ago, and Kathy 182

has discovered material that might have easily remained unnoticed. One of our earlier exchanges provides the beginnings of the research, and I am presenting her communication in unedited form:

Must say that this whole family/story fascinates me & seems to me that some

background on her roots will assist in developing the story....& I know little about

Marya: St. Ann’s Cemetery Diocese Office, Providence confirmed Section

15 Lot 466 grave lot for 6 people / 4 burials (couldn't help myself...called abt 3

wks ago!)

Barlowski, John b 14 Feb 1896 d 22 Nov 1940 (City Directory read 21

Nov)

Barlowski, Maria b 17 July 1892 d 05 Mar 1974

Barlowski, Marya b 13 May 1925 d 20 July 1974

Swiatlowski, Francezch ("h" or "k"?) d 17 July 1939 age 45

Diocese lady had difficulty reading info for Swiatlowski including incomplete

info re dates...seems that it could be 1 in same Frank Swiatlowski....or maybe not

:-) ....could there be another Frank @ St Ann's?

Based on Request for Headstone form I just found & emailed to you from

Ancestry.com records, it will be interesting to see what stone says....note DOD on

form 15 July 1939. 183

Have seen discrepancies in info recording before....or perhaps grave was

moved in 1959??...no plot info is noted on Req for Headstone form.

Suggest obits from Providence Library...sometimes they're really

revealing...sometimes not.

Note: the Frank Swiatlowski assoc w 19 Chaffee St noted DOB as 10 Aug

1888 in Poland & proprietor of a barroom on his 1935 Census form. If he

died in 1939, he would be 50 thus diocese info is off unless a diff person

with same name is buried here...hope stone will tell the story (K. Cadwell,

personal communication, July 1, 2013).

Immigration

The Barlowski family history begins in Poland, in Samocice.

Motivational markers are inextricably connected to family history, so it’s valuable to start at the true beginnings. “The autobiographical and biographical genre is structured by the belief that lives have beginnings in families. Since this belief is part of the genre, virtually all biographical texts begin with family history” 184

(Goodwin, ed., p. 68).

Maria Barlowski, the mother, was born on July 17, 1892, in Samocice, Poland.

She arrived with John at Ellis Island on Nov. 2, 1907, and the culture shock was immense. New York City had clusters of buildings that resembled mountains to the children on board. They had never seen a building more than three stories high, much less the disconnect felt as the fog was burning off, revealing the skyline, battery and

Statue of Liberty on Bedloe’s Island.

Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, about 1900. [Digital image]. (n.d.).

After the uncomfortable and disorienting experiences at Ellis Island a small boat transported immigrants to one of the many piers on the Hudson River that lined lower

Manhattan. While New York City was not the one we know in 2018, numerous 185

landmarks from 1907 still exist today. Manhattan’s Trinity Church was a prominent landmark, and Fifth Avenue was busy with shopping and horse-drawn carriages. Like today, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was available for tourists and residents alike to view some of the finest paintings and sculptures in the world, and Union Square still offers an array of flowers at their weekly greenmarket. It’s compelling to study the faces of persons now gone, their lives and personal accounts complete. There are also accompanying stories that emerge. For example, the Union Square photograph below shows each man, down to the very last, sporting a hat. The industry eventually declined with changes in fashion, and in 1960 their lobbyists tried to persuade newly-elected president John F. Kennedy to wear a hat. Their intent was to revive the industry, but he wouldn’t, and they didn’t.

Flower Vendor's Easter Display in Union Square Park, New York [042980]. (n.d.). Detroit Photographic Co. 186

Frank Swiatlowski had taken the train down to New York from

Providence with return tickets for three. This was fortunate for the couple, because they didn’t have to be herded into an area where physicians would determine if they were “fit for employment” and, therefore, citizenship. Their daughters became first generation Americans, children of immigrants “processed” at Ellis Island.

Family members weren’t allowed to act as a witness in the citizenship process. Martin Solon and Margaret Zawadzki, friends of Uncle Frank, were enlisted to be witnesses on their path to citizenship at the Providence District

Court.

Presenting life history is part of the research tool. This includes their Polish heritage, the letters they wrote, the schools attended, the coursework completed, the education and culture from the Roman Catholic Parish of Saint Adalbert’s and the public and private meanings in their writing and scholarship. This writing presents the results of a five - year inquiry that represents a “reactivation of history.” Beginning with a story and a name, the subsequent discovery of a photograph was made possible by the digitalization of the Brown University student newspapers. Considering my predisposition for the mysterious and obscure that borders on the obsessive, in hindsight 187

this journey does not seem that remarkable. Once I had found her, I started uncovering the teaching and learning experienced by the three sisters, requiring information that there were other siblings. There were – two - an older and younger sister. Enculturation is a social process beginning in infancy, the gradual assimilation of norms and characteristics of a culture. The Barlowski sisters learned Polish first, since that was spoken primarily in the home. John grudgingly learned a rudimentary form of English, but his social interactions were exclusively with native Poles.

Janina Barlowski D’Abate

The oldest of the siblings, Janina was responsible and reliable, a scholar and school leader who provided a strong example to the younger sisters. The captain of the women’s basketball team for all four years of high school, she also excelled in other sports, activities and academics. She was also a recipient of the Henry Bowen

Anthony medal for academic excellence, a coveted honor in Rhode Island through much of the Twentieth Century. The award’s namesake, Anthony was an 1833 graduate of Brown University, editor of the Providence Journal, and also a Governor of

Rhode Island. Known for inciting anti-Catholic sentiment, he won his election to governorship on that platform. Whether Irish, French or Polish, Catholics weren’t generally accepted in Rhode Island until the 20th century. 188

Janina , Senior Graduation, 1939 [Classical High School]. (n.d.).

Janina was the eldest sister, born on June 20, 1921. She earned her master’s degree in library science, in 1977. After becoming a library administrator she was the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Rhode Island, in

1998. Janina sat on the board of directors at the prestigious Trinity Repertory Company, a non-profit theater on Washington Street, in Providence. She was the director of the

North Scituate Public Library, a member of the Governor’s steering committee on

Library and Information Science, president of board of trustees at Mohr Memorial

Library, board of directors of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, chairman of the children's concert committee, board of directors and president of Nickerson House and Camp Fire,

Inc. of Rhode Island., president of the First Unitarian Alliance, and Rhode Island Library

Association and Beta Phi Museum.

Janina’s leadership in vocation and community is legendary in Rhode Island. My mother’s cousin was a leading actor in Trinity Rep for years, a close friend and colleague of Adrian Hall. Appearing in over 100 productions, Richard and Janina must have occasionally crossed paths: 189

In his long career, Mr. Kneeland appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway and in regional theaters around the United States, but he was best known for his work in major roles with the Trinity Repertory. Adrian Hall, the founding director of Trinity, said that "perhaps more than any single artist," Mr. Kneeland "was responsible for the prestige and success" of the company (The New York Times, Arts, p. 1).

Richard was an integral part of the cultural milieu of Rhode Island, and I was in attendance at many productions. My favorite memories of Richard are conversations we had sitting on the upper deck of the Coast Guard House restaurant in Narragansett, overlooking the crescent beach and surf. I can only imagine his conversations with the board during the 1970s or 1980s. 190

Richard Kneeland, left, Julius Caesar and The Crucible [Trinity Rep]. (n.d.).

Courtesy Trinity Repertory Company Archives 191

Janina Cheerleader, back row second from left [Caduceus, 1938, p. 112]. (n.d.).

Janina was an immense presence at Classical High School. Headlining the 1939 yearbook Who's Who section for June Class Superlatives: “For Snatching the Sports

Spotlight - Boys: Albert Cushing, Girls: Janina Barlowski” (p. 70). In the Class Will section of the same 1939 Caduceus is the following prophetic entry: “Janina Barlowski hands down her basketball captaincy to Marya” (p. 71). The oldest sister had a secure grip on scholarship and leadership during her high school tenure at Classical. It was up to the middle sister to continue the tradition of excellence begun by Janina. She accomplished that – and much more. 192

Janina, captain, Cheerleading Squad [1939 Caduceus]. (n.d.). 193

Janina at principal Charles Paine's skating party, Roger Williams Park [1939 Caduceus, p. 81]. (n.d.). Since 1900, the park's 435 acres have attracted generations of Rhode

Islanders.

Janina acceptance photograph, 1939. [Pembroke College]. (n.d.). 194

Marya Barlowski

The entanglements of memory and imagination go back to the Greeks and the present representation of things absent. We often have nothing better than memory to guarantee that something has taken place, calling to mind a memory of it:

“Historiography itself, let us already say, will not succeed in setting aside the continually derided and continually reasserted conviction that the final referent of memory remains the past, whatever the pastness of the past may signify” (Ricoeur, 2004, p. 131).

As we transition into Marya, the appropriate biographical indicators include vocational excellence, academic excellence, activities, and societal, cultural and political milieus and influences. By including artifacts/photographs relating to Marya, I hope to illuminate and clarify the scholarship, leadership and experiences to address traditional understandings and reframe others. The Classical High yearbook, The Caduceus, has myriad examples of her future excellence, as demonstrated by an article entitled

Sophomore Class News: “All A report card holders are Marya Barlowski, Irene Williams, and Siegal, with Irma Goldberg, Spear, and many others close behind. In Athletics our girls' basketball team, under the able leadership of the younger Barlowski girl, is endeavoring to fill the shoes of the departing Senior champions” (p. 75). Marya is already poised to become the best scholastically and athletically.

The empirical component is best described as a biographical narrative, currere

(Pinar, 2012) case study about a woman named, Marya Barlowski. Her educational excellence led her to become a lead professional in her field of psychiatric social work, 195

also developing and teaching the curriculum and practice of social work. Through

continual biographical examination of Barlowski’s vocational calling for possibilities a

vision of Deweyan-inspired educational artistry (Author, 2018), this historiography hopes

to awaken something different from the habitual educational discourse. Moreover,

biographical narrative might be a model to envision educational futures that stands as an

alternative to standardization, accountability, and the legacy of Ralph Tyler.

But where to begin? In a very real sense, I already have. On our journey we

already have the outline of both story and theory. Frank X. Ryan began his book about

Dewey, Bentley and transaction entitled Seeing Together in the following way: “Life is

mostly about what’s next: the water bill, the ringing phone, a kiss good - night. We

seldom stop to think about the past or the future. More rarely do we contemplate the big

picture of who and what we are in this world” (Ryan, 2011, p. i). My hope is that we

“see together” what there is to learn from Her story that does, as Jane Blanken-Webb suggested, “offer some amount of peace to the rest of us.” Therefore, I hope that transaction will awaken something within us, and also larger picture of I cannot not solve the “problems” once and for all. The material is subject to interpretation and revision, as should be the case. I have tried to adhere to certain values, the first being to present the most accurate information possible.

The second is to treat reverently the life of my subject and also the lives of those

I’ve encountered along the way. All deserve to be treated with respect and love. 196

Marya Barlowski [Pembroke Acceptance Photo]. (n.d.). Brown University Archives

This photograph of Marya is my personal favorite. When entering Pembroke

College there was record-keeping to do regarding transcripts and student identification.

Sitting for the acceptance photo was a rite of passage. One the photo was snapped, you had crossed an exclusive threshold. Two flashes were directed at the subject for even lighting, and, in an instant, you were officially a student at Brown. For whatever reason, there were two images of Marya, probably taken a few seconds apart. Hair was on the 197

film or negative, resulting in the photographic flaws. Her expression is genuine, the enthusiasm clearly evident.

There was also an element of the “chase” through uncovering an artifact that gets the heart racing. That’s the way research progresses, with the initial discovery of a lot of materials. Occasionally, however, a small cache of relevant information surfaces, sometimes unexpectedly. Lying dormant in the , the document and accompanying photographs were unseen by any human for 70 years - until my collaboration with Gayle Lynch. It validates all the time and effort expended, balancing out the disappointments and dead ends.

It’s valuable to remember that the photograph is part of a larger document structured through academia, now part of the successive history of Brown University. It is specific and expansive, intended to disclose everything about a person, a genre, system and perhaps even an era. Michel Foucault addresses this issue directly, rejecting the historian’s tendency towards straightforward narratives: “The document, then, is no longer for history an inert material through which it tries to reconstitute what men have done or said, the events of which only the trace remains; history is now trying to define within the documentary material itself unities, totalities, series, relations. (Foucault, 1972, p. 7). This object brought to light – literally and figuratively - from the past, is history’s attempt at a linear schema. It may be disseminated and presented in a different manner, a discontinuous “disruption.” Unfortunately, even using the term “disseminate” places me in a position of power, sharing only what is thought to be relevant. Therefore, I am providing most of the data to the reader. Below is a photo of Gayle and I celebrating 198

recent finds over coffee at Faunce House, a popular haunt from the 1920’s to the present day. The patio overlooks the Main Green at Brown University, a respite from classes during nice weather. Inside is a kitchen, cafeteria and dining area that has generally remained unchanged since the 1940s. Gayle always places artifacts carefully into pristine white envelopes with my name on them, and become invested in the inquiry.

Providence natives Gayle Lynch and Karl Martin, enjoying coffee and a Rhode Island favorite, bran muffins. 199

Marya and Margaret Ajootian were co-captains of the cageball team, as indicated in the following photograph.

Caduceus, Cageball Team, 1940, Marya third row, sixth from left, Margaret, top row, third from right, p. 51.

Jonathan Ryder has researched the sport of cageball, and has not been able to fully describe or even understand it. By all accounts, the sport is now defunct. Possibly incorporating a basket and net, it was considered to be quite rigorous. Quite popular at the time, the women’s sport attracted a large following throughout the 1930s and 1940s. 200

Cageball [Mara and Margaret p. 58]. (n.d.). Caduceus, 1938 Classical High School

Yearbook

Always smiling, Margaret Ajootian Layshock is further to the left, wearing a black dress. Marya is third from right, top row. Margaret and I often went through yearbooks “together” during phone interviews, and she remarked “I remember they occasionally placed that tall girl between Marya and me, because her first name fell 201

alphabetically between ours. I think her name was Marjorie” (M. Layshock, personal communication, January 16, 2016). Margaret has been helpful describing women’s sports, scholarship and leadership at both Classical and Brown, often appearing in the same picture. They played many of the same sports, and both were involved with student leadership at Classical.

Jean Druesdow has always been enthusiastic about describing and analyzing prevailing fashions of a particular time and place. Director of the Silverman Fashion

Museum at Kent State University, she offers her expertise and insight regarding historical dress and accompanying cultural contexts. Since the questions generated in research are often more telling than the answers, Jean’s assessment of the photo above provided three questions to which the answers are a resounding “yes.”

It's a pretty blouse -- distinctive in terms of what the other girls are

wearing; it does look like embroidery; not a terribly complicated pattern --

it could have been done at home. Were her parents first generation

Americans? Would there be a family aesthetic that would have

encouraged this kind of decorative element? Would she have done it

herself? She is certainly more attractive to our eyes than the other girls in

their much more ordinary dresses - none of which fit especially well and

also could have been home-made (J. Druesdow, personal communication,

May 17, 2015). 202

Classical Review, February 21, 1941, p. 1

Alas, Janina's (admittedly probably jestful) will entry that the captaincy go to Marya went unfulfilled by the coach. Note that in this page, both Janina and Marya are mentioned, as the list of "Wearers of the Purple "C" " includes those from previous years. Also note the following: Marya is one of only four players called out for "Excellent playing" in this entry. Marya is one of only three current players mentioned as a "Wearer of the Purple

"C" (J. Ryder, personal communication, August 29, 2012). 203

Lillian Barlowski Runyon

Lillian Barlowski, Caduceus, 1945

The youngest Barlowski, Lillian followed two superlatives in her educational journey. She told me herself that it was difficult, and I think often about her tenacity.

Since she was closest to Marya, I believe that longer sections of our interviews need to be presented to the reader as an avenue to understanding. Two of the classmates Marya knew from college will also provide insights that require the same treatment.

After Lillian’s primary and secondary education, she hoped to engineer an alternative course, attending a different university:

L: The yearbook said I was going to Mount Holyoke, but I didn’t go to

Mount Holyoke, I went to Pembroke.

K: I suppose you had been accepted at Holyoke and attended school there?

L: Yes, I wanted to go there, but I don’t think that we could afford for me

to go away to college.

K: When you lost your Dad, you must have been very young. 204

L: Oh yeah, I was in eighth grade.

K: Do you remember the four women trying to come up with a plan? What did you talk about? (Lillian didn’t want to revisit that period of her life in this interview. When this occurred, she would respond that she didn’t remember).

L: I really don’t remember (In a subsequent interview, she provided some details).

K: You said that your Mom was a “burlier.”

L: Yes, she was a burlier. She had to feel material for knots. And if she found a knot she would have to pull them out, grab the back and pull it out through the circle of the hole, and then the sewers would weave…fix the holes by weaving in and out. That’s how they would fix the holes.

K: So perhaps your Mom could also sew well? Could she make clothes?

For the three sisters?

L: My Mother sewed quite a bit. Yeah. she made a lot of clothes.

K: And she was a good cook?

L: She made a lot of soup! She was always making soup! That’s about all we ever ate was soup, soup, soup! She made a cabbage soup, and also a good vegetable soup. The cabbage soup we called a “Capusta,”

K: “Capusta” I’m not certain how it’s spelled, but I bet it was good! A polish soup?

L: Yes, “Capusta” means cabbage soup in Polish. 205

K: So. the kitchen. If you walked through the front door. You were on ground level. Can you describe the house as you walked through it?

L: Yeah. We were on the first floor there was like an entry. A small entry.

And then you went into the living room and then we had the kitchen.

And two bedrooms...and…oh, then we had a pantry.

K: Um hum?

L: And, uh.at first we just had a bathroom. We just had a toilet and a bowl.

My Father tore down the wall that was part of the closet to one of the bedrooms. That bedroom had two closets. So, he knocked down the wall that was between the closet and the bathroom. And we put a tub in there so that we didn’t have to take baths down in the basement anymore. So then we could take them upstairs in the bathroom.

K: He must have been pretty good at construction.

L: That I don’t remember, but that’s what he did. But after a while we had the bathtub in the regular place where we lived so we didn’t have to go downstairs anymore.

K: So there was a tub downstairs in the basement?

L: Yes, where we bathed before my father had the bathtub put in upstairs!

K: Were there other rooms in the basement?

L: Oh, yeah. There were definitely other rooms! The people on the second floor had a room so they could store things, and the Raughtigans on the third floor… they had a room out in the basement where they could store 206

stuff. There were several rooms down there and each family had a room where they could store stuff.

K: Bob Raughtigan is the guy I’ve talked with. He lives in Warwick.

L: Oh yeah! I got a Christmas card from him!

K: Christmas is coming around again! Bobby is a nice guy, but he can’t talk too long because of his COPD. Were you close to being the same age?

L: I think I was a little bit older… I think

K: Marya would have been much older then.

L: She was closer to me in age but she was closer to my other sister in school because she skipped a couple of grades. She was very, very bright…

K: So…she skipped grades?

L: Yeah, but we had half years. See…first you went to 1-B, then 1-A.

So…you could start school in September or January. If you started school in January you graduated in January. That’s what I did…I graduated in

January. I always remember my high school graduation date because it was 1-2-3-4-5, you see? January 23, 1945 (laughing).

L: We had a big snowstorm before graduation. I remember that. 207

K: In Providence, during those days maybe the plows weren’t quite as efficient?

L: Yeah, but they would plow the streets.

K: During the Summer I stopped where your house once stood, and the pear tree was still there.

There’s still a driveway between where the houses stood.

L: Oh, the pear tree is still there? (She is overcome with recognition, and her voice is happily animated). We didn’t have a driveway…we didn’t have a driveway or garage - that was next door. They had a three-car garage.

K: There was a building in the back

L: That was the three-car garage.

K: Did your Dad drive? Did he have a car?

L: Oh no! We never had a car…until…

K: Until you were older?

L: My Father never drove…

K: Did your Mom drive in later years? When you were older in College?

L: I don’t believe that either one of them drove.

K: Didn’t the three sisters go to the beach? It was pretty close.

L: Well somebody must have taken us.

K: Do you remember the beaches in Rhode Island?

L No, I’m sorry, I don’t. 208

K: We like to go to a shore dining place called Aunt Carries. I’m 63, and used to go with my grandparents during the 1950’s, so I’m just a little younger than you.

L: (Laughs) I’m going to be 87 in January! I’m starting to lose it.

K: I’ve heard that the best way to fight back is to read. Do you still like to read?

L: Oh yeah, I like to read I like to read mystery stories. I like James

Patterson. And, uh… Stuart Woods and those books. I read a lot of books.

At the library they sell books for a quarter or 50 cents. I have a ton of books to read. I usually read mystery stories, nothing that reminds me of school. I think I hated school because of my sister …Marya. I think they expected me to be as bright as she was, and I wasn’t. So I always dreaded the first couple weeks of school because if somebody didn’t know something they would call on me because Marya knew all the answers and it took them a couple of weeks to figure out that I wasn’t the brightest bulb in the room.

K: You were accepted into Pembroke. You had to be pretty smart to do that!

That said, it must have been hard to follow someone that was “perfect.” I think I mentioned before – everyone who sees your photograph thinks you are extremely photogenic.

L: (Laughs) Well, thank you! 209

K: One of my professors is from Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Do you remember Woonsocket? There were-and are- a lot of French speakers there.

L We had relatives in Woonsocket we would go to Woonsocket quite often!

L: (She asks another person in the room) How tall am I?

Unknown Woman’s voice: 5’ 1” (It was Elizabeth Pinter, a realtor from

Downers Grove)

L: Five foot one or two something like that… I’m short.

K: I didn’t know you had company. Should I call back another time?

L: She’s not really company. She’s a caregiver. Kind of looks after me and makes sure I’m all right. Would you like to talk with her? Her name’s

Elizabeth.

E: (with an accent) I mainly come to make sure she takes her medications at the right time. I come at 8:30 in the morning and leave at ten (It’s now

9:30). (She continues) We play cards…we play other games. We go for walks. We just went for a walk this morning but two cars collided so we decided to turn around and come back.

K: Elizabeth, I so glad to talk with you. I’m writing about her sister

Marya. My Dad dated Lillian’s older sister during WWII.

E: Ohhh! (Enthusiastically). 210

K: They were separated when his ship deployed and they never saw each other again

I sent Lillian a number of photographs. I hope she will show you the yearbook photo with the flower in her hair.

E: I saw the package, and what I suggested to her is that she take it to her daughter and son-in-law when she goes there at Christmas and have them contact you or do whatever. (She did, and they suggested that they didn’t want me talking with her after subsequent interviews. Clearly, there were family issues they didn’t want to emerge).

K: Her sister who was a little older, and she’s no longer living. Maybe

Lillian can tell you about that. I’m not certain if the family wants to talk to me because Lillian’s sister had a history of mental illness.

E: I understand. Now what we did when she received this package we looked for photo albums and we found one but there wasn’t a single picture in it of the sister. It was mainly of other things not of property that you mentioned before.

K: Well, all families have old photos around - sometimes sitting in shoeboxes. There’s one other ingredient to this mystery I wanted to tell you about. Do you remember Leonard Bernstein?

E: Of course!

K: Apparently, she wrote a letter saying that Leonard Bernstein had accepted a symphony she’d written for the 1967 season Alex Bernstein is 211

looking around, hoping to find this lost manuscript...if it exists. It’s a great mystery, Elizabeth.

E: That is so awesome! (Laughs) Yeah! That is awesome!

K Also, between you and me…One thing I never want to do is upset

Lillian in any way.

E: Let me tell you one of the most remarkable things that she has told me.

When she was eight years old she looked at the cross and it said on there

INRI… “Oh! Jesus is in Rhode Island and not in Massachusetts, and isn’t that wonderful?

K: That’s a fabulous bit of reasoning, especially for a child. What is the exact Latin translation?

E: Yes, it really means Jesus King of the Jews. I don’t know which language, probably Aramaic. But here’s Lillian back to you.

K: Elizabeth, would you get my phone number? Just in case?

E: You know, I think it’s in the cover letter that you sent that I actually copied from her. My first thought was copy the letter and send it to her family and then she got upset thinking that I took her picture and I didn’t have any right so I said well

K: Elizabeth, before we go, where are you from?

E: I have lived in Chicago since ’52…I am a native of Austria and I am still a realtor-full time! 212

K: I should let you spend your time with Lillian - It’s delightful talking with you.

E: OK. Thank you. We will both keep you in mind if we find anything new pops up. If she comes across a photo album that may have interest to you I can scan a picture at work and Lillian and I will forward it to you

…with her permission

K: I would love that

E: OK

K: Thank you so much

E: Thank you. It’s nice talking with you

K: May I say goodbye to Lillian?

E: Oh, Yes.

K: Have a lovely weekend

E: You too!

Muffled voices (They don’t realize the phone is still open)

E: Well! That was very interesting!

From Newcomers Express Their Opinions on Classical, “There is a unanimous vote for Classical among the new 9-Bs. Each and every one of the newcomers enthusiastically agreed that Classical was “tops,” but let them speak for themselves” (Classical review, 1941, p.1). 213

Lillian, Classical Review, February 21, 1941, pp. 1,4 [Digital image].

(n.d.).

Roman Catholicism and Saint Adalbert’s

Photograph by Mark Sawtelle, Saint Adalbert's in the background. [Digital image]. (n.d.). 214

Church History

Records of the first Poles in Rhode Island extend to the Revolutionary War.

Polish officers were serving in the French army at that time, and Catholic masses were held in Newport.

During the latter part of the 19th century Polish immigrants came to Rhode Island in larger numbers. By the 1890s, a growing colony had been established in the Olneyville section of Providence: “The Poles settled here near the factories in which they found employment, namely, the textile concerns of Fletcher Manufacturing, Atlantic Mills, and the Silver Spring Bleachery as well as in the machine tool operations of Brown & Sharpe and the R. I. Locomotive Works” (Slota, 1977, p. 7).

Saint Adalbert’s is the oldest Polish Roman Catholic parish in Rhode Island. A popular research destination of Brown and Rhode Island School of Design art and architecture students, it was built by Italian craftsmen who had immigrated to New

England. The precise and well-conceives layout is perfect for the accompanying site, the craftsmanship remarkable. Form, function and style work together in a manner not usually found in parish churches, and the result is breathtaking. The apse behind the alter features paintings of the twelve apostles, haloes heavily gilded. When the lights are dimmed, this feature is accentuated, and the experience becomes poignant, personal and transcendent. It is a humbling experience. 215

Saint Adalbert’s Parish, Providence, Rhode Island, courtesy the author.

Saint Adalbert’s Parish incorporates a Polish leaning and perspective, with part of the religious readings performed in Polish. Father Marek uses what could be described as using a restricted code of Latin and Polish. The Polish situates me as an outsider, valuable for understanding more than one aspect of Polish faith and culture. I can apply my observations to a larger perspective, understanding my subject more completely.

Many of the older communicants speak Polish almost exclusively, with limited proficiency in English, making interviews cumbersome or impossible.

I can also provide insights as someone from within the culture. When Father

Marek elevates the chalice, I understand the meaning and significance. This is a sequestered place, sacred, sacramental and timeless. The hymns are familiar, reassuringly majestic when accompanied by the pipe organ. I’m connected with the past 216

because I’m sitting in her space. She was baptized in the Odd Fellows Hall, a temporary parish home while the church was being completed, on the third Sunday of June, 1925.

The cornerstone was laid twenty-two days before her birth, the parish dedicated on

September 26, 1926. Marya knew this place from infancy. The church grew up with her, and she with it.

Karl, Sorry for such a delay with my response. Last year I become a pastor of

another parish and inherited a few church maintenance issues. It's very time

consuming. The parish history book you mention was written by one of the

parishioners. I will ask him about the sources he used. Maybe there is something

you can use. I don't think Fr. Slota will be of help to you because he has lots of

health problems. Although his mind is sharp, the rest of the body of failing him

very quickly. If you're around, please let me know. You're always very welcome

at St. Adalbert's. God bless., Fr. Marek (M. Kupka, personal communication,

February 20, 2018).

Father Bronislaus Rosiak had been her guide and confessor,

providing absolution and spiritual counsel until she turned forty. He was a

native of Plock, Poland, and became pastor while the country was still in

the midst of the Great Depression. His first job was an attempt to

liquidate the debt. “With the advent of World War II scores of men and

women from our parish enlisted in the armed forces. Special services of 217

prayer for the servicemen were conducted” (Slota, 1977, p. 12). Retiring

on March 10, 1965, Fr Rosiak was replaced by father Frederick Slota.

In addition to Her Catholic education at Saint Adalbert. During her secondary and undergraduate educational experiences, she was engaged with religion professors of great judgement and faculties. They possessed confidence in the underlying reality of theological dogma, with faith and reason reconciled. She read copious amounts of religious literature through classical study, among them authors such as Thomas Aquinas and who. This was not empirical pragmatism. Aquinas’ philosophizing was done in context of Scriptural theology. The relationship of theology to religion was his domain, each existing to perfect the other.

She was on a voluntary path to becoming a fully realized human being. Her deep, lasting and justified satisfaction of life was realized through her faith, actualized through diligent study and her eventually calling of psychiatric social work.

If you were Polish, Catholic, and residing anywhere near Providence, you worshipped at Saint Adalbert’s Parish. During the 1930s, children followed the religion of their parents. It was accepted in school curriculum also. Remembering that there are educational purposes for studying religion, theology was required at Classical and

Brown. Religious studies weren’t treated dismissively as long as indoctrination was discouraged. Remembering that key Supreme Court cases hadn’t yet emerged, up until the mid-twentieth century a prayer or invocation began each school day. For example, an existing law in Pennsylvania law that stated “Ten verses from the Holy Bible shall be 218

read without comment at the opening of each public school on each school day” was declared unconstitutional, in 1963.

The Barlowski family was comfortable in their religious traditions, with a strong religious and ethnic identity. There weren’t Road to Damascus moments at Saint

Adalbert’s, with accompanying turning points in one’s faith and life. The parish incorporated hard intellectual work and engagement with the priest, balanced by Polish festivals and social functions. One practiced and studied, working through the liturgy and body of faith. That said, the parish was inspirational in my writing and research.

The trip into Olneyville featured perfect weather, trees blossoming throughout

Providence. My intent was to accept Father Marek’s invitation to worship. “Karl, how can you write about a church and community without understanding what grounds the center of our community” (M. Kupka, personal communication, April 28, 2015)? And it was a time for celebration, a confirmation mass, the boys and girls dressed in white.

Ready to receive the sacrament, it was a festive holiday for the new communicants and their proud parents. I did experience an epiphany that beautiful morning. While inside her beautiful space, I felt a strong sense of transcendence, a reversal of pre-existing ideas and, especially, doubts. It was a watershed moment, one where I made the commitment to her biography as informing my dissertation.

Father Marek Kupka

Father Marek, in his own way, reminds one of a sacred version of James G.

Henderson. His is not the business of proselytizing in the ways of an evangelist. Fr.

Marek does not actively seek out “converts,” instead inviting one to “seek out 219

knowledge,” investing themselves in the form and framework of worship. Father Marek

is invitational, speaking conversationally. He is not afraid to engage in genuine discourse, or even friendly argument. He draws the line at vulgar or profane exposure to his faith, in the sense that there is a sacredness in his teachings. Stated another way, Fr.

Marek knows the vocabulary and pedagogy of Roman Catholic Christianity. As an added bonus, Father Marek makes certain that I receive a healthy sprinkling of holy water when

I’m in attendance, and it is appreciated. He is inclusive and welcoming. While still a

Polish Parish, Fr. Marek welcomes all residents from the community.

Saint Adalbert’s existed there in both times, remaining relatively unchanged. While sitting in that pew I can feel her there. Her confessions exist only in the memories of Fr. Slota, now in his eighties, thoughts about the family and community. Fr. Marek once called him to ask about the Barlowski family, specifically Marya. According to him, Fr. Slota indicated that he “didn’t remember her,” and that he was old and forgetful. Nonetheless, I call Fr. Slota’s home on a monthly basis, hoping that he will accidently pick up the phone. Those who were closest to Marya often become curiously amnesic about her life.

Olneyville, Rhode Island

Olneyville is a section of Providence bordered by Atwells Avenue to the North (Saint Adalbert’s Parish is on Atwells), U.S. Route 6 to the south and U.S. Route 10 to the east. The Woonasquatucket River generally runs through the southern portion of the 220

area, which is somewhat triangular. Native American nations inhabited this area long before Roger Williams founded . One sees the city differently from the river, and t’s a narrative in itself. There is a hurricane barrier erected where the

Woonasquatucket meets the Narragansett Bay, built after the deadly 1938 hurricane called the Long Island Express, killing nearly 600 people in the state. Once you paddle into the river itself, everything changes. Erik Talley is a guide that describes the experience this way: “…it becomes a wooded corridor; you see great blue herons; hawks and the tree line totally insulates you from the city. When you’re paddling in that area, you can trick yourself to think you’re in a forest” (Meade, 2013, p. C5). He gives tours that take one from the Narragansett Nation welcoming Roger Williams through the 221

merchant traders and industrial revolution.

Woonasquatucket River, summer [Courtesy the author]. (n.d.).

The river in the photograph above is directly adjacent to the Barlowski home, just up the bank to the right. Verdant and peaceful on this stretch, the city seems far away. 222

The population of Olneyville, 6,495 in the 2000 US Census, is diverse. As of the

2010 US Census, the racial and ethnic breakdown of Olneyville was 61% Hispanic; 16%

White; 13% Black or African American; 4% Asian; 6% Other 63% of public school children speak a language other than English as their primary language. When Marya was born, 70% of the Olneyville community was of Polish origin. There were factories and mills dumping all sorts of contaminants into the adjacent river, and problems still exist today. Lead poisoning is more prevalent in Olneyville than other sections of

Providence, and over 40% of residents do not own cars. Home to the famous New York

System Hot Wieners, my son and his girlfriend mistakenly asked for “hot dogs” after visiting the empty lot where Her home once stood. Unfamiliar with the cultural milieu of this section, they were not served until they corrected their culturally-insensitive request with an order for “wieners.” It’s also valuable to drop the “r” when ordering placing one as a local, one of “us.” I know the language well, resurrecting my dialect at will when in

Rhode Island.

Artist’s collectives and a musical “sound,” Providence Noise, emerged during the

1990s. Former warehouses and mills purchased by developers have resulted in fears of gentrifying the neighborhood, and with good reason. Guerilla artists have pushed back against this trend, and there is hope that the community might again flourish.

Map

Medical illustrations often do what photographs cannot, valuable because they can facilitate the visualization of bioscientific knowledge and subject matter. The same is true with architectural and urban planning design. Joseph Tosmey was a Providence 223

designer in the 1940s-1950s who had a true illustrator’s facility, one and two - point perspective fading into aerial as a means to represent more distant objects. The following is his rendering of a proposed highway for this west side community, with designated relevant landmarks.

Tosmey, J. (n.d.). Olneyville Map [Excerpt from The Olneyville Expressway, 1949.].

The Route 6 and Route 10 highways, their interchanges and one - mile connector to I-95 have contributed to the demise of Providence’s west side for over half a century.

Once a poor Polish community, now Hispanic, the commercial district of Olneyville has all but disappeared as a result. The rendering above is tidy, antiseptic and deceptive. The downtown square is barely recognizable, reflecting the isolating effects of pushing interstate spurs and bridges through established neighborhoods. More than just highway construction, the interstate construction pointed towards something more disquieting, a 224

high-speed shuttering of community and individuals. As to the beginnings of superhighways and urban planning, government authorities and their appointed local

“experts” used their own discretion when assigning form, function and aesthetics.

Dividing communities and funneling large numbers of cars and trucks into streets with moderate traffic, the 6-10 Connector remained dormant for 7 years. When opened in

1953, it was called the Olneyville Bypass. The name says it all.

The community didn’t have a voice in the matter. It was not even considered. because if a local resident objected she was seen as not getting behind the modern world.

It was if you weren’t behind the notion of progress. The highways were pushed through disenfranchised communities like Olneyville. Looking “backward” was regarded as just that, because history and tradition do not fit in with “progress.” Communities, families and cultures were divided. Venturi & Brown describe well the inherent disorientation:

“A driver thirty years ago could maintain a sense of orientation in space. He knew where he was. Today the crossroad is a cloverleaf. To turn left he must turn right…” (Venturi

& Brown, 1972, p. 4). 225

Community History

Olneyville was named after Christopher Olney, a Revolutionary War colonel, and was always a center for workers. “By the mid-1800s the neighborhood realized “its full potential as a manufacturing center” with The Union Cotton Mill, the DeLaine mills, the

Lyman Manufacturing Co., the Valley Bleachery, and later the Atlantic mills. They “used the river for power and for the great quantities of water needed in bleaching and dyeing,” according to commission documents” (J. Tempera, 2017, p. 1). The DeLaine Mills later became the namesake of Delaine Avenue, and the neighborhood is a small part of the city’s West Side, bordered by Atwells Avenue, the Route 6-10 connector, the

Woonasquatucket River and Glenbridge Avenue.

As seen in the above rendering, the Barlowski family lived adjacent to the

Woonasquatucket River. John and Maria had saved enough after his twenty years as a laborer and her time as a burrier to afford a down payment on a house near Uncle Frank.

The house was a classic Providence “triple-decker,” and they rented out the second and third floor living areas to make the payments. It was a good investment, and a good situation. The symbol after the name indicates that the listed occupant owned the house.

A French couple lived in the middle section, the Raughtigan family at the uppermost level. Their son Robert was a year or two younger than Lillian, his reflections and remarks included as interview transcripts. 226

Listing from the 1935 Providence House Directory.

The following interview serves as an informative piece and also an introduction to

Robert Raughtigan:

LB : Hello?

KM: This is Karl Martin, the researcher and writer from Ohio.

LB : Oh!

KM: I’m the one doing a biographical study about your sister.

LB: Oh yeah, I remember!

KM: By the way, I was at the site of your house and looked carefully at the

Woonasquatucket River.

L B: Ok, OK. By the way, (corrects my pronunciation) it’s the Woonasquatucket !

KM: They’re trying to clean it up, you know.

LB: They’re not throwing garbage in there anymore? (Laughs)

KM: You remember that there was a mill upstream? 227

LB: There were actually four across from us and one in back of us. And down the street! Yeah, there were a lot of them!

KM: From what I understand, they used to throw a lot of chemicals into the river.

Children weren’t supposed to swim in it back in the 1940’s because they would turn different colors.

LB: (Laughs heartily, very amused) (Unfortunately, children were affected by dyes in the river)

KM: It seems like there’s only a few people that remember, you and Bob

Raughtigan. You remember him…Bobby?

LR: Oh yeah, he lived up on the third floor.

KM: He suggested that I really need to talk with you He was a lot …

LR: Younger?

KM: He really didn’t know her – Marya - all that well.

LR: Uh huh?

KM: He said that the “Barlowski girls were very smart-all of them!”

LR: Well, now, she used to call me “stupid” all the time.

But I did graduate Pembroke, you know, Brown. I went to Classical. I had four years of Latin, three years of Greek and two years of French.

My older sister didn’t take Greek, my middle sister didn’t take French and I didn’t take German. We all took different foreign languages. It just happened that way…

KM: You know, Classical moved into a new building. (This occurred in 1966) 228

LR: Oh, they did? I graduate January 23rd, 1945. 1,2,3,4,5 That’s why I remember it.

That’s the yearbook I would be in. My memory is going, you know. I will be 87 in January.

But I do remember that she called me “stupid” all the time. (Laughs) THAT I remember. (laughs again) We used to play jump rope in the yard, and play hopscotch, yeah.

KM: I was at the site where your house once stood in the summer, and I saw a pear tree.

LR: Oh yeah, we had a grapevine and a pear tree!

Km: The house is gone, but there’s a driveway that used to run between the two houses

LB: We didn’t have a driveway. That belonged to the house next door

Between the house and the bakery? Was there a bakery? I am sorry; I’m just getting forgetful.

KM: I am thrilled to be able to talk with you, no matter how much you remember.

You are a wonderful person. I went to Saint Anne’s Cemetery. Your Mother is there, and someone named “Frank.”

LR: Swiatlowski? That’s my uncle, my mother’s brother. He had a tavern, on

Chaffee Street. I do remember things like that.

KM: Do you remember your mother very well?

. 229

LR: Yeah. Very well, but my father died, I think when I was in 8th grade. My

older sister is still living, but from what I’ve heard, she’s really out of it. She

lives with her daughter in Florida.

KM: So you don’t get to talk with her very often?

LR: I don’t talk to her at all because she’s out of it.

KM: Going back to where you lived, the river is still there, and it’s quite a drop

down the bank

LR: We used to throw our garbage in the river; we never had a garbage service

(laughs)

We just threw everything in the river.

KM: Do you remember the great hurricane of 1938?

LR: Yeah! I think we were without electricity for about a week, but nobody lost

any food because we all had iceboxes.

KM: Did the river rise and flood your house?

LR: No, no. It never got that high. (Interview with Lillian Barlowski Runyon,

October 15, 2013).

Robert Raughtigan. I had a number of interviews with Bob Raughtigan. Residing in Warwick with friend Joan Duncan in Warwick, he attempted to better the inquiry, but was frustratingly limited due to his COPD. As a result, conversations were limited to approximately ten minutes. 230

Robert was the son a John and Julia Raughtigan. He was a letter carrier all his life, except when serving in Vietnam during the 1960s. They lived on the third level at

106 Delaine Avenue.

Manton Avenue Elementary. If not the starting point, formal education provides a springboard to future learning. The Barlowski sisters all attended the local grade school for kindergarten through sixth grade, Manton Avenue Elementary. The foundation of the building still exists today in Olneyville, most recently home to a convenience store. The following is a survey prepared by the Providence Preservation

Society. “According to the Industrial Sites and Commercial Buildings Survey, the building, a grammar school, was designed by William R. Walker & Sons and was completed in 1888”. The building was owned by the city until 1977, after which it was sold and resold a few times to various groups and individuals. When the school was razed, the stone wall that wrapped around the building and a small set of stairs were preserved thanks to the efforts of a local group of community activists.

Foundation of Manton Avenue Elementary, Google street view 231

There were two years when all three sisters attended the same elementary school.

They could easily walk to school, hurrying past the textile mill on Delaine Street. By that time the men and women had already begun their 7:00 A.M. shift, and were hard at work.

Janina, Marya and Lillian occasionally stopped at Uncle Frank’s Chaffee Street Tavern on the way to and from school. An enormous jar of pickled hard-boiled eggs perpetually sat on the bar, sold for a nickel apiece. They made a good snack at the first recess. He would wrap them neatly in real butcher paper, a skill developed from years of practice, and his eggs came from the Rushton Farm. The oldest Rushton, Harold Sr., delivered the eggs three days a week in a horse – drawn wagon from a mile outside of the town square.

The clippity - clop of business wagons like Harold Rushton used. Everyone knew

Harold, delivering in different communities on designated days of the week. My grandfather did also, friends with Harold throughout their lives. Many retailers avoided, or outright refused – the conversion to trucks for decades, and their wagons could be heard on the cobblestones of Broadway Avenue from the pre-dawn hours until noon. 232

Photo courtesy Providence Historical Society

Lillian Barlowski Runyon identified this photograph as the three sisters in the

Manton Avenue Elementary School library. A cold winter necessitated that children wear overcoats indoors, since resources trickled down slowly to schools in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. In addition, this photograph was taken at the height of the Great Depression when resources in Rhode Island were strained.

Even before the Depression the jewelry and woolen textile industries had begun a decline, but Maria Barlowski was able to keep her job at the Atlantic Mills. “Citywide, the Depression hit hard. All industrial sectors, trades, retail, and white-collar jobs were affected. Public work relief, instituted by the City of Providence with assistance from state and federal loans, provided work throughout the 1930s to desperate citizens” (Hay, 233

2001). During the first half of the Twentieth Century neighborhood schools reflected the ethnic populations who lived in largely segregated neighborhoods, the Poles concentrated in Olneyville.

1931

Her recommendation and assessment card from elementary school followed her to

Classical High. I was given permission to have access to the archival area known as The

Cage, a subterranean locked 10’ x 50’ enclosure. Black mold grows on the walls, and duct tape holds files together that have lost all their integrity. My grandmother’s records 234

exist someplace in the enclosure, but they couldn’t be located at that time. It will have to wait another day.

O. H. Perry Junior High School. The Card pictured below points to some confusion. For example, subsequent intelligence testing placed Marya much, much higher. This could be the result of the use of a different instrument and/or professional administrating the test. I also wonder if she was driven to excellence and acquisition that boosted later testing results. The Stanford-Binet IQ test was developed in 1916, and it was thought that scores remained relatively stable. The reality is that IQ scores measure developed skills, not native intelligence, can change dramatically, and don’t reveal anything about a person’s intellectual limits. Her IQ “grew” to 136 and then to ranges between 150-160. Harold E. Jones and Nancy Bayley of the Society for Research in

Child Development conducted a study (published when Marya graduated from Classical, in1941) that proved individual IQ scores can change significantly over time. 235

Classical High School, Jonathan Ryder.

The author and Jonathan Ryder, Classical High School Library [Digital image].

(n.d.). 236

The introductory conversation was with an assistant principal at Classical High.

She directed me to visit the school and meet Jonathan Ryder, a fabulous teacher and librarian at Classical. She confided that “This is the kind of thing he loves.” I waited while he orchestrated a rousing class about graphic novels to a rapt group of juniors and seniors, concluding with Socratic dialogue that aimed to find an answer to the universal question “What is literature?”

Today, as in 1940, Classical is a demanding and engaging institution, a place where teachers and administrators reflect on what should be taught, and how. As a public college preparatory school, there is an entrance exam required of all applicants. In Her time, the student body was made up of first generation Americans or children of immigrants, and this is also true today. Two students, Leshlie and Jayleen, approached me as I poured through old documents from the “upper archives,” a room filled with boxes, obsolete audio-visual equipment, and assorted accoutrements of the janitorial profession. Children of immigrants themselves, they wanted to know all about the school’s history and my biographical subject. As a bonus, I was Skyped in for discussion as part of the Currere Exchange conference taking place simultaneously at Miami

University in Ohio. Leshlie and Jayleen became part of the exchange, engaging in dialogue with the conference participants. At the conclusion of the session I was called away for a tour of the school with Robert Palozzo, Classical Dean of Students. When I returned, there was a bottle of spring water by my briefcase and a note that read “Good luck with your project.” It occupies a permanent place in my currere workbook. 237

Schools were within walking distance, and in Olneyville the education of children was provided by the Providence Public Schools. A highly valued colleague and friend throughout this research has been Jonathan Ryder, librarian and archivist at Classical

High School, providing scans of old yearbooks and generously opening up his resources for the benefit of research. An initial correspondence from Jonathan Ryder began the work of uncovering photographs, but soon began to work through the fundamental principles upon which Classical was founded.

I have continued doing some digging for Marya. I took a chance to look through

the 1941 yearbook. The 1941 yearbook has a really nice selection of general

photographs depicting student life at that time. I could do a few "general school

life" scans from other yearbooks, but I don't think they'd significantly improve on

what you already have. So far as pictures of the building itself go, I did some

poking around, but couldn't find any pictures of the building in 1940's

yearbooks. My guess is that in order to find some of those, I would have to look

through the 1950's. I rather doubt the building significantly changed in a

decade. Your call. One more thing... yes, I would deeply appreciate a credit in

your book, but I would also appreciate it if you could send us a copy of the book

itself. I think that a book about a Classical Alumni would make a nice addition to 238

the library. Please let me know if this is a possibility (J. Ryder, personal

communication, August 28, 2013).

Jonathan provided some of the first images of Marya and her sisters from the

Classical collection of historic yearbooks. He tried to find “typical day” photographs from the 1940 yearbook that were more candid and relaxed: “Note that in the top center, the cheerleaders are pictured. I don't know for sure if Marya is in this particular picture, but given that there are eleven cheerleaders in the formal picture and eleven in the picture in this email, I think it's highly likely (J. Ryder, personal communication, August 29,

2013).

Lois Kneeland.

Lois Allen Kneeland [Senior Photograph, Classical High School]. (n.d.). 1918, p. 21. 239

Lois Kneeland [Basketball Team, Classical High School]. (n.d.). 1918, p. 43. 240

Margaret Ajootian [The Classical Review]. (n.d.). Thursday, May 25, 1941 (8,5)

Margaret Ajootian. I stumbled across an interesting photograph in the Classical

High School library archives. Four classmates, the class officers, were posing for a photograph to be placed in the school newspaper. This copy of The Classical Review was yellowed, fragile, resisting my attempts to use a wand scanner. One individual stood out with her enthusiastic smile – Margaret Ajootian. I wondered if she were still living, because I noticed that she and Marya were on the same sports teams and a few other organizations. After a search, I discovered three women named Margaret Ajootian

Layshock in different areas of the United States. I sent a package with articles in it and also my introductory letter. In a few weeks the following email appeared in my inbox:

“Hello Karl, I was away when your letter came, but am back home now if you which to communicate with 241

me. Margaret Layshock” (M. Layshock personal communication, June 1, 2015). That began an informative series of conversations, and Margaret shared a few photographs of then and now.

Margaret file card, Classical High School

Margaret was married at the same church as my parents in Cranston, Rhode

Island, the Washington Park Methodist Church. My grandparents and her family lived about a half-mile apart. Her second email follows:

Hi Karl,

To say you are going way back in time, is an understatement, to say the least!!

Don't know if I can be of any help to you, but feel free to phone me at (number

provided), keeping in mind the 3 - hour time difference. There are some who

never give it a thought! The best time for me would be after 9 in the morning, my

time, and up until 10 p.m., again my time. The challenge is being able to connect,

so I am told. I still drive--and walk--and just keep on moving. Such is the life-

style here. I was back in Providence over Memorial Day weekend for my 70th 242

Pembroke reunion - very exciting but sad too, that our number has diminished.

It's so hard for me to believe that her memory lives on after all these years!!!???

Margaret. P.S. I am thinking that it would be best to have a prolonged

conversation in the evening rather during daytime hours with doctor

appointments, and the like, that would interfere (M. Layshock, personal

communication, June 24, 2015).

Margaret was often placed very close to Marya because their first and last

names were alphabetically close, but they didn’t socialize. I often speculate that Marya

engendered acquaintances more than actual friends, but perhaps I just haven’t been able

to discover any. They may all be deceased.

Margaret Dorgan. Approximately three years ago, William Pinar attended

what was described as an "intense encounter" on Catholicism and education. I’ve been

connected with a brilliant cloistered nun who was valedictorian of arguably the most

challenging high school in the country, and she has given voice to the woman about

whom I’ve been writing. Marya was valedictorian in 1941, Margaret in 1944, and both

were on the debating team from 1940-1941. Margaret still prodigiously writes

theological perspectives, especially as fits her chosen passion, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. I

shared her lecture Your Personal History as a Narrative of Hope with Dr. Pinar, where

Sister Margaret discusses memory, empathy and personal history. I suggested that it might dovetail a bit with the method of currere. and was reminded of Dr. Dwayne

Huebner's writing: "To ignore theological language today, however, is to ignore one of the more exciting and viable language 243

communities" (Huebner, 1975). In response, Dr. Pinar wrote the following: “Love the photos, Karl, and the formal prose, as well as the yellowed paper. The past is so much more powerful than this paltry (if nightmarish) present. You’re kind to send them and kind to send me the lecture. Dovetail indeed…. Bill” (William Pinar, personal communication, February 4, 2017).

Even when engaged in secular speak, Sister Margaret engenders a sense of transcendence. She provides historicism to my writing, connecting future and past to the present day. In addition to her endorsement of autobiography as a hopeful narrative,

Margaret’s area of expertise is biographical, specifically writing about St. Thérèse of

Lisieux. I know Sister Margaret well, and we consider each other friends, but rather than writing about her, her humility

points to others writing about her subjects, such as Thérèse. Thérèse “was allowed to enter the Lisieux Carmel at the age of 15, and her father lived to see her professed a

Carmelite Nun. She took the religious name of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the

Holy Face. Margaret writes that God’s spirit worked powerfully in Thérèse, so open was she to Divine Love. Still dreaming of taking on the world as a priest and missionary, she wrestled with her vocation and place in the Church. She came to realize that her

“vocation is love” – the love of God was the energy source for the Church – and fulfillment of the human heart and longing” (¶ 8) “The spirituality of her “little way” was not about extraordinary things – but rather about doing simple things of life well and with extraordinary love. She believed and taught that “everything is grace” – God’s face and presence could be experienced in every person and situation of our lives, if we just attend 244

with love and expectancy” (¶ 9). I believe that we all have a sense of spirituality in our vocational calling, which ultimately is grounded upon a love of children and learning, what Jim Garrison calls Eros. Struggles encountered in our daily lives were her hands- on, focused spirituality. Thérèse’s autobiography is Story of a Soul. She was canonized when Marya was born, in 1925, and in 1997 the Polish Pope John Paul declared her a

Doctor of the Church. There are threads of spiritual awakening that might be further explored, especially about awareness that has a spiritual capacity.

Margaret and Marya are both instructive as to being tied to awakening and capacity-building. While not the subject, Margaret informs the pedagogical elements in this narrative. For example, while being one of the leading authorities on the theory and practice of prayer, Sister Margaret “tempts” us in an intellectual fashion. At age 91, she invites engagement and discourse, as analytical as she is theological.

I described my experiences with her at Bergamo in October, 2017. There is a plethora of cartoon depicting a holy person – usually a man with a beard – on the top of a mountain. The person who struggles to climb the mountain is worthy of asking a question about the “meaning of life.” Since Margaret loves dogs, I will begin with one that she would appreciate. After climbing up, a dog asks the meaning of life, whereupon the guru recommends that “The bone is not the reward, digging for the bone is the reward.” This writing also reflects that process, since the doctoral work is often framed as a journey. The engagement and encouragement that facilitate the inquiries are greatly appreciated: “Karl, this work represents a lot of intellectual work and soul-searching. if 245

there’s ever anything I can do to help you on your journey, please let me know” (A.

Sandmann, personal communication, September 5, 2015).

I wonder what it would have been like to have a conversation with Marya, doing

collaborative lead-learning, discussing larger ideas, arranging and rearranging words and

concepts? That kind of understanding comes from Sister Margaret. She embodies that

type of intellect in her capacities and vocation. For example, while she appreciates the

writing of Dewey and James, she explained – patiently – that their version of pragmatism

was lacking in that it didn’t embrace more of a spiritual side when tackling tough

questions. She referred to her 1995 essay entitled A Spiritual Pragmatist and Suffering.

Margaret suggested I look at Viktor Frankl’s The Science of the Soul, where all life’s

transactions, including negative ones, are instructive, defining and informing the process

of realizing values. I understood at that moment the awe that others experienced when

talking with brilliant young women such as these.

Margaret wanted to meet with me last year. She thought that talking face to face

would be a virtuous undertaking, and I finally made the pilgrimage to Maine – 2100

miles – to visit. At the Bergamo curriculum theorizing conference someone asked if this

was my value-acquisitioning climb up a mountain. I replied that it was, and described a cartoon where the person climbs all the way up and asks “How do I get down?” Why would one want to? The rarified atmosphere where Sister Margaret resides is such that one does not want to climb back down the mountain. 246

She and Marya were smart, amazingly so. Margaret speaks of the long hours of homework and trolley rides with no complaints. Her parents expected excellence, and the children expected it of themselves.

The Classical Review, February 1941 [Page 1 (8,3)]. (n.d.).

The Classical Review, February 1941 [Page 4 (8,3)]. (n.d.). 247

The yellowed clippings from February of 1941 clearly indicates that Classical was not in the business of grade inflation. Marya was a senior, and Margaret a freshman, enrolled at Classical during its 84th year. The high school had become one of the finest in the country since the first days as a two - room department of the Providence High

School. A “Classical” education may at first seem ridiculously old-fashioned and even elitist, but the reality was a pedagogical hybrid. As in 1941, there is still a 100% college attendance rate and a “Classical Course” grounded in four years of Latin and Greek is available. Stated another way, the organizing center for the subject matter was probably more in keeping with the Deweyan “balanced integration of emphasis on subject matter, society and the child” (Marshall, Sears, Allen, Roberts, Schubert, 2007, p. 5).

Education based upon child study (Marshall et al., 2007). The predecessor to

Dewey in pragmatism, William James, espoused conversation and dialogue based upon fundamental ethical questions as opposed to subject/learner intellectual debate and conflict. According to Marshall et al., 2007, William James, “clearly ahead of his time – seemed willing to integrate the subject matter focus of the intellectual traditionalist with the experimentalist’s focus on individual growth” (p. 5). 248

Marya, All A's [December 21, 1939 Classical Review, p. 1]. (n.d.).

Classical Caduceus, p. 46, June, 1939

249

Pembroke College at Brown University

Pembroke College, Winter of 1944 250

Providence Evening Bulletin, December 17, 1943, p. 20

Brun Mael, 1945. Marya Barlowski, editor, at left. 251

If you’ve never visited Providence, Rhode Island, there are many surprises in store as you drive around the city. The “walk-ups;” the “triple – deckers” generally look unchanged, and if the Twenty-First Century traffic and technology were cropped out of photographs or movie sets, you could easily stage the early Twentieth-Century. Buses have replaced all the electric streetcars, and you don’t see many horse-drawn carriages anymore. Brown University sits atop College Hill. Driving up the narrow streets with a stick shift taxes even the best of drivers at stoplights. During the streetcar era, the cars were able to climb the hill after being hooked up to a counterweighted cable. The few available color photographs of that time are helpful in understanding that very real people lived, worked and studied here. Vibrant young women wore colorful clothes, enjoying the spring sunshine before going to class. Two stills are included below of the Pembroke student taking the steps to access the streetcar. The tunnels are used for buses today, with no automobile traffic permitted. 252

Dorothy Spofford

Enzina Robbio Sammartino

I had been interviewing Enzina for quite a few months, and we both enjoyed our conversations. She knew Marya from being in classes with her and, especially, the Glee

Club. We were to meet for lunch during the summer, and I called to make arrangements.

Her husband Joe answered the phone, and said that she had passed. Enzina was a beautiful person, genuinely invested in friends and family. I was lucky to have known her. As with all the fabulous persons I’ve contacted, they enjoy sharing their experiences and want to be included. Following is an example of one of our dialogical ventures:

INTERVIEW: DECEMBER 3, 2013 Enzina DeRobbio Sammartino 253

KM: Hi Enzina, my name is Karl Martin and I am researching a person who graduated from Pembroke. I understand you were a graduate of Pembroke.

ES: Yes, I am a graduate of Pembroke. Who are you asking about?

KM: Marya Barlowski.

ES: Oh Yes, she died. Marya died - she was in my class but she passed away

I do remember her – very smart! And very quiet.

KM: She was quiet?

ES: Very quiet AND very bright!

KM I talked with her sister who also attended Pembroke. They were from

Olneyville. Do you know that area?

ES: Oh yes, I know it. They lived in Olneyville, well they lived near a section where there were a lot of Polish people, and there was a Polish meeting place where they all had their weddings and their parties and all, and she lived in that section.

KM: She was very talented-you mentioned that she was very bright

ES: Very bright, very bright, EXTREMELY bright

ES: I kinda, see, I didn’t know that, but I knew Marya, and she would be, you know, a kind of a person who was so (sighs)…caring and sweet, yeah.

KM: And you remember – was she very musical, did she sing?

ES: I was very musical, all the way. I majored in music but, my voice was my main instrument- I trained my voice, and I was always in some kind of a choir or glee club. We and even traveling to Harvard to perform) 254

KM: Any Marya was in glee club?

ES: , I believe she was in the Glee Club but I don’t remember specific

conversations. Anyway, that’s what I remember.

Glee Club, 1943. Brun Mael. Enzina, front, in plaid dress. Marya immediately behind, on left. [Digital image]. (n.d.).

KM: So you don’t remember conversations with her?

ES: Not really, no, no. I’m ninety-one now, you know? And there were a few

things along the way this year I will be ninety-one on January 7th, and I’ve noticed

that there are a few little things that I do not remember and I am having a hard

time accepting it.

KM: God bless you, you sound great! 255

ES: Yeah, I know, I know, I know. People say that, yeah. I hurt myself back in

2008 I fell backwards down the stairs Down seven stairs! My home is a split level so I did a lot of going up and down but I did fall – broke my hip - and did other things my head hit the rug…but I’m not the way I want to be

KM: That will come back slowly but I bet you’re getting better all the time.

ES: I tell myself that, I think you’re doing better. I mean I do that in my head not out loud.

KM: My wife is a psychologist. She says that positive self - talk like that is a great agent in healing.

ES: Well, good, I don’t talk it out loud - only in my head… so many of my friends have passed away - three this summer!

KM: You remember Jean Tanner, yes?

ES: That’s right, of course I do, but I think she’s not too well I’ve been there to visit.

KM: We’re supposed to go out to lunch next summer. Oh, her husband’s name was Knight?

ES: Yeah, but he died –He was a redhead.

KM: But you’ve actually talked with Marya, and can almost picture her?

ES: Oh Yes, she always had a sad face, though. Her hair was kinda sandy-colored and she had a very white, pale face.

KM: She was pretty, and a lovely person?

ES: She was lovely inside and out, yep. 256

KM: That would fit, because others have talked about her kindness. By the way,

she did a Master’s at Smith, studying schizophrenic patients.

ES: You know, as you talk to me. Tell me your name again please. Let me get a

sheet of paper.

KM: Karl Martin. I hope you’ll keep me in mind if you think of other details or

find photographs that are relevant to your days at Pembroke, or Marya herself.

Maybe providence of the 1940’s.

ES: I have her yearbook, you know. And there’s a picture of Marya in it. 1945

They split the year My sister graduated a year after me. Because we had an

accelerated program because of the war, February 25th, June 20th, around June

20th, and October and my sister graduated in October I graduated in February, so she accelerated two summers, and I only accelerated one summer. I was just explaining that was during the war it was a different college then – during the war.

KM: Did you ever correspond with Marya or talk after graduation?

ES: Not really, no, I didn’t

KM: But you’re a person that’s actually seen her in life, studying, living and breathing.

ES: Of course! I can still picture her! Now you said something, you were calling me. Did Jean Tanner give you my number?

KM: No, but I have talked with her. I looked you up from a list of class officers in the Alumni association. Oh, you have an interesting name, by the way. 257

ES: Yes (laughs). It’s Italian. Are you in Rhode Island?

KM: No, we’re in Cleveland. Specifically, a little south of Cleveland, near Kent

State.

ES: Regarding illness, now that you say that she was that kind of a person, too deep, and as you talk about it, I have a grandson, who is so smart, and so bright

(cries a little), who is going through a mental illness, and it’s almost hard to even listen to what you’re saying

KM: I’m so sorry – Is he getting some help?

ES: I think so. He goes to a psychiatrist. He lived in Indiana for a while. He married a girl from there and she divorced him. She got tired of him, and, uh, she wasn’t the best person for him to marry anyway. So, uh, we’re going through that.

He’s going through a bad time now. She divorced him, and He’s with his parents,

I see him quite a bit I am one of his favorites. His Father was here this morning for a while and he’s not reaching out to too many people.

He is seeing someone, and there’s a place in Attleboro for a while. People at the other end of the ruler, some are too bright, and some are stupid, and can’t even talk right. He’s at the high end where you never know what he’s thinking. He’s a sweet boy and always tells me he loves me. Much more than my husband ever told me! (Laughs) And I am still married! Married for over 65 years! Yes! I grew up with this many across the street, he went to Boston College and played football and we’re still together, but not on the best of terms. He’s got an Italian Husband syndrome, and thinks he knows better than I know (laughs). 258

KM: Well, I do hope we can talk again soon. Again, please keep me in mind for photographs or stories. (The connection starts to break up) We’re losing our connection. May I call you right back?

ES: OK, sure. Call me right back. Bye.

Enzina Robbio Sammartino, courtesy Enzina

INTERVIEW: DECEMBER 5, 2013, Enzina Robbio Sammartino

ES: OK, ah...Hello.

KM: Can you hear me?

ES: Yes, I hear you now.

KM: I would be very interested if you could remember some other things about

Marya, of if you had other photographs from the Pembroke days. Oh, and she went to Classical you know. 259

ES: Yeah, she was bright, a very smart young woman. Classical was a good school!

KM: Do you remember any conversations with her?

ES: Not really. She never, never, never talked much. She never sought out friends… To my knowledge, she never did.

KM It did seem like she was in a lot of activities, and the editor of the Record

Herald?

ES: Yes, well she could have been that anything that was...you know, when there was anything to do she took the full responsibility. She was also in the Question

Club.

KM (I describe the letter from the American Philosophical Society where Marya writes to Peyton Rous that a symphony she wrote was accepted by Leonard

Bernstein under the pseudonym of “M. B. Weldon”)

ES: A symphony? (accent on sym, registers surprise)

KM: In it she says that she had correspondence from Leonard Bernstein. I’m sure that you remember him.

ES: Yes, of course I do

KM: The archivist says that there’s no record, that it could be delusional

ES: Yes, I know what you mean

KM: Her neighbor said that she was gifted and could play music 260

ES: I don’t remember that. I don’t remember her instrumental musical talents at

all. But she had good vocal capacities. You had to if you wanted to be in the

Glee Club.

KM: Were you in classes with her?

ES Well, we were in the Glee Club together and I was president for quite a while

and we use to travel to other colleges you know, when we had concerts. We went

to Harvard once…We went to Holy Cross...and then… women’s concerts, you

know, for a men’s and women’s concert you now, because the men and women

were separated in our time.

It was during the war so we did a lot of mending of socks, uniforms...that kinda

stuff. I think she did some of that too. I do remember that.

ES: She was the kind of a person that was so deep…

Mary Foster Cadbury

Mary and I had a few conversations, and she filled me in on her experiences at Pembroke. Her college life was much different from others at Brown because she was a Quaker, opposed to military engagement even during World War II.

Mary Foster Cadbury was a math major, and also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. 261

Mary Foster Cadbury, center, 1944 Brun Mael, p. 96. 262 263

Smith College

An email from Nanci Young, librarian and archivist at Smith

College, followed the retrieval of Marya’ s research at Greystone Park:

Dear Karl, I've attached a PDF of descriptions of the courses Barlowski was required to take as a student of the Smith College School for Social

Work for the years 1945-1947. As I believe I noted before, the SSW curriculum has students come to Northampton to spend an intensive 2 session summer program, and then the students are placed in a number of field assignments to get hands-on clinical experience. I'm afraid we have no further information in the records of the School, other than the thesis you requested, on her work at the Greystone Park, NJ institution. I hope the attached is helpful to your research. Sincerely, Nanci (N. Young, personal communication, May 28, 2015). 264

I’m including a few selective bulletin entries which provide clues as to the direction of Her vocational calling, perhaps even a vivification of the spirit of social work. For example, course number “150” was taught collaborative, and one of the professors was one Dr. Putnam, none other than the daughter of James Jackson Putnam, the physician who originally brought and to the United States.

From the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute website: “Dr. Marian Cabot

Putnam founded and became a co-director (along with Beata Rank) of the James Jackson

Putnam Children’s Center in 1943, naming it in honor of her father, Dr. James Jackson

Putnam. She established the Putnam Center in order to provide treatment of pre-school and very young children.”

Bulletin, Smith College 1945-46, p.

It can be confidently reported that Marian and Marya connected well. Her scholarship and professionalism translated into an internship and subsequent employment at the Putnam Children’s Center. On page eight special lecturers are listed, and the

Children’s Center connection is confirmed. 265

Nanci has been reluctant to share personal transcripts from Smith College, but placed an “x” next to the classes Marya took as a prerequisite to her field experience and subsequent research:

Dear Karl: I'm afraid you've been given a bum steer about access to

Maya's academic records. I spoke with the School for Social Work

registrar, and the policy there is to provide access to transcripts only to

family members, even if the person is deceased. I'm sorry you were given

conflicting information. I'm still working with my 'mojo' with Library

colleagues to gain access to the Mary Elizabeth Jolley thesis. Because of

the move, the thesis collection has been closed off to regular access. I

appreciate your patience! Best wishes, Nanci (N. Young, personal

communication, January 18, 2017). 266

Course Number “140” points to similarities between social process and interactions in

social work leadership and collaborative leadership in the discussion of the third fold.

Greystone Park Asylum

The site of Her field experiences, Greystone Park must have seemed like another world to Marya. Located in New Jersey, the asylum was situated on an immense campus.

All visitors, new patients, interns – everyone except regular staff - were required to register at the Kirkbride Building. 267

The origins of the hospital were based upon the collective vision of Dorthea Dix

and Thomas Kirkbridge. Dorthea documented the living conditions of the mentally

handicapped, enabling legislation called The Bill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane,

setting aside 12,000,000 of federal land for construction of asylums. An advocate of the

mentally handicapped who “often lived out their lives in poorhouses, warehoused in

prisons, or worse” (Tagliareni & Mathews, 2016, p. 11). If she was the driving force

behind the attitudes toward the mentally handicapped, Thomas Kirkbridge was behind the

design and construction of the building and campus that provided, in their intrinsic form,

the recovery of patients from large windows, fresh air and beautiful views and vistas.

The name “Greystone” was given the facility when Marya was born, in 1925, resulting

from the Grey gneiss from which it was quarried and built. Greystone literally “grew”

out of the ground, because the rock was quarried out of the same site as the construction.

Master’s Dissertation

Her research - her foundational philosophy and professional awakening – grew out of her internship and subsequent research involving her experiences at Greystone. An abstract of her entire research from problem statement to conclusion was shared with me by the archivist at Ohio State, valuable because Marya did the writing in 1948:

Marya Ann Barlowski (New Jersey State Hospital, Greystone Park, N.J.).

Appraisal of a Clinical Pastoral Training Program, Part III 268

The aim of this part of the study of the clinical pastoral training program was to appraise the various aspects of the students' contacts with psychotic patients, to see in what way the visits were conducted, and whether the standards established by the Council and the hospital for these contacts were upheld.

A representative sample of patients who were diagnosed as psychotic and who were visited by the students was drawn from the case records kept by the students. Fifty-eight records, illustrating the work of S4 students, were examined, and additional information about the patients was obtained from hospital records. Thirty-one patients were in the dementia praecox group, 14 were in the manic - depressive group, and the remaining 13 patients represented diagnoses of involutional psychosis, alcoholic psychosis, psychosis with mental deficiency, paranoid condition, psychosis with cerebral arteriosclerosis, and psychosis with convulsive disorder. Forty-seven of the patients were male and 11 were female and represented a wide age range and variety of ethnic stocks. The average length of time in the hospital for the patients before being studied by the students was three months. Approximately two-thirds of the patients were described as being inaccessible for interviewing purposes. Most of the patients studied by the theological students appreciated the regular visits.

The diagnoses of the patients and their accessibility for interviewing purposes had no connection with their attitudes toward the students; how- 269

ever, the patients in a stuporous condition seemed to benefit especially from the students' visits. The effectiveness of the visits for the patients was related to the method of interviewing used by the students and to the students' attitudes.

Nearly all the students used, to some degree, the probing method of interviewing, which was forbidden in the rules established by the Council and the hospital. Only seven instances of the approved listening method were found. The majority of the students, however, appeared to have an accepting, friendly attitude toward the patients. The visits of the students were appreciated most when the listening method of interviewing and accepting attitude were shown.

The records revealed that few students had adequately interpreted their role to the patients. In nearly half the cases, the students introduced the discussion of religion, which was prohibited in the training standards.

There was little evidence of the students' interpretation of the hospital to the patients or to relatives of the patients. There was seldom indication in the records that the students had prepared the patients for the termination of the visits. In only three of the cases studied was there mention of students' contacts with the hospital psychiatrist regarding the patients visited.

It was concluded that more careful supervision of the students' contacts with the patients is needed in order to control the methods of interviewing, 270

the subjects discussed with the patients, and the students' attitudes toward

the patients. A better integrated, cooperative working program with the

hospital staff would also appear to strengthen the effectiveness of the

students' contacts with the psychotic patient (Barlowski, M. (1947)

Abstracts of theses: Smith College for Social Work, 1947, 2009, pp. 154-

155).

Since the typewriter is emblematic of the sepia-toned 1940s, I am providing photographs of Her typewritten manuscript. The archivist at Smith, Nanci Young, couldn’t understand why I wanted high - resolution scans of her dissertation. I explained that anything less would remove the “soul” of the writing. I pictured her placing a sheet of white paper into the machine, the uncertainty of expression of thought. Thierry

Guitard reviewed Wesrschler-Henry’s description of the process of typing: “As long as we were feeding paper into a typewriter, this anxiety was still present in our minds, and was revealed in the pointillism of Wite-Out, and even in the dapple of letters that were darker, pressed in confidence, as opposed to the lighter ones, pressed more hesitantly”

(2007, April 9, ¶ 11). 271

Barlowski, M., 1947, p. 3 272

p. 11 273 274 275 276

Segment of Dissertation [Marya Barlowski, 1947, p. 27]. (n.d.).

Her research represents part three in a collaborative research endeavor, and well- described in the above statement by the researcher herself. I wonder if Marya knew that in subsequent years a celebrity would become a patient at Greystone. Photographer

Phillip Buehler published a book about patient Woodie Guthrie – Wardy Forty - describing his five years there, from 1955-1961. Somewhat visionary in its conception, it set a new paradigm for books about photography. “He discovered that Guthrie had spent five years at Greystone in the 1950s and 1960s, when the singer was incapacitated by 277

Huntington’s Disease. He leaned that a young Bob Dylan visited Greystone to meet his

idol” (Crager, 2014, p. 50). Interestingly, the printing was done by Meridian Publications

in West Greenwich, Rhode Island.

Technically - more than technically – Woodie was not a patient at Greystone. He

was incarcerated. Whether through iron bars or medication – or worse – perhaps

Greystone was not so much a manifestation of progress with improved understanding of

mental illness and all its symptoms and conditions. There is a lot of literature that pairs

creativity and brilliance with psychopathology. Foucault devoted writings to madness,

the sciences and punishment, among others: “Madness was not made from the court of

modern reason, madness was not judged to be inextricably associated with unreason – on

the contrary in the late Middle Ages and in the Renaissance period madness was

associated with particular sacred forms of knowledge to provide insights into the human

condition” (Smart, 1985, p. 20). Reader, is it possible that Her narrative and biography represents pushback to the pairing of madness and unreason? Is it possible that she was illuminating even in illness, “disrupting the rhythms of collective life” (p. 21) during her awakening and vocational calling? Her patients at Greystone, Columbus, Boston and

Rhode Island were generally poor. Was their condition often – if not always - attached to negative connotations due to their inability to make money for others; to work? We must consider Greystone and like institutions to be examples of this type of exclusion.

Cinematic endeavors such as A Beautiful Mind and King of Hearts come to mind. The latter, with Genevieve Bujold and Alan Bates perfectly illustrates the points above. The patients of a “lunatic asylum” are freed for a day in a French village during World War I. 278

They assume professional and vocational “roles” in the town when left to be blown up by the Germans. The overriding message was that the insane were more enlightened, compassionate and evolved than the others. They were saner.

The research points below reflect these sensibilities, that the hero of the writing reveals awakening, capacity-building and even fortitude during an era where there were fewer opportunities for women. Through an allegorical presence, it is hoped that indicators of Her scholarship and vocation provide provocative understandings of lead learning, helping us envision an awakening of identity. Perhaps pragmatic artistry is evident in her collaborative work, in her imagined currere essay. My peer reviewer Jen

Lowers distilled the following bullet points from my problem statement, and they well describe and restate the inquiry.

Restatement of the Research Questions

• Her story / biographical narrative is a lead-learning allegory for

curriculum workers.

• Despite her personal struggles, she was an intrinsically motivated lead

learner in the field of psychiatric social work.

• Allegory has always been connected to awakening (ex: Plato’s the

Allegory of the Cave)

• Awakening is a precursor for capacity-building

• Deleuze even used an allegory (the Baroque house) to illustrate the

concept of the fold, in order to increase the likelihood of an intellectual

awakening among his readers. 279

• An excellent example of intrinsic motivation.

• Her story helps people to see that leadership has always been around, and

that it requires bravery and courage to be a leader because it often

demands being a non-conformist in society.

• My dissertation also has the potential to awaken educators as lead

professionals for democratic ways of living, by providing them with a

more vivid image of what lead learning actually looks like.

• Highly compatible with the fold, 3S pedagogy, and Dr. Henderson’s

leadership process.

Intrinsic Motivation

Written reflectively by Dewey, appendix II of The Dewey School (1936) entitled

The Theory of the Chicago Experiment offers insights into Dr. Henderson and colleagues’

“fourfold process.” He contends “that the theoretical platform for the new book's educational problem solving is a current hermeneutic update of Dewey's 1936 theorizing with an assist from his 'purpose-experience-organization-evaluation' gestalt. Since it's a new theory (based, of course, on 'old' theory tracing back to the 1896 founding of the

Chicago school and its subsequent national dissemination), not much is known about this necessary intrinsic motivation” (personal communication, July 26, 2017). A premise of their new book is that only educators with "intrinsic motivation" (as defined by Daniel

Pink) will be willing to study and practice this type problem solving. I am engaging in a biographical examination that is designed to provide critical insights into such intrinsic motivation. 280

It is a compelling topic, since motivation holds the answer to human learning, both inside and outside the classroom. Intrinsic motivation has the topic or activity interesting in its own right, and extrinsic deriving from external sources. For example, a learner/student may have a strong personal interest in a subject. A writer may be willing to go to great ends, amassing countless hours researching what he/she considers to be an improvement upon what has previously been examined. Marya was much like that in her scholarship, highly motivated and proficient in the study of Greek and Latin.

“A related concept, which is also relevant to type of learning, is locus of control.

Studies (e.g., Rotter, 1975) have shown that learners who perceive themselves to be in control of their learning situation tend to cope better that those who see themselves as pawns in the teaching machine. Furthermore, studies of failure (e.g., Holt, 1984), often reveal a vicious circle, in which following repeated failures, a learner adopts a passive learning strategy or maybe some coping strategy that downplays learning at the expense of some more attainable goal (sport, disruption, truancy, etc.)” (Nicolson & Fawcett,

2008, p. 64).

It seems to be a common critical insight that if learning is made to be fun, students/people will try harder, concentrate more, and “do better” in a holistic manner.

Simply put, children and adults learn more when they are enjoying themselves. Did the teachers at Manton Elementary, O. H. Hazard Junior High, Classical High and Brown

University put more into their teaching and learning during those times than we usually attribute? They certainly did at Classical and Brown. Please read on. 281

The Setting

Historically, 1930 was an auspicious year to begin elementary school. The

Roaring Twenties were officially over, the stock market had crashed and schools and society were about to undergo more changes. A young researcher named Ralph Tyler was 28 years old, beginning his foray into the business of linking assessment and evaluation to education. A lot has been written about the Tyler Rationale, and he has been deservedly well – vilified. Some humanizing is deserved, in the sense that he probably believed he had the best interests of young learners at heart. What do we know about Tyler, and what were the historical contexts from which he emerged and developed?

He was the son of a Methodist clergyman, and grew up in the Midwest. “Tyler spent a year teaching high school science in Pierre, South Dakota, to a markedly diverse group of students, some the children of unlettered farm workers, others the children of civil servants. Fascinated by the challenge of teaching, in 1922 he enrolled as a master's degree student in education at the University of Nebraska and earned his master's degree in 1923.”

In the early 1930s as the Depression filled the public high schools with youth who would previously have foregone the classroom for the workforce, the Progressive

Education Association devised a study to determine how curricula could be adapted to the demands posed by a larger and more diverse cohort of students. Tyler, who combined proficiency with statistical methods and a firm grounding in progressive theories of curriculum design, was enlisted in 1933 to head the Evaluation Staff of what became 282

known as the Eight-Year Study. This national study involved thirty high schools, both

public and private. Almost every major accredited college in the nation agreed to accept

the schools' evaluative records instead of the scores of conventional college-entrance

examinations, thus freeing the schools to explore innovative courses of study.

The story of public schooling in the 1930’s might synthesize a great deal of data. The

great depression and accompanying demographic and financial trends hit Providence

schools quite hard, and had an interesting effect on classroom practices, “which tended to

reflect persistent local differences, and, therefore, to remain highly diverse” (Lagemann,

1985, pp. 507-507).

Educational Theory and Experience, a Curriculum

Walker and Soltis (2009) believe that curriculum should not be a written document to be given an occasional cursory glance. They write that it is a living, vital and integral part of a school. “It is the purposes, content, activities and organization inherent in the educational program of the school and in what teachers offer in their classrooms” (p. 1). Nonetheless, Classical did have a written list of aims and general philosophy. I discovered one of the historical versions in May of 2016.

A yellowed page was sandwiched in a drawer between sheaves of waxy paper in “The Cage,” the most subterranean of the Classical High School archives. Consisting of two well-constructed paragraphs, much can be inferred from this historic vision of Classical High. The result of curriculum leadership 283

meetings following the Great Depression, it ominously begins with an overview of “objectives.” Drafted well in advance of the analysis of the Eight Year Study and the subsequent release of Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction by

Ralph Tyler, the organizing principles seek to preserve unity and order as an answer to the chaotic realm of educational practice. His National Assessment work would come later, in the 1960s, but Tyler was always concerned with instructor’s objectives and “evaluation” to investigate what students were learning. Tyler describes his motivations to involvement with the Eight Year

Study, after the marker crash of 1929 and his arrival at Ohio State University.

“People were worried about their material losses and blamed much of it on the banks, the government and the schools. The newspapers were reporting how bad the schools were, and a big conference was held in 1933 on ‘The Crisis in

Education: Will the Schools Survive?’” (Nowakowski, 1982, p. 24). Tyler left

Ohio for the University of Chicago in 1938. When he began, educational evaluation was connected to curriculum work, and it seems that Tyler is fine with that. He believed that evaluation was a healthy evolution of all professional fields. As research becomes more clinical, evaluation reflects more on what the learner is doing. Children’s learning, then, was the guise that Tyler used to advance his instrumentalism. The “Tylerian” research process was even making its way into Her chosen vocation. It’s almost as if he wanted accountability and assessment to govern all professions: “The same problem exists with social work; social workers sometimes think of clients as having no minds of their own. But 284

when, for instance, people discover that money can be had for aid to dependent children, some are tempted to say, ‘That’s a way to make my living. I will just have more children and get more money’” (Nowakowski, 1983, p. 27).

Tyler exploits the problem-solving of John dewey to underwrite his own models of objectives and assessments, but it’s a vulgar type of pragmatism. He speculates about employment of mothers, “illegitimate children” and transitioning from youth to adult life. There is a lot of blaming and finger-pointing, but it’s difficult to find compassion, love and empathy in the words of Ralph Tyler.

Instead, I see an educator acknowledging the paternity of his assessment models, and ample opportunities for behavioral scientists. John Dewey is sidelined, unless he is commandeered as part of a classification scheme, a taxonomy that seeks to over-clarify curriculum work into descriptive banality, i.e., “common sense” replacing discourse. In the midst of this morass, Dewey was in evidence at

Classical, and probably still is.

Curriculum workers at Classical were well aware of the work of Dewey, and cautiously attempted to maintain both rigor and relevance. Teachers had agency in the design of curriculum. Classical was an institution that existed above the ongoing battle between progressive and traditional educators. E. D.

Hirsh (1997) suggested that Antonio Gramsci believed that children should master traditional knowledge as a means to “understand the worlds of nature and culture,” and “held that political progressivism demanded educational traditionalism” (p. 42). 285

PHILOSOPHY of CLASSICAL HIGH SCHOOL

The philosophy of Classical High School may be defined in terms

of its objectives. The school declares the distinct objective of college

preparation through balanced curricula, class discussion, home study and

extensive testing. The entire student body is, therefore, enrolled in the

college preparatory course which permits each student to meet the

particular requirements of the college of his choice.

In addition to preparing the students for college, we believe in

training our youth to live in a democracy. We endeavor not only to foster

the ideals of a democratic society but also to instill a sense of awareness

of spiritual values and ethical conduct. We provide in our academia

curricula, in our extra-curricular activities, and in our physical education

program opportunities to form, nourish and preserve the desirable

individual traits of our students.

This represents a compelling blend of traditional and progressive education, including relationships between democracy and education; a philosophy that relies on true democratic ideals.

Jonathan Ryder, the current Classical High School librarian, was overjoyed at the retrieval of this document. To him, it confirmed what he already knew about the continuing rigor as fits the Classical High School tradition, and also motivations and capacities the teachers and students. He has provided me with an infinite measure of support in this inquiry, and shares my excitement and enthusiasm as I go about my 286

business of sifting through archival materials. The original yellowed document is pictured below. Democracy as seen from a larger perspective is more than a process of government. Democracy becomes a societal ideal of that process nourishing the development of the individual, never fixed or static. Dewey writes that “democracy cannot now depend upon or be expressed in political institutions alone…for democracy is expressed in the attitudes of human beings, and is measured by consequences produced in their lives” (Dewey, 1988, p. 151). Any institutions that hinder this process, whether political or societal, are not in keeping with A Deweyan sense of possibilities for the individual. “We need a pedagogy which shall lay more emphasis upon securing in the school the gradual conditions of self-expression and the gradual evolution of ideas in and through the constructive activities…” (Mayhew & Edwards, 1936, p. 462).

Classical High’s short curriculum statement indicates what the aims and values of

Classical are, and how they hope they will be achieved. 287

Classical High School Philosophy Statement, circa 1935. Courtesy Classical High School Library. [Digital image]. (n.d.).

The Question Club

It’s valuable to describe the climate of early 10940’s Pembroke College with a narrative constructed from interviews of an undertaking of the Pembroke Center at 288

Brown University. Most of the interviews were conducted in the late 1980s, and I’ve interviewed two much later.

Mary graduated one year later than Marcella Fagan. She like, Marya, was a day hop, and her words describe the Pembroke climate well. In the interview, she describes the World

War II effect on education, rationing food and gas and dating practices. I’ve included her reflections about being a commuter and leadership roles for women. The following responses help to encapsulate what Marya experienced at Pembroke:

I remember feeling very, very important that I was going to be a freshman

at Brown. Frightened because of the academic pressures but knowing that

I was going to be doing something important. I was a city student. A

dayhop as we were called. My family lived on Hope Street. At the other

end of Hope Street. As a matter of fact it was 1000 Hope Street. Almost to

the Pawtucket city line. In those days you could buy what we called a

street card. There were streetcars then not patent buses and you could buy

a streetcar pass for a dollar. And the dorm girls because they were here all

the time really ran the class. They were the class officers. They were

always the ones who chaired the dances. Were head of whatever. We

didn't do that. We were active but we didn't have the cohesiveness as a

group to elect one of us to something. To a prominent position or an

officership of an organization or whatever whereas they did. They would

get together and almost to a man vote for one particular individual. It was

very obvious that's what was going on but we either were too naive or 289

didn't care. I'm not sure. We had at that time-and I am sure it was in the

system longer- an organization called the question club. And it comprised

the seniors who were heads of all the various organizations on campus.

That was the prestige group.

MCKLVEEN: What did they do?

FAGAN: Well they were head of the , they were editor of

the Record, (italics mine) they were editor of this, they were class

president, they were heads of each of the various organizations on campus.

And they formed, as I say, an organization called the question club. And

they wore a little pin and there was a great deal of prestige to be in the

question club but I never made it. Nor interestingly enough, as I

remember, did any of my good friends who were city girls. (M. Fagan,

Class of 1944 [Interview by B. McKlveen], n.d.).

Marya was extremely proud of her membership in the Question Club. For a city girl – a day hop - to achieve that kind of recognition and opportunity for leadership was rare. You were in distinguished company with the other student leaders. The “little pin” worn by members was symbolic of something much larger. Even being a Phi Beta

Kappa didn’t guarantee membership. It was earned by academic excellence and being the head of Student Government Association, Athletic Association, Christian

Association, Glee Club, Brownies, Brownbrokers, Brun Mael, Dormitory Council Herald

Record and War Council. “Each member wears the well-known gold pin, set with pearls, in the shape of a question mark, and these pins are handed down from the outgoing head 290

of an organization to the newly elected president” (Brun Mael, 1945, p. 45). Leadership and teamwork in the major organizations were the keys to membership, pointing to higher causes and service to individuals, school and community.

Question Club, 1944-45 Marya Far Right, p. 45).

Seated at left is Enzina DeRobbio Sammartino, president of the Glee Club, who passed away two years ago. Her interviews and reflections have been included. Enzina wanted to talk about her story also; her marriage, career and family. It was illuminating to me. For example, I had no conception of the professionalism and camaraderie of the

Glee Club . There were concerts and competitions that required many rehearsals and travel, and this was just for one organization. Student leaders were often engaged with many organizations on campus, which I’m told was the “Pembroke way” (Jean Tanner

Edwards, personal communication, August 5, 2016). Enzina and I talked often on the 291

phone, and I was hoping to meet her in the summer. It had been a few months since we talked, and I called to see if we could arrange a meeting for the upcoming June. Joe, her husband, answered, and said she had passed. I was fortunate to have known her.

Marya, Brun Mael, 1944 standing top right [Digital image]. (n.d.). 292

Brun Mael, 1944, Marya, bottom row, far left. [Digital image]. (n.d.).

Regarding the members of Phi Beta Kappa, the description says it all. It’s worth repeating in the text: “A searching mind, a curious mind, a mind at ease with books, is the mind of a Phi Bete. Pembroke’s representative group boasts the essential mental qualities, plus a zestful, personable approach to life” (Brun Mael, 1944). 293

Leadership and Vocational Calling:

Journey of Intrinsic Motivation and Capacity-Building, Greystone Park Asylum

Career education was not empirically applied at Classical or Brown. The dean of students engaged in conversation with juniors and seniors at Classical, encouraging the student to examine what they considered a good “fit” for colleges and professions.

Everyone attended college after Classical. At Brown University, it was customary to find a number of faculty mentors with whom to converse regarding graduate school or finding one’s path in life. Marya had many long talks with Dorothy Spofford, the Pembroke librarian and who, her Latin and Greek professors. “I believe that much of career education is misguided, as often career is viewed as some sort of rational choice.

Rationality is part of the process but the soul gradually finds its way in the world and attunes itself to what it feels its life work might be. This often happens through fits and starts (perchings and flights) as the individual might not find his or her life-fulfilling work until midlife or even later” (Miller, 2000, p. 26).

Miller cites Thomas Moore (1992) to illustrate being called to a vocation:

We like to think that we have chosen our work, but it could be more accurate to

say that our work has found us. Most people can tell fate-filled stories of how

they happen to be in their current ‘occupation.’ These stories tell how the work

came to occupy them, to take residence. Work is a vocation: we are called to

it…Finding the right work is like discovering your own soul in the world ( p. 26).

Psychiatric social work found Marya. Her problem-solving abilities and intellect

dovetailed with a warmth and compassion, a sense of humanity, and she applied to

Columbia and Smith. Accepted at both, she chose Smith for its intimate 294

setting/philosophy as opposed to a major urban setting. As part of the

requirements for a master’s degree in psychiatric social work, Marya interned at

an asylum in New Jersey, Greystone Park. Her research culminated in a lengthy

dissertation dedicated to facilitating interactions with psychotic patients.

Smith College graduate degrees. Marya and Lena Beck were involved in collaborative research, working closely together. [Digital image]. (n.d.).

James Jackson Putnam Children’s Center

Her history becomes more elusive later in life, but a colleague was able to uncover some vocational threads seminal to the research. Involved her work in Boston during the first half of the 1950s, this new information pointed to contributions and influences of her calling. It began with an email from Kathy Cadwell:

How long was Marya a social worker at the James Jackson Putnam Child

Center in Boston...Boston city directory lists her in 1951 and 1952 and

shows John Barlowski as the homeowner at 2 Allen Place, Boston...but he

is long since deceased by then. Maybe Lillian would know if they owned 295

a home in Boston. Directories tended to include quite accurate

information...spelling error once in a while (K.M. Cadwell, personal

communication, July, 25, 2013).

Working with children of chronic or severe mental illness must have been an ongoing challenge to even the most dedicated psychiatric personnel, and this new information presented an interesting fold in her narrative. The challenges social workers experience in the mental health system on a daily basis impacts their attitudes and motivations, but this introduced the promise of specializing in children’s psychiatric work. I believe that many of her contributions to twentieth century psychiatric social work were unheralded. It’s likely that leadership, example and service were Her strengths. Professionals in the field were likely impressed with her work, as indicated by her employment and leadership with elite schools and institutions.

Basic questions about the function of social casework emerged at that time in history. At the core was whether the caseworker was indeed engaged in psychotherapy

“Fritz Schmidl (1950) writes “During the last few years hardly anything has been as much the subject of discussions among social workers and interested in social work as the line of demarcation between social work and psychiatry” (p. 765). The overlapping of social work and psychotherapy was evidentiary at the Putnam Children’s

Center. Theories were developed to meet the needs of psychiatrists and social workers who carry the responsibility of making the best use of the social worker in a psychiatric clinical team (Schmidl, 1950, p. 765). Leadership and service was a dynamic, democratic problem-solving endeavor with psychiatrists and psychiatric social workers participating 296

intensively in the process of diagnostic study and responsibilities for treatment. Whether this was a regular practice in mental hygiene clinics, it can be stated that there was an overlapping of psychiatry and social work, and that Marya was engaged in the field at that time. Schmidl (1950) cautions that we should see the profession as in flux, an emerging discipline, and that an all-embracing definition is too rigid: “It may be better to enjoy the flexibility of being young rather than seek the dignity, but often relative rigidity, of the “mature age” (p. 775).

I believe this points to a Deweyan problem-solving paradigm, allowing for change as new scholarship, research and practices come to light. This is my interpretive feeling, that this is a positive point of view “Why do scholars interpret the past in the way they do? Scholars work in the present to think through the past. This is a complex undertaking. What is the relation between the present and the past, between working in the now and thinking about the “then” of history” (Morris, 2016, p. 23).

Awakening

If one loosens up her perceptions and prejudices of the present – day, this is when

“awakening” occurs. When one seeks out opportunities for excellence that are completely new, inquiring into what are the best means to help children and families due to substance abuse, that’s awakening. When a person teaches herself how to insulate children from trauma and make their environment as comfortable and safe as possible, that’s awakening. When working with other professionals serving “atypical” children

(known now as autism or autism spectrum disorder), designing therapies and 297

interventions for child and family, this is an inward quest as well as outside – a journey that tests your character.

Her scholarship led to her informed practice of serving patients in New Jersey with psychoses, later specializing in the treatment of children in Massachusetts, Ohio and

Rhode Island. Her goal of treatment was to help a patient become free of symptoms (or able to manage them) and enable them to live a normal and constructive life.

The James Jackson Putnam Children’s Center eagerly recruited Marya to a position of leadership. She was well - credentialed, becoming a growing presence in the field of psychiatric social work. Licensed in four states, her experience with children at

The Ohio State School and The Ohio State University positioned her as someone who had a great deal of expertise and empathy. In addition, she was considered a “team player,” working well with psychiatrists, parents, patients and other social workers. She was Ivy

– League educated with down-to-earth methods of communication and collaboration.

The concept of “teamwork” in social work and other disciplines had been evolving during the 1940’s onward. The social sciences were developing increasingly large bodies of knowledge, and more specialists were needed to achieve an objective.

Interprofessional cooperation had become essential for social workers working with cooperating groups in medical and psychiatric settings. “Groups working together in service or research so found that a high degree of individual skill was not enough. They could reach their goals only through close cooperation” (Perutz, 1956, p. 1). Olga

Umansky, MLS, is the librarian/archivist for the Hanna Sachs Library and Archives of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. The BPSI archives hold the transcripts 298

of interviews and audio recordings with Marian C. Putnam (1971), Elizabeth Cobb

(1974-1978), Harriet Robey (1984), and Janet Brown (2004, 2011), Sanford Gifford

(2010), and William Eger (2010) concerning Putnam Children’s Center history and activities. Marya was in excellent professional company when her vocational calling took her to the Children’s Center. Frances Tustin was at Putman CC for a year from

1952 - 1953. She became one of the pioneers in the research of autistic children. The

Psychoanalytic Society received their Putnam papers from Dr. Janet Brown, who passed away in 2014. Her interviews are available in the archives. Dr. Brown founded the

James Jackson Putnam Center in honor of her father, a Boston neurologist. In July of

1946 it became an independent treatment facility, specializing in long-term treatment of autistic children. When Dr. Putnam retired in 1962, over 200 atypical children had been treated. “Striving to find the highest potential in each child: “Her compassion for the children, experience, and her professional skills helped her to see many of the fundamental issues these children struggle with in their lives, and the core of their strengths as well as their disabilities” (Boston Globe, May 18, 2014).

Another local connection to the Putnam Children Center is Sophie Freud, the granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. She worked at James Johnson Putnam Children’s

Center as a social worker and donated her portion of the Putnam archives to the

Countway Library of Medicine. She is the author of “Living in the Shadow of the Freud

Family,” and still lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Her grandfather, the founder of psychoanalysis, died in 1939, and it’s intriguing to know that Marya worked in the same capacities at roughly the same time as Sophie. What would their conversations have been 299

like, and what would she have shared about her famous grandfather, the father of modern psychiatry? We can only speculate, because Sophie does not remember Marya. Sigmund

Freud had visited the United States only once, to deliver five lectures in New Jersey.

When he heard that pragmatist William James would attend only one day, he reserved that for the interpretation of dreams and power of the unconscious. Putnam, a prominent neurologist from Boston, was in the audience, and invited him to the family vacation home in the Adirondacks.

While accounts of Freud’s visit have inevitably focused on this

conversation with James, a less-known encounter with another prominent

American scientist would become far more significant — for the two men

and for the future of psychoanalysis in the United States. This person was

James Jackson Putnam, a professor of neurology at Harvard and a leader

of a growing movement to professionalize psychotherapy in the United

States (Hoffman, 2009, ¶ 6).

James was ambivalent, considering Freud a person with “fixed” ideas, not emblematic of problem-solving in object creation. Putnam, however, liked the concept of

“talk therapy,” because it offered a message of possible hope. He promoted Freud’s psychoanalytic methods, later employing Freud’s granddaughter Sophie – and Marya – as psychiatric social workers during the 1950s. They assisted with collaborative leadership in the etiologic inquiries, the cause of a disease or condition. This was followed by diagnostic evaluations, treatment and future interventions in service to young children with emotional and development issues. Tragically, the gradual loss of federal funding 300

for psychiatric treatment and research contributed to the eventual closure of the Putnam

Center. It opened in 1947, when Marya graduated from Smith, and closed in 1979, a few years after her death.

Psychiatric social work as an independent discipline went through a seminal evolution at Putnam, and Marya was part of the changes. Olga Urmansky suggested that

Margaret Davidson’s writing best describes the evolution of service to children and their families.

I forgot to mention that we also have a typescript of Margaret Davidson’s

Social Practice Seminar of March 2, 1971 presented at the Simmons

School of Social Work and devoted to the Putnam Children Center and

“the change”. The 23-page presentation goes over the history of the

Putnam center and explains how they worked with children and what

changed from 1943 to 1970 (personal communication, December 18,

2017).

Thinking that Sophie Freud might add personal insights that would better inform this historiography, Olga provided the following information:

I don’t think I have Sophie Freud’s email address. Perhaps you can write

an old-fashioned letter to her? Here is the contact info I have. We will be

closed next week for the holiday break, but I will try to spend some time

in our archives browsing Putnam files from the 1950s. I doubt Marya will

come up in the photos: all of our photographs come from Janet Brown’s

scrapbook of 1968 and most people are identified. I am attaching 301

Davidson’s report (Olga Urmansky, personal communication, December

20, 2017).

I dialed the number for a week, ready with pad and pencil, with no luck. The answering machine prompted me to leave a message, but the memory was full. I persisted with more calls and got the same result. Finally, one afternoon a woman with an Austrian accent picked up. It was Sophie! We had a comfortable fifteen-minute introductory conversation, and she provided her email address. Sophie laughs often, punctuating conversational points with mirth and exuberance. I sent some photographs and John P. Miller’s thoughts (2000) about the personal journey to life-fulfilling work, and this is how she replied:

Dear Karl, I am not certain that I recognize Marya, but there were a lot of

people at the Center. I was a student at the Putnam Center in the year

1947/48 and later returned there as a part-time worker, 1958-1963. I came

to this country in November of 1942 and started Radcliffe College in

1943. My real love has always been books and literature but as a

relatively new immigrant I could not concentrate on books. Faithful to my

grandfather, clinical social work was the closest I could get to being a

psychoanalyst, i.e. a psychotherapist without medical training. My main

motivation was less in helping folks and more in my interest in hearing

stories. I did adoption work for several years which I enjoyed a lot. At

Putnam they blamed parents for their children's autism, which I thought

even then, was very unfair, and I wrote my Masters Dissertation to 302

disprove that theory. At Putnam the social workers at the time worked

with the parents and the young resident doctors worked with the children.

The most rewarding aspect involved serving the nursery schools for

children in treatment. But my true talent has been as a teacher (later a

professor of social work, at Simmons) much more than a social worker.

Indeed, I have always excelled as a teacher. It was almost accidental that I

found my real talent in that area, in my late 40's, just as your quote

indicates. I spent about 30 years as a professor at Simmons and gave

workshops and taught courses all over the United States and Europe--also

during sabbaticals. Within one year after retirement I joined the Brandeis

Lifelong Learning Institute and continue to teach there, as well as taking

courses. It is a place where Seniors teach each other. My old age pass-

time has been to invent ever new courses to teach. If you want to ask me

specific questions we can do it by e-mail or schedule a telephone call. I

tend to be home most days by 4.00 p.m. But i am not sure I can add much

to your main interest. I wish you great success in your enterprise. Best

wishes for 2018, Sophie.

Never one to give up investigative inquiry, I pressed Olga for further materials that might offer information describing the psychiatric social work and research from the

Putnam Center, as well as situating Marya there. While Kathy Cadwell was never wrong about her genealogical research, I wanted to find empirical proof that Marya began her career at Putnam. Sophie does not remember her, and this presents a mystery. Was 303

Marya personally - and professionally -invisible to others, invested wholly in her missional calling? Where was she?

Then the email arrived from Olga at the Boston Psychiatric Society. Familiar with the shape of her name in script and print, it emblazoned itself in the text.

I am reporting an exciting result: I found Her name listed in the Annual

Report of 1951 (see attached)! This is the only document with her name I

was able to find, but this is better than nothing. Hopefully, you will find

the context of the whole report useful. I also looked at the available

reports before and after 1951. She is not listed on the 1946 report, then we

don’t have reports until 1951 where she shows up, then there is a gap

again. She is not listed among the staff in the 1954 biography files

(attached) and, unfortunately, the 1956 annual report is very brief and does

not list any staff members. A more detailed report of 1960-1961 does not

list her either, but I decided to scan it for you, because it covers the work

of social workers and may include other useful info. As I could see from

various proposals for funding and additional staff in 1946-1947, the

Center hired a lot of new teachers and social workers in the beginning of

the 1950’s. You will see Sophie Lowenstein (Freud) listed among others.

Finally, I am attaching the poems from the Putnam Center Christmas party

of 1951 to give you a sense of the atmosphere. Harriet Robey, one of the

Putnam staff members, wrote and staged these skits at Putnam in the

1940s and 1950s – she donated some of them to us. The poems mention 304

many and psychiatrists and joke about their daily routines. I

did not see Marya mentioned in any of the holiday poems, but I thought I

would send the 1951 anyway. Chances are that Marya was in the

audience!

As to the Putnam Children’s Center, the proof is clearly in evidence. Marya was there, part of the research, theory and practice of psychiatric social work as serving autistic children and their families. I shared this with Sophie Freud, then Sophie

Lowenstein, and her response follows.

Dear Karl, thank you for this annual report which I read with interest. It is

strange that I remember everyone on the staff except Marya. Some of the

people I even knew very well and had longtime connections with them.

Other social workers and doctors came and went. I wrote my Master’s

Thesis on the families of autistic children, then called "children with

atypical development". I wanted to prove that these parents had produced

other healthy children and that the autistic development had nothing to do

with parenting but was an innate condition. But of course, dealing with

such difficult children could create disturbances in the parents. I think 305

mine was quite a good study. I also think the research conducted at the

Putnam Center was hazardous and few publications resulted. But I think

the treatment of the autistic children was imaginative and perhaps

productive. The nursery school was very well conducted. As you can see,

looking back I have mixed feelings about the place, although it was

benevolent. Mrs. Rank had a very complex personality. I was her young

friend and stayed faithful to her, visiting her to the end as only very few

persons did. She deteriorated in her older years and it seems she could not

get along with any home health aids in her house. So they transferred her

from her huge house on Brattle Street to a private nursing home, with her

own little apartment. It was quite a sad and lonely ending, but the whole

psychoanalytic community came to her funeral.

You have reminded me of these long-ago days. Be well, Sophie (S. Freud,

personal communication, February 3, 2018).

She probably was in attendance, and a contributor. The indications are that

Marya avoiding spotlights at that juncture in her life. Like a relatively new teacher, she was immersed in learning her new vocation. For example, beginning teachers face challenges as to being prepared for increasing ethnic and socioeconomic student diversity. It’s likely that Marya was well-prepared to enter her profession and excel in the calling of social work, but no amount of academic preparation could have prepared her for working with autistic children and their families. Psychiatric social work as a 306

discipline required expertise, empathy and enthusiasm. Collaborative lead-learning was in evidence from the start, but then it was called “interdisciplinary collaboration.”

Children’s Bureau Leadership. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC- DIG-hec-05755

The social work umbrella covered many specialties and subdivisions, and during the 1920s a split between “medical and psychiatric social work occurred as a result of a variety of influences, including Freudianism and the trend toward professional specialization” (Ruth & Marshall, 2017, p. 1). Marya enjoyed hands-on experience with adult asylum patients as part of her residency requirements. It is likely that she had to immerse herself in further individual study and inquiry to compliment the experience, including mentoring from the psychiatrists.

Ohio State and Ohio State School for Social Work (1959-1960)

At some point during the latter half of the 1950s, Ohio State University and the

Ohio State School were interested in her leadership, scholarship and insights into the practice of psychiatric social work. Mary spent over a year in Ohio, helping set up the

Ohio State school for children with her gifts and skills developed over a decade of 307

practice. Moreover, she engaged in curriculum leadership during that time, collaborating with psychiatrists, social workers, professors and nurses. The focus at Columbus was generally directed towards children, which had become somewhat of a “specialty” for her. Marya had gained valuable experience at Putnam, but she was an “easterner.” I try to envision the ride out to Ohio from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The familiarity would dissolve as she crossed the Hudson River. Perhaps she thought about Henry

Hudson and his crew as she crossed over on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, built in built in

1935 by the newly formed New York State Bridge Authority. Named after the 1819 short story by Washington Irving, the west side is the location of my father’s hometown,

Kingston, New York. Perhaps she reflected about that. Once the westward journey began in earnest, there were the Allegheny Mountains to cross, and more major rivers.

The interstate networks were incomplete. On a Greyhound bus, it seemed like you had to stop in every town of decent size. The leveling out of the landscape occurred just before entering Ohio, and the final leg into Columbus must have intensified the unfamiliarity.

Columbus State School

It’s appropriate to pay tribute to Her mentor at the Columbus State School, Roger

M. Gove. His obituary says a lot about the type of person he was, and Marya was his sole psychiatric social worker from 1959-1960. Marya worked with families and children, and Roger Gove was her mentor. 308

Dr. Gove was key MRDD leader [Dateline Newsletter, December 2006]. (n.d.).

helped teach the community-based classes. Consider, please, the possibility that Marya is

engaged in collaborative lead-learning with accompanying benefits in the following

photographs. Is there is evidence that collaborative lead-learning is in progress? Recently

Jen Lowers and I examined the vision of lead-learning as described by James G.

Henderson. Lead-learning that takes place among two or more lead learners can provide curriculum workers with the opportunity to be introduced to new authors and, therefore,

new ideas. The vision incorporated into the Columbus State School utilized precisely that

as a paradigm for assisting children with mental illness and their families. An

interdisciplinary professional staff reviewed individual cases in conjunction with their

philosophical grounding and mission. It was a collaborative endeavor, making a 309

welcoming place for those children admitted to the Columbus State School Reception and

Diagnostic Center. Marya and the other lead learners were intrinsically motivated to make the process as least threatening and welcoming as possible.

Collaborative lead learning is highly conducive of capacity building, and their vocational calling inspired these professionals to build the capacities of their patients.

Since Lead-learning gives one the opportunity to learn from others and to be exposed to information that you may not otherwise experience, this allowed them to make valuable connections among their ideas and the needs of the children and families who greatly depended on them. If collaborative lead-learning truly opens your mind to connections that exist in our universe, the professional staff were visionaries. To sum up, professional learning organizations were established at all levels to provide the best possible environments for the themselves and those they served. 310

Motive Magazine, 1959, p. 15.

Please regard the photograph above and consider what it represents. Both the reader and I know it is an image of Marya. It says so. It’s possible that by this juncture, neither author nor reader has any doubt as to the identity of the personage in the dark suit, back to camera. We have seen enough images to make an empirical judgement based on previous sensory experiences. Frank X. Ryan describes hermeneutics as “going around” a thing to understand it, and that’s what this process, in part, has been about. You and I 311

have a job to do. We have to “go around” this two-dimensional image that we regard as dead, or fixed. The photograph presents an opportunity for inquiry. The constraints of time have no control over ideas.

“An essential feature of this undertaking is building public and professional intellectual capacity. Think ‘learning organization’ and widen the circle to include parents, teachers, administrators, students, and community members. The quality of that collective, intellectual, moral, and social development is key. Within the myriad of interactions between humans, we share an overarching concern for the way we stand in relation to each other, and in relation to ourselves” (Henderson, p. 70).

The Ohio State University School of School of Social Administration Bulletin Graduate Program: Issue for 1959-1960 Sessions. Volume LXIII, July 15, 1959, No. 25. Marya and Roger Gove listed at bottom of page. Published by the University at Columbus, p. 10. [Digital image]. (n.d.). 312

Ralph Tyler and Ohio State

Ralph Tyler was on the faculty of Ohio state from 1929 to 1938. He was known as the “father of instructional objectives;” part of their “tradition of excellence.” Ellen

Lageman’s The Elusive Science states “During his time at Ohio State, Tyler concluded that formulating objectives was instrumental to instructional success” (Lageman, 2000, p.

144). As a result of Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, learning objectives are supposed to be linear and measurable. Teaching this way is stifling, even more boring than it sounds. The teacher is reduced to an employee who facilitates the juggling of three components: planning, instruction and assessment. Teaching and learning professionals who try to take their calling beyond the ordinary face an uphill battle.

Lagemann (2000) considers the low esteem of educational scholarship and practice, identified nearly seventy years ago by Richard Hofstadter, as tragic: “Anti-educationism is a compound of all the qualities Hofstadter saw in anti-intellectualism – especially a skepticism toward intellect and a preference for instrumental knowledge, know-how, over less purposive reflection, speculation or pondering” (p. xii).

The Ohio State University

Kevlin Haire has done her best to field my inquiries over the space of four years.

She was able to find information placing Marya in Columbus.

In the .pdf file you sent me, it’s actually the Columbus State School that is

featured in those pages, and in the OSU course bulletin I sent you awhile

back, the Columbus State School is included in the list of Field Instruction 313

Agencies. I’m assuming those were agencies that would take OSU

students for their internships or practicums. In any case, those have been

digitized, and when I did a search for Her name, I found a bulletin in

which she is listed, the 1959-60 edition, and sshe is listed as a Supervisor.

I think her connection to OSU is that she supervised OSU interns. Best,

Kevlin (K. Haire, personal communication, September 27, 2016).

We later concurred that Marya must have had a more expansive role in the coordination of the Ohio State School of Social Work and the Columbus State School.

Rhode Island Social Work and Subsequent Illness

By the time the narrative moves back to Rhode Island, there are few empirical indicators of Her engagement in psychiatric social work. There are even fewer regarding her health. In both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, personal records are accessible only to family until fifty years after an individual’s death. I have discovered that archivists, librarians, funeral directors and medical examiners are real people, and when a relationship is established and nurtured the information conduit occasionally opens. I will share what has been made available with the reader. CHAPTER V.

CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, & SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

The focus of this research has generally been invested in exploring hermeneutics and pragmatism with reference to “historiography” (Morris, 2016). The inquiry project incorporates elements of biographical narrative, currere (Pinar, 2012) and case study of

Marya Barlowski. Her educational excellence led her to become a lead professional in her field of psychiatric social work, also developing and teaching the curriculum and practice of social work. Through continual biographical examination of Her vocational calling for possibilities a vision of Deweyan - inspired educational artistry, this historiography has hoped to awaken something different from the habitual educational discourse. In addition, biographical narrative might be a model to envision educational futures that stands as an alternative to standardization, accountability, and the legacy of

Ralph Tyler.

314 315

Senior Photograph and Inscription [Classical High school Caduceus]. (n.d.). 1941

When a 1941 Classical High Caduceus becomes available for sale I purchase it,

and there is always a moment of hopeful anticipation when it is unwrapped and opened.

The fabulous artifact pictured above was the latest discovery. Literary archaeology

reconstructs the past by piecing together source fragments such as this. Her senior

photograph reflects the superlatives of four years at Classical overlaid with a message in

her own hand. The yearbook was originally owned by Elizabeth Murray, who had just

completed her sophomore year. A signature from the class valedictorian and Ideal

Classicalite would have been highly prized.

One can easily imagine the moment; a meeting in the halls or choir room, smiles

exchanged, a thoughtful reminiscence that points towards support of a demanding

educational institution. The inscription reflects the personality of both pen and writer,

with emphasized areas a bit bolder, punctuated with a lyrical signature. Colleagues have

described it as “perfect even in its imperfections.” She was active in Classical High

leadership before the Alumni Association was founded, espousing the same loyalty and

dedication through active service. The education Marya received at Classical

encompassed a rigorous study of Latin, Greek, calculus, history, biology, chemistry and 316

civics in addition to extra-curricular activities, sports and clubs. Marya has been both biographical subject and purposeful sample in this currere case study.

Introduction

James G. Henderson, Jennifer Schneider and Dan Castner are curriculum workers involved with leadership envisioned and embodied in Collegial Curriculum Leadership

Process (CCLP). Their work, “embedded in dynamic, open-ended folding, is a recursive, multiphased process supporting educators with a particular vocational calling”

(Henderson, 2017). The four key Deleuzian “folds” of the process explore “awakening” to become lead professionals for democratic ways of living, cultivating repertoires for a diversified, holistic pedagogy, engaging in critical self-examinations and critically appraising their professional artistry. The “reactivation” of the lived experiences, scholarship, writing and vocational calling of Marya have engendered meaning through biographical narrative and currere case study. Grounded in the curriculum leadership

“map,” she represented an allegorical presence in the narrative. Allegory has always been connected to awakening, and awakening is a precursor for capacity-building. The research design (the precise way in which to study this ‘problem’) has been a combination of historical narrative and currere. This collecting and constructing of

Marya and her story speaks to how the vision of leadership isn’t completely new – threads of it are tied to the past. Her intrinsic motivational indicators as relevant to curriculum leadership have been described and analyzed through her lived experiences, scholarship and writing that all pointed towards her vocational calling. This has also been an imagining of writing a currere of Marya Barlowski for her, on a journey that she 317

couldn’t make herself. It is also important to remember that this inquiry represented, in part, an autobiographical reflection of my educational experiences in the inquiry. The end result of this empirical work is a doubled currere narrative, telling the story of life experiences that connect tangentially to the author. It is hoped that the reading of these autobiographical and biographical narratives and vignettes have begun to inspire readers to consider becoming a lead professional, invested in collaborative lead learning. In addition, perhaps it will inspire their own currere of self-understanding. Her journey of understanding took Marya to becoming a lead professional in the calling of psychiatric social work. It is a fascinating profession, psychologically demanding and requires psychotherapeutic training. The vocational calling of psychiatric social work is emblematic of the marriage of theory and practice. In addition, there is evidence of a specific circuit of valuation.

Ethics of Psychiatric Social Work

Psychiatric social work was both demanding and satisfying, requiring a special kind of person. Committed to service that valued the dignity and worth of persons, leadership is intrinsic to the profession. The calling to social work is also a call to leadership. In a recent history of Ohio State University’s school of Social Work, the spiritual nature of the calling of social work is described as follows:

In a word, empathy. We’ve always had the capacity to identify with oppressed

people, people who are in a bad way who are just like us, the only difference is

that they have some problems that we don’t share, but we can be helpful to them.

Empathy, compassion...many words that you can use, but basically it’s an 318

identification, and a willingness to reach out and work with that person, be helpful

to that person, so they could become self-sufficient (and) self-determining.

(Ukockis, 2005, p. 4)

Self-care is helpful in avoiding burnout through “compassion fatigue,” always in evidence when one sees firsthand the trauma in the lives of patients. Marya taught skills that informed these issues at Stillman Hall while employed at the Columbus State School.

During her professional work at The Ohio State University and Columbus State School,

Marya implemented and taught a variety of skills: psychosocial assessments, psychotherapy for groups and individuals, and interventions and support structures.

Classes were held at Stillman Hall, the home of the School of Social Administration. It’s a small university building, still visible from North High Street. 319

Bulletin, School of Social Administration [Stillman Hall, p. 2]. (n.d.).

Was Marya able to identify with these oppressed and marginalized people because she had true empathy with regards to mental illness? I believe that it was highly likely that her teaching and service were reflected in understanding and compassion.

Whether one says that capitalism or the society at large is responsible for the misery that social workers face on a daily basis, there are people that desperately need a social worker to reach out with a willingness to work with them. Perhaps Marya was a lead professional because she could identify with a psychiatric patient’s ongoing struggles. It is likely that the accumulation of wealth, prestige or power was secondary for her and others in her profession, now and then.

Disenchantment with our institutions on which we rely causes disconnect with the forces that make us human. This can happen both with patients and those who serve. I wonder if Marya became disenchanted with the field of psychiatric social work after a lengthy period of time. Her colleague, Sophie Freud, became increasingly frustrated with the bureaucratic management of social workers during the late 1950s. She wanted to help patients and their families, but the paperwork and accountability became oppressive. It seemed to her that the administration of psychiatric social work was more important than its ethical foundations.

Social Work as a Process

The namesake of the center was addressing administration, professors and students during a convocation in the spring of 1940. “Social work is a process – It must move.” He was pointing towards what has now been a legacy of courage for all who 320

walked through the venerable doors of Stillman Hall. Marya built upon this legacy during her tenure at Ohio State and the Columbus State School. As a process, psychiatric social work was invested in addressing challenges with clients who might face fear, bigotry and even hostility.

The process of social work was mirrored in the methods of social work. One had to understand her own values in order to help others understand theirs. To advocate for your client, one had to motivate others on his behalf. That process involved more than trial and error, incorporating reflection and analysis into the problem-solving “mix.” It is what John Dewey calls thinking: “Thinking is thus equivalent to an explicit rendering of the intelligent element in our experience. It makes possible to act with an end in view”

(Dewey, 2004, p.171). When this is lacking, all workers - teachers and social workers included - lose their drive, the essence of what first awakened them to their vocational calling. While problem-solving skills are critical, there also must exist a high regard for humanity in social work. Compassion for the oppressed and disenfranchised were taught in conjunction with the “skills” of psychiatric social work. The practitioner had to reach out to people with a knowledge of larger issues, such as the understanding of human behavior. Before attempting the specialized study of a Masters of Social Work (MSW), it is likely that the rigorous liberal education that Marya received at Classical and Brown was valuable in her time, and ours. With little emphasis on industrialized corporatization and careerism through outcomes and assessments, value is assigned to educating the whole person through a democratic, imaginative spirit of critical thought and argument. 321

Liberal Education

Marya died in 1974, well aware of the social activism and turbulence of the

1960s. She couldn’t have predicted the future as the decade marched towards 1980.

With a strong liberal arts background, it’s doubtful that the decade of Ronald Reagan’s conservative values with funding cuts and public disillusionment with social programs would have been well-received. “Social work jobs became scarcer, resulting in a lower enrollment rate in the College in the early 80s. Social problems such as homelessness and joblessness, however, worsened during the recession” (Ukockis, 2005, p. 16). Gone were the days of the Community Chest (look at your Monopoly game), yesterday’s incarnation of the United Way. The neoliberal free-market disenfranchisement of social services would have left social workers aghast.

Aristotle distilled the idea of practical wisdom in his classic book, Nicomachean

Ethics. Ethics, said Aristotle, was not mainly about establishing moral rules and

following them. It was about performing a particular social practice well— being

a good friend or parent or doctor or soldier or citizen or statesman— and that

meant figuring out the right way to do the right thing in a particular circumstance,

with a particular person at a particular time. (Schwartz & Sharpe, 2010, pp. 5-6).

Marya kept up with the developments in her field through leadership and what

James G. Henderson calls “lead learning.” She had to, because psychiatric social workers are required to stay up to date. She was classically educated, the product of a liberal educational institutions, “advancing liberal arts breadth as they prepare students to be integrated thinkers, creative problem solvers, trans-disciplinary/ trans-cultural team 322

builders, empathetic listeners, and purposeful leaders” (Henderson, 2015, p. 110). As an example, the English Department of Classical High offered an intensive sequential study of literature. The student is given training in composition and grammar during the first two years “with special emphasis on the pupil’s ability to write creatively and effectively” (Caduceus, 1941, p. 18). The students simultaneously learn to speak effectively through oral themes. Supplemental readings in Shakespeare, George Eliot

Dickens, Milton, Sinclair Lewis and Eugene O’Neil (and many others) lead into the third and fourth years with opportunities to write maturely and showcase their abilities. The

Debating Society, the Classical Review and the Dramatic Society “are three of the extra- curricular organizations, which, although not directly affiliated with the English

Department, demonstrate the practical value of classroom instruction in the language”

(Caduceus, 1941, p. 19).

A Look to the Future

I have undergone profound changes as a result of this exploration. How could I not? It has been, at times, a gut - wrenching occupation, a narrative of a tragic unwinding. Psychiatric social work is about looking at human beings who are in distress, helping people that reside in the margins of society. Marya aimed at providing hope, housing, , education and employment for all persons suffering with mental illness.

The regressive uncovering of the past has not only affected me, but others as well.

The correspondences and exchanges have affected individuals who have interacted with her story in a transactional sense, in turn energizing and informing my research and 323

writing. For example, Dan Castner has pointed out the complexity of good-hearted

decisions made on a daily basis in this inquiry: “I enjoyed talking with you today and

learning about the fascinating work that you are doing. I think that your dissertation is a

wonderful example of doing inquiry in a loving way. “Your entanglement in the process

of uncovering Marya’s story fascinates me! I am captivated by the various complex

decisions that you will make in the telling of the story” (D. Castner, personal

communication, March 19, 2017). Curriculum scholars, being human, appreciate a

narrative that that encourages flexible and creative educational thinking:

“Karl, sounds like an absolutely fascinating narrative. Will you be at Bergamo this year??

Perhaps we can chat then. Best, Petra “(P. Hendry, personal communication, August 27,

2016).

Many have been interested and invested in my research. Most believe there simply has to be some meaning in the life story of my biographical subject. If not a path to salvation, then at least it provides an understanding and reconfiguration of a shared collective past “which determines how it determines us” (Pinar, 2004, p. 135). Perhaps it has afforded us a “freedom from the present,” faded paper and historical artifact becoming liberating and spiritually inspirational, as indicated by his own words: “The past is so much more powerful than this paltry (if nightmarish) present” (W. Pinar, personal communication, February 6, 2017). Henderson and Gornik (2007) believe in the psychoanalytic-inspired method of currere since they "acknowledge that educators who choose to facilitate their students' personalized journeys of understanding cannot do so without undertaking a similar journey of understanding" (p. 23). Marya and her 324

accompanying narrative serves as both both allegory and invitation. Perhaps you have already begun to reflect on your own journey, and also those of others. If so, I wish you well.

Critical Thread of Awakening

Described as a “currere case study, this inquiry has explored the lived experiences, scholarship, writing and vocational calling of Marya Barlowski through narrative biographical historiography. It is biographical and autobiographical, in the sense that it is a “currere narrative.” The writing is set up to yield new knowledge and histories through this “doubled” narrative currere, that is, the telling of a biographical narrative of history and life experience that connects somewhat tangentially to the author and thereafter back around in an intimate way. At the center of it is a compelling, interesting story that could really do a lot to help people understand new avenues of currere thought, and especially a vision of vocational awakening and capacity-building espoused by Dr. James G. Henderson and colleagues. This study of the educational, scholastic and vocational life Marya experienced has yielded many possibilities, as indicated by my correspondences with Bill Pinar. Dr. James G. Henderson pointed to these possibilities a few years ago: “…your ongoing biographical work may overlap with your own autobiographical examinations; and that could be an interesting synergy and a launching pad for a research trajectory (J. Henderson, personal communication,

December 18, 2014). As is usually the case, with this inviting and compelling suggestion he was absolutely correct. 325

Transcendence and Awakening

The clearest way in which spiritual awakening manifests itself is in terms of the wakeful person having a different perception and experience of the world around them.

But where does this process begin? A spiritually awakened person is open to attempting new things, a commitment to exploration. We could designate this as “sacred” in the sense that one is following a path to “love.” In Garrison’s interpretation of a John Dewey vision of education, we become what we love: “Our destiny is in our desires, yet what we seek to possess soon comes to possess us in thought, feeling, and action” (xiii). Janina

Barlowski D’Abate eventually came to choose library science, pursuing leadership and further education somewhat later in life. Marya engaged in the leadership and theory of social work, grounded and informing her practice. Wisdom emerged from their daily practice and activities of their respective callings. Marya saw value in her patients, her clients, and her creative activities and problem-solving helped them actualize their best possibilities. I believe there are threads connecting to social work. Joseph Schwab identified five educational “commonplaces” involving affected learners, teachers, subject matter and social environment. The fifth is the curriculum specialist, collaborating with the others to ensure equity and balance. A psychiatric social worker would be an integral part of the problem-solving of this “curriculum group.”

Awakening of the Human Spirit

“Providing provocative insights into the awakening of the human spirit - that’s what Marya provides” (J. Henderson, personal communication, November 20, 2018). 326

Using the term “spiritual” is not to be shuttered to the back pages of educational texts, or worse, avoided at all costs. In the preface to John P. Miller’s (2000) Education and the Soul, Thomas Moore suggests that the “soul” is an educator, that children are complete beings born with fullness of spirit: “The stuff that comes with a child, however, is not science, logic, or mechanical skill. It is soul stuff. It is imagination, heart and creativity” (p. vii). Do we lose these capacities because of age or societal forces, or, worse, from educators who do not embody what Jim Garrison describes as eros, or love?

Garrison (2010) argues that good teachers bestow “enduring value” on their students:

“…a creative value that involves helping them actualize their best possibilities.

Sometimes it requires creating things that have never appeared before. Following the philosopher John Dewey, I call these ethereal things” (p. xv).

Spiritual awakening is not about ego, and it is a false perception to believe that transcendence is about being better than everyone else. That would be leaning toward the facile, something aimed at less than a lofty purpose. Our motivations guide our transactions. This also applies to writing in general, specifically, biography. Leon Edel believed that biography was not to be undertaken with superficial aims or motives. It is not “about” monetary gain, rather, a spiritual calling leading to a deepening of the soul.

Miller (2000) suggests that Socrates and Plato saw our endeavors as making eternity available through human experience: “The feeling is so strong that we surrender ourselves to something greater than ourselves” (p. 33). 327

Destiny

The figure of destiny as metaphor emerges. Is Marya embroiled in an allegorical match, as was the character of the knight in Bergman’s Seventh Seal? Did she wrestle continually with a sense of angst, if not with death, then with destiny? May the life of a person offer a window into excellence and human goodness? I believe so. A currere case study exploration, that might biographically reconstruct a life is worth doing.

Looking at a the scholarship of a single individual as seen through their life and leadership is a worthwhile endeavor. There is value in the insights discerned by both the author and reader.

And what about the reader? Louise Rosenblatt describes a transactional theory of literature, one that posits the value of what the reader takes away from the text. The reader response becomes a transactional element, requiring an intuitive understanding: “It acknowledges the teacher not as an authority representing the meaning and background of the literary work but as a catalyst of discussion, encouraging a democracy of voices expressing preliminary responses to the text and and building group and individual understandings” (Rowen and Karolides, 2005, p. 60). This is also true in the transactional relationship evident in the arts. Paul Klee painted faces and figures from another place, another dimension. They inspire transaction as we regard them and they us. From the other side of the picture plane, a feeling passes to and fro.

I hope that the reader has developed an understanding of Marya, bringing us together in purpose 328

The importance of the role of the reader is not to be underestimated. There is a story here in which to respond, bringing past experiences and ideas that open up future possibilities.

Dewey is also present in this relationship, because reading is a two-way exchange. “I use

John Dewey’s term, transaction, to emphasize the contribution of both reader and text.

The words in their particular pattern stir up elements of memory, activate elements of consciousness” (Rosenblatt, 1982, p. 268). The transactional process, then, is a reciprocal relationship, hopefully generating an interrelational “experience” that makes the writing richer:

What is the force in the drive processes of interrelationships that acts on

individuals in a group so that they form ties with each other immediately? All

these changes affect us too; they overwhelm us and change our norms, but in the

end they always question the unknown in us. (Avron & Rochy, 2013, p. 65)

Though profoundly different in perspective if not age, both Margaret Dorgan and

Sophie Freud embody excellence in teaching and learning. They both believe in a higher cause that drives us as human beings, what Aristotle thought might constitute a “good life.”

All good educators meet the student where she/he is, not as a “one size fits all” approach to teaching and learning. An extremely useful – and enlightening - metaphor of awakening as describes transcendence as like going to a new floor in the building:

Awakening is the elevator. But you still live in a building (the Earth), and you

have certain rules to this world that you will have to abide by (living in a body, 329

interacting with other people, and so forth). All these things make an ego a useful

tool. (Tolles, 2017, ¶ 5).

Sophie Freud has been as valuable in giving voice to Her vocational calling of psychiatric social work as describing “soulful” developmental ideologies. She was not concerned so much with medicine and empirical discussion as she was/is about the spiritual elements of teaching. She left psychiatric social work because she experienced an epiphany. Her epiphany/awakening was that she discovered – and loved: the presence, energy and awareness that came with shared connections in the classroom.

Sophie made the decision in her mid-forties to pursue and complete a doctorate in the social sciences, subsequently teaching in higher education. Her classes were well- attended, with students at Simmons and Harvard crammed into large lecture halls. She loved the energy and engagement. And she is energetic and illuminating. Sophie swims each summer in Walden Pond both as a means to understand Thoreau and energize herself. Maxine Greene describes the experiences evidenced by Thoreau as his challenge for arousing individuals to a heightened awareness: “Walden has to do with making life harder, with moving individuals to discover what they lived for” (Greene, 1997, p. 120).

If we see the process of immersion in water as baptismal, does it also provide an awakening of spirit as with Henry Thoreau: “…only one in a million is awake enough to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive” (Thoreau, 1908, p. 85).

Sophie rode a motorcycle to work until age eighty-five. At that point she made the decision to give it up, since an accident at her age might be fatal. Not wanting to lose the availability of spots for small vehicles at Harvard Square, she now drives a 330

Volkswagen reissue to negotiate small streets and limited parking. And…she is delightful, laughing continually through a conversation. She and other senior scholars and professors – those over 80 – routinely instruct each other in an interdisciplinary manner. They will not give up teaching, even at advanced age. When I first contacted

Sophie, I was careful not to mention her famous grandfather, discussing instead what she had written, her journey, and her ability to give Marya a voice. Her vocational calling had also been psychiatric social work.

Sophie Freud narrowly escaped capture and death during World War II, successfully evading Nazi capture and escaping to the United States. She has endured experiences and hardships in her long life that most of us could never imagine, much less understand. In her writing and our personal conversations and correspondences, she braids William James and Carl Jung together as deconstructing the work of her famous grandfather. For example, Sophie feels that “transference” is an example of male dominance and power, and wants none of that. She is also somewhat skeptical of psychotherapy historically and as practiced today. Not so William James and James

Jackson Putnam, namesake of the Putnam Center.

William James and James Jackson Putnam

William James was present at the only lectures Sigmund Freud delivered in the

United States, as was his friend James Jackson Putnam. Dying in 1918 at the time of

Franklin Bobbitt releasing The Curriculum, Putnam was instrumental in bringing

Sigmund Freud to America, in 1909. My grandmother was nine years old, already aiming for high enough grades to attend Classical High. Encouraged by my great – 331

grandfather Cassius Lee Kneeland, it was always understood that women should be afforded the same education as their male counterparts.

Putnam was interested in psychoneurosis and the use of psychotherapy for treatments, a contributor to The Encyclopedia of the Self. Sigmund Freud himself recommended his granddaughter to Marian C. Putnam for an internship at the Putnam

Center for children, in Boston. Both Marya and Sophie were hired by Marian Cabot

Putnam as psychiatric social workers during the 1950s. Putnam became a well-known child analyst and child development specialist. “As a child she traveled with her parents to Europe, receiving an initial introduction to prominent figures in the development of psychoanalysis, including Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Carl Jung (1875-1961)”

(Putnam Papers, Finding Aid, p. 1).

Sophie Freud

At the time, of her employment at Putnam, Sophie was raising a family, and the following photograph depicts her and her oldest daughter. Parenting necessitated that she work part – time with the atypical children at the Putnam Center. 332

Sophie and oldest daughter, courtesy Sophie Freud [Digital image]. (n.d.).

Sophie sees psychoanalytic theory as “phallic,” male-dominated, and disputes the discourse/mess about ontology informing “human nature.” Interestingly, both Sophie

Freud and Margaret Dorgan, classmates at Radcliffe, have explored spiritual awakening somewhat popular in the 1960s, such as Timothy Leary, Carlos Castaneda and Alan

Watts. Both spiritual women (one sacred, one more secular) were extremely prodigious in their writing and scholarship for decades, and both lectured and wrote about transcendence and awakening. Their mutually-exclusive spiritual awakenings took them on different journeys. Their writing, research and reflections are charming and, occasionally, uniquely offbeat. As peer reviewers, they have been valuable “noticers,” offering critiques of both themselves and the writer. One makes enthusiastic use of metaphor and theology, the other dispenses description and analysis laced with wit. As real-life characters, their interviews and correspondences are wonderfully alive, but 333

provided photographs help illustrate the narrative. An intimate connection exists between the narrative and the photograph.

Photographic Insights

My History of Photography professor from the early 80’s, Ralph Harley, looked upon old photographs reverently. He quoted from Beaumont Newhall and made us study, really study these portraits and still life black and white photos. I studied her face…the features, a handsome ¾ view…perfect exposure…looking for clues before reading the accompanying article. I recalled Dr. Harley’s reverence of a specific portrait of a woman, as it was a record of “the very light that touched her face (R. Harley, personal communication, September 20, 1983).”

This was the closest one could be to those departed, a chemical image of the light reflected from an individual’s face. Modern day photographers enjoy doing black and white portraits to add a sense of depth, drama and glamor to their work, trying to recreate a 1940’s “look.” Presented below is more than a photograph of a young woman. Taken in 1944, this photographer knew his craft well. It’s a compelling image, with a sense of beauty, agency and confidence. “The artist, even in photography, must go beyond discovery and the knowledge of facts. He must create and invent truths, and produce new developments of facts.” (Newhall, p. 41). Pierre Bourdieu offers a critique of this sort of formal photography. After all, the inherent function of any yearbook photo was to preserve the present and reproduce “moments of collective celebration.” Rather than appearing stilted, posed or contrived, her senior photograph appears relaxed, revealing, and human. This encapsulates the “ontological choice of an object which is perceived as 334

worthy of being photographed, which is captured, stored, communicated shown and admired” (Bourdieu, 1956, p. 6). There is more, however, to the provenance of this image. I speculate that the photographer was known to the family, or became known to the family, and that a specific photographer was at work. Bradford Bachrach became rather well-known, the head of a venerable and distinguished New York studio, and was the wedding photographer of her sister, Lillian Barlowski: “Mrs. Runyon, the former

Lillian Barlowski of Providence, Rhode Island, formerly of Hartford, was recently married to William Runyon of Winston-Salem, N.C. in the Church of the Master,

Bradford Bachrach photo” (Hartford Courant, 1954, p. 15). Bradford died in 1992, at his home in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and his firm had photographed every president since

Abraham Lincoln. “Bachrach studios perfected techniques of lighting and camera angles to produce flattering images of their subjects, reasoning that clients want their portraits to be not a likeness but an idealization" (Lambert, 1992, ¶ 9). As to whether the yearbook photo was an idealization, I will leave to the reader to decide. To me, it did become a mirror of the mind, revealing the soul. Again, I needed professional interdisciplinary help to provide clues as to the person, a real person from her own time and place. I found just the professional in The Wall Street Journal.

A few years ago, I was in the waiting room of a well-respected dermatologist in

Chagrin Falls, Ohio. My wife was there to have a small procedure, and I waited in the expansive lobby, admiring their décor. It was understated and elegant, and well-supplied with reading materials. The daily editions of The Wall Street Journal and New York

Times were available on a table in the waiting room. An assistant emerged with herbal 335

tea, and I settled back with the Journal. An article caught my eye, a piece about hairstyles from antiquity. It began with an engaging introduction. “By day Janet

Stephens is a hairdresser at a Baltimore salon, trimming bobs and wispy bangs. By night she dwells in a different world. At home in her basement, with a mannequin head, she meticulously creates the hairstyles of ancient Rome and Greece” (Pesta, 2013, p. 30).

Marya Barlowski Senior Photograph [Brun Mael, 1945-46]. (n.d.). 336

I was hooked. Janet lived in my high school hometown, Baltimore, Maryland, and had begun an extremely productive line of inquiry. As it happened, we both appreciated the Walters Art Museum, one of the finest small museums in the country.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, I spent hours looking at their collections, often taking a sketch pad to draw pieces from both special exhibits and permanent collections.

I focused on drawing Greek and Roman statuary, Janet on the marble hair. She would wander through the Greek sculptures and think to herself “How did they do that?”

Through her inquiries and problem-solving Janet came to discover that the “ornate coiffures” weren’t wigs as had been universally assumed, becoming the leading authority on hairstyles from antiquity. My mother used to get her haircuts at the salon – from

Janet herself – and the location was used in the 1982 movie Diner by hometown director

Barry Levinson. I sent the above photograph to Janet for analysis, and she was taken with the image:

That is indeed a very lovely young lady in the photograph. You neglected to say

whether this is the photograph of a senior in high school or college? Presuming

she graduated with her age cohort and attended four - year programs, this photo

could be from 1943 to 1947. The hairstyle is informal for either year. It might be

longer hair arranged in a small bun at the nape of the neck (more likely for 1943)

or a short haircut (more likely in 1947, but not out of the question in 1943). The

hair may be naturally curly, but most likely not. This is about all I can tell you

without comparative profile views. Good luck on your project. Sincerely, Janet

Stephens. (J. Stephens, personal communication, October 20, 2014) 337

Biography, Narrative and Historiography as a Lifelong Project,

Classical Curriculum

In the educational philosophy of schools such as Classical High, no mention was made of teachers being held “accountable” for students’ learning, nor were “standards,”

“best practices” or “scientific research.” Instead, there was a focus on study, inquiry and living in a democratic society. I easily visualize a meeting of faculty, administrators and even a few student leaders during the 1930s; easily picture the moment when a curriculum worker recommends The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle as a tenet of their philosophy, with an ensuing discussion of “supreme good” as the aim of human actions, investigations, and crafts. The present-day Classical clearly emphasizes interdisciplinary work embracing music, art, theater, sports and extracurricular pursuits. I have witnessed firsthand where imagination, creativity and rigorous critical thought are in evidence at

Classical today.

At Classical, there was an entirely different paradigm in the curriculum and learning environment at work. It is helpful to examine the curriculum of Classical from the perspective of the 1941 Caduceus. As described in a 1941 Classical High Caduceus forward:

Classical High believes that while it must expand its curriculum to meet the

challenges of the modern world, it need not depart altogether from the stabilizing

influences of the past. At Classical the emphasis is on languages, history, 338

mathematics, literature remains, even as civics, guidance work, and the more

recently developed sciences are added to its broadening course of study. It is a

school that trains scholars in the tongues and cultures of antiquity, while at the

same time prepares them for the life of today. (Caduceus, 1941)

Classical had been in existence since before the Civil War, and many scholars and leaders were graduates of Classical. The study of classical achievements and the broad knowledge that ensues, the school affirmed that vocational training and “careerism” have to be part of a larger vision that enables students to solve the broader problems of life.

Classical has not escaped social Bobbitt and Thorndike’s endorsement of social efficiency achievement nor the refinements of Tyler through the Eight-Year Study and

1949 Rationale. Rhode Island utilizes a comprehensive assessment program for informing and improvement instruction and identification for interventions, including measurement of outcomes as part of an accountability system for school planning and evaluation (J. Ryder, personal communication, March 16, 2015). Classical is part of the

Providence Public Schools, and the student body is still comprised of children of immigrants and first - generation Americans. If elitist, it is inclusive and does not comprise a narrow view of education. The focus is still on study and excellence with a culturally diverse population reflecting the demographics of the city. Each year one thousand applicants apply for three hundred openings. Classical students must undergo rigorous entrance examinations and excel in grades one through eight. When admitted, they are part of a challenging program of study in the arts, sciences, languages and humanities: 339

Classical incorporates a wide variety of extracurricular activities that include academic

competitions, content-specific field trip experiences, athletic programs and sports events,

art presentations, theatre productions, music groups/shows and many diverse student

clubs and organizations. Classical’s faculty and administration are committed to a

continuous effort to improve and enhance academic programs and to promote and support

high academic expectations for each student. As a result, Classical High School continues

to rank as one of the highest performing public high schools nationwide and its graduates

go on to attend many of the top and most prestigious colleges and universities in the

country (Overview: Mission and Vision statement. Retrieved from

https://www.providenceschools.org/domain/95).

The difference between the 1940s and now is reflected in their mission statement,

as Classical is committed to serving a diverse community for local and global leadership.

William Pinar considers study to be a lost tradition, and begins with a valuable insight, if

not definition, by Anna Julia Cooper: “The word study connotes zealous striving” (Pinar,

2015, p. 2). Classical curriculum is generalized, expansive, flexible and generally

unrestrained. As a demanding college preparatory examination school, students are

encouraged to think critically and creatively solve problems. William Pinar cites Robert

McClintock’s recommending against a tightly - specified official curriculum: “The student draws upon “nature,” “faith,” and “reason” as these speak to his “situation,” enabling him to convert the contingencies of time, place, and circumstance into “achieved intention” (Pinar, 2005, p. 3). 340

The student draws upon ethics, spiritual values and her own motivations in the quest for excellence, as opposed to state standards. In the past, academic standards were high, but measuring student achievement for school accountability was not open for discussion, much less in legal statutes. The focus was on study that aimed toward growth and development. “Thinking critically is not inherent in humans. It needs to be practiced repeatedly by comparing memorized ideas with new ideas in a logical manner” (Bortins,

2010, p. 24).

There were challenges from above for Classical High and Pembroke College

During World War II. The United States Government had pressured high schools and colleges into accelerated study as a means to keeping the military at capacity and replace critical study with vocational training. The following editorial was penned by Marya during her senior year of college, and it sums up her opinions regarding study and critical thought. As was usual for the editor of the Brown University newspaper, her writing was concise and purposeful. 341 342

Barlowski, M. (1943, June 15) The Pembroke Record, p. 2 (25, 13). [Digital image].

(n.d.).

Marya exhibited leadership qualities while serving as of the newspaper of Brown

University, but she had worked her way there through reporting and writing. Leadership 343

in a major organization at Brown was an essential component of capacity-building, part of an empowering learning community. As previously reported, Marya was not the sole student leader in the college. She benefited from collaborative efforts with other student leaders. These leaders were members of the Question Club, promoting development that facilitated positive change for students, faculty and administrators of the university. This was in addition to maintaining excellent scholarship in their academics and engagement with extra-curricular campus activities and organizations.

In 1938 the first Department of Curriculum and Teaching was established in the

United States (at Teachers College, ). This historic mistake - the conjunction of curriculum with teaching - institutionalized social engineering at the site of the teacher. In so doing, the field set itself up for the eclipse of curriculum development and the politics of scapegoating, vividly obvious in No Child Left Behind, wherein teachers are held responsible for student learning. Tyler (2005) appreciates the creative, singular, and social sense of study: “In the “art” of study, McClintock (1971,

165) explains, all of culture can, potentially, become educational. If one studies, that is”

(p. 3). 344

Barlowski, M. An Intellectual Duty (1943, March 19) The Pembroke Record, p. 2. (25,4)

[Digital image]. (n.d.).

Marya, Self-Discipline and Study

Marya made the most of her four years at Classical. Her activities and accomplishments at such an early age read like a laundry list of superlatives: Classical

Course; Field Hockey; Cageball; Basketball; Basketball Captain; Tennis; Golf;

Cheerleader; Glee Club; Voice Class; Choir; Classical Review; Dramatic Club; Debating 345

Society; Delegate to Model Congress; Captain of Girls Team; Societas Linguae Latinae;

Latin Honors; English Honors; Math Honors; Greek Honors; Caduceus; Summa Cum

Laude; Major Letter; MOST ATHLETIC; IDEAL CLASSICALITE” (Caduceus, 1941).

To be most athletic, Ideal Classicalite and valedictorian was a trifecta, the high school equivalent of the Triple Crown or a gold medal in the Olympic Decathlon event. It was a virtual impossibility at an elite school like Classical High. Academic clubs and team sports required time and engagement in addition to the hours of daily study and homework. Study was seen as the “vocation” of students at Classical, the means to further educating the self. Not narcissistic in nature, work in academic activities such as the debating team and the Classical Review weren’t merely private endeavors, but peer and public forums of study. The rigor and engagement provided agency and engagement for students at Classical, and the extra-curricular work represented a model for becoming lead professionals. Long before the Rationale and its subsequent effects on teaching and learning, her leadership work reminds us “that relying on teachers for one’s education could replace one’s self-engaged labor of discovery with passivity. “Authoritative” instruction can discourage thinking, McClintock (1971, 162) notes. The instructional authoritarianism that No Child Left Behind legislates portends the same result” (Pinar.

2005, p. 3). If the “goal of education is to teach children to become adults who can handle complex ideas, in uncertain situations, with confidence” (Bortins, 2010, p. 14), then the Model Congress provided a venue for honing those skills. 346

The Model Congress was the domain of the school’s best scholars, held at major universities in Rhode Island and across the country. The University of Rhode Island archives describe the level of commitment of delegates to the Model Congress:

Representatives from 16 high schools will attend the annual Rhode Island "model

congress" at the University of Rhode Island March 1. The "congress," divided into

a senate and a house of representatives, will award two scholarships of $200 a

year at the university, to the outstanding school Seniors at the congress. School

records, test reports and a personal interview will play a part in the selection. The

18 local delegates will attend the congress or participate in oratory and extempore

speaking contests. (William D. Metz Collection, 1946-1982)

This involved the study and practice of rhetoric, a course of study that Aristotle formalized. Incorporating logic and grammar, students are thinking in an interdisciplinary way, acquiring the skills of eloquence and persuasion:

To classical educators, rhetoric means to practice very specific skills in order to

be the most persuasive in expressing truth, goodness, and beauty. Rhetoric

students are able to recognize how the particulars of one specialization relate to

the particulars of another. (Borins, 2010, p. 54)

Ideas and theories from deceased authors became relevant and timely through future applications, as the former student reads, inquires and present findings, inspired to meaningful action. Leigh Bortins (2010) suggests that all persons should have these tools in order to be successful, whether mechanic or surgeon: “A good rhetorician knows how to share his knowledge in order to benefit the greater community. The same thing is true 347

in all fields: an over-practiced skill eventually becomes a delightful art to be shared” (p.

56). Would not this also be true for theologians, teachers and psychiatric social workers?

The passage below is from Her senior yearbook.

St. Vincent Millay is studied, and after reading these, the pupil is expected

to write an original poem, having an assigned meter and rhyme scheme.

Oral themes are eliminated at this time, giving way to informal discussions

arising from the pupils themselves. Mr. Fisher conducts an honor class for

Juniors, and Miss Roberts one for Seniors. The Debating Society, the

Dramatic Society, and the Classical Review are three of the extra-

curricular organizations which,

although not directly affiliated with the English Department, demonstrate

the practical value of classroom instruction in the language. The Classical

High School Debating Society, in its ninety-fifth year, convened in

September under the sponsorship of Mr. Gleeson. A team consisting of

John Hall, Margaret Dorgan, Marya Barlowski, Simon Horenstein and

Melvin H. Morgan, was selected to represent Classical at the fourth annual

Rhode Island High School Model Congress, which was held at Rhode

Island State College. The annals of the club record teachers, prominent

students, and local personalities as being members of the society. Among

them are: U. S. Senator Theodore Francis Green, ex-Governor Norman S.

Case, now a member of the FCC, and Fred B. Perkins, a prominent

member of the Rhode Island Bar. Under the aegis of such men, the 348

Classical High School Debating Society rose to win the Rhode Island

Debating League, Brown Club, Eastern States, and Forensic League

trophies, all of which repose at the present time in the trophy case of the

school (Caduceus, 1941, p. 19).

It’s clear that Margaret Dorgan was forging a reputation for excellence even in her freshman year, being chosen at that juncture in her career to represent Classical at the

Model Congress. I am privileged to be able to discuss all aspects of teaching, learning and theology with her, including her scholarship and leadership at Classical.

The education experienced at Classical was superlative, with both women and men participating in all academic clubs and organizations. Martha Nussbaum (2010) feels strongly that the ability for critical thinking depends on humanistic aspects of science and social science based on a rigorous process of thought that encourages imagination and creativity. She encourages the study of languages as a means to understanding the world and transcending local prejudices to become a citizen of the world:

Citizens cannot relate well to the complex world around them by

factual knowledge and logic alone. The third ability of the citizen, closely

related to the first two, is what we can call the narrative imagination. This

means the ability to think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a

person different from oneself, to be an intelligent reader of that person’s

story, and to understand the emotions and wishes and desires that someone

so placed might have. The cultivation of sympathy has been a key part of 349

the best modern ideas of democratic education, in both Western and non-

Western nations (Nussbaum, 2010, p. 95).

Marya was a scholar in both Latin and Greek, editor of the Brown Herald-

Record, and active in a bounty of organizations. She was what the college, faculty and students called a Day Hop (later amended to “City Girls,” a more flattering descriptor), a young woman who lived in the city and commuted by trolley to the Pembroke campus adjacent to Brown. They came with a built-in handicap, as they weren’t as involved in the community of dormitory life where many social and intellectual connections were made.

No matter, said Margaret Dorgan. She shared the life of a scholar at Classical involved a full day of classes: A forty - minute trolley ride to and from school, dinner with the family followed by hours of homework. She would pass other schools to and from

Classical on the trolley, looking out the window at classmates she would never know, already home after a long day at school.

NRHS Film Collection, Number 149 [Providence East Side, 1940, Pembroke student approaching the trolley]. (n.d.). 350

Margaret's Lake, October, 2017, courtesy the author. [Digital image]. (n.d.).

And sister Margaret, by her account, was no “shrinking violet” or “wallflower”

(her words). Margaret had no trouble getting dates, and she loved to dance. Talking enthusiastically at her lakefront home in Maine, Margaret smiled and pointed to one young man after another: “Oh yes, I dated him for a while, oh, and him also, and, goodness…there’s Jack Easton!” (M. Dorgan, personal communication, October 6,

2017). 351

Margaret Dorgan and Jack Easton [Photograph courtesy of Margaret Dorgan, DCM]. (n.d.).

Many of the young women were “day hops” whose involvement with campus life was dependent on automobile rides and the last nighttime trolley. For instance, if one worked with the “Sock and Bushkin” at Pembroke there were scenic designs to sketch, build and paint, in addition to attending the performances. Being a reporter, was an extremely prestigious position, if not incessantly demanding. Marya was always busy in meetings, reading and editing copy. It was a challenge to juggle school, work, and

(occasionally) play. Now, add to the diligence, tenacity and scholarship Margaret embodied an engagement with nearly every sport available to women. Marya was a scholar, leader and athlete.

The Classical Archives

It’s easy to be at home in a musty archive like the one pictured below. The most subterranean room in the building, black mold grows vociferously on the walls. This photograph represents about one-tenth of the overall area. Files are generally ordered, but many are misplaced, mislabeled or lost. Duct tape secures rotting boxes, and the air 352

conditioning does not reach this area of the building. The Dean of Students and I were unable to find my grandmother’s records, but he is certain we will eventually uncover them. Like most that read an introduction to the narrative, Robert Palozzo is interested and ready to help. He is extremely well-liked by students, staff and faculty.

A portion of the archives at Classical High School, known ignominiously as The Cage.

Photograph the author.

Summary of Findings, Accountability

Let’s imagine that it’s 1940 or so, and you are a 13 year - old living in a Polish enclave of Providence, Rhode Island. It’s late on a school night and you are in bed, but you are not sleeping. You have two older sisters, both sound asleep. One excels at sports, leadership, cheerleading, and is loved by everyone. The other will eventually achieve all of that, and brilliant beyond human comprehension. She seems to know the 353

answer to every question a person might ask. It’s April 25, 1940, and you are in junior high, thinking about the school day tomorrow and upcoming summer vacation. Your parents are in the foyer, listening to WOR from New York on the fourteen-tube

Stromberg-Carlson with a built-in loop antenna. Radio personalities Joan Alexander and

Bud Collyer are the radio personalities playing Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Acting as bumbling Clark Kent and the Man of Steel for nearly a decade, Collyer continually saves

Alexander from enemy agents and any other threat to the American way of life. You will be starting school at Classical in the autumn, but now even the American way of education seems to be in perilous waters.

The programming continues with a debate among four scholars and statesmen, one of whom is John Dewey. Even as a teenager, you knew who John Dewey was -

America’s greatest philosopher. You have a pretty good notion of what a philosopher is.

They sit around in suits and think, and then write down what they’re thinking about.

Your sisters, Janina at Pembroke and Marya at Classical invariably talk about philosophy class, beginning with the Greeks and moving onward down the line. This history is the bedrock of the school curriculum, and Classical is the best and most demanding school in the state – maybe even the country. Dewey speaks again on the radio. You overhear a few of his words about “the process of education,” and the discourse turns towards the arts. The programming begins with a brief panel discussion of the value of the arts in a democracy. John Dewey recounts the story of a woman who lost everything in the Great

Depression. He reads a portion of his essay about her impending trip to Greece: “It was the art of Greece which was taking this woman on her pilgrimage just as the cathedrals 354

and public buildings, the literature, the paintings, statues and literature of Europe” described an investment that was “imperishable.” This was what their Classical High education was supposed to be all about, what her sisters discussed every evening at the dinner table. Their education was more than an assemblage of rote facts; rather an investment in their future. Their mother especially liked the banter. She believed that education was the means to improving oneself.

It’s reassuring to hear Dewey talk, even when he casts doubt and concern. You like the sound of his voice, and there is no doubt that he knows what education is about… and a whole lot more. This panel continues with a discussion of the value of the arts and sciences, and the manner in which they belong to all persons. It sounds like a good way to describe democracy. 355

Archives of American Art. Edward Bruce papers, 1902-1960, bulk, 1932-1942. [Digital image]. (n.d.).

The progressive education model of John Dewey took various forms, from child- centered to social reconstructionist during the 1930’s. Through the decades, he espoused faith in the common man and looked to democratic politics as a means of coping with the

Great Depression: “He sought education to ensure the freedom and equality of citizens who participate in a democratic community” (Masamichi, 2016, p. 53). Unlike the climate of today, Dewey promoted educating through qualitative results, not quantitative measurement. During the broadcast that evening the fate of American education seemed relatively secure, and, reassured, you fell asleep. John Dewey lived until 1952, working 356

alongside Bentley during his last decade of life. He was active nearly to the last, running and playing with grandchildren and great grandchildren on the beach.

What you didn’t know at the time was that the writing was already on the wall.

Even though progressive education as the dewey model was king of America’s pedagogical world, Ralph Tyler was busy analyzing his findings from the eight - year study, the consequence of his concerns with the schools and education. Presumably initiated to revise college preparatory high school curricula, it involved thirty public and private secondary schools. In a 1983 interview at age 80, he described the national climate of the 1930s: “Let me begin by describing the public mood at the time of the

Great Depression in the fall of 1929, shortly after I arrived at the Ohio State University.

People were worried about their material losses and blamed much of it on the banks, the government, and the schools. The newspapers were reporting how bad the schools were, and a big conference was held in 1935 on ‘The Crisis in Education: Will the Schools

Survive?’” (Nowakowski, 1982, p. 24). The eventual outcome was a furthering of procedural guidelines for writing instructional objectives, actualized in student behaviors.

The schools were beginning to be seen as culpable for society’s ills even as far back as the Great Depression.

Like so many other educational “innovations,” behavioral objectives, accountability and assessment can be traced back to Ralph Tyler. In a sense, Tyler invented the process, the one teachers are required to use every day. The Rationale was released in 1949, when you graduated from college. It remained, at first, nothing but an oddity, covered with snow from the chilly response of the curriculum community. There 357

it remained, safe as a dormant seed until the political and societal climate warmed and prominent educational forces beginning to see the rationality and organizational format of the Rationale. In the final report on the Eight Year Study by Tyler and his staff, Tyler wanted teachers “intimately involved” in devising testing instruments. In “democratic schools,” one would think the teachers themselves would devise whatever “assessment instruments” they deem appropriate to employ, consulting “testing experts” if and when desired (Pinar, 2011, p. 82).

The small volume published by Ralph Tyler in 1949 – the Rationale - was organized around four questions/principles that he thought should guide curriculum development. These had to do with educational purposes, experiences required to attain those purposes, organization of the experiences and determinants as to whether the purposes were attained. During the 1950shis work gained a little momentum, but not within the United States curriculum scholars. After the Russians successfully placed a small satellite into space, changes to all areas of American society were provoked, and the stage was set for reform. Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957, signaling the dawn of the Space Race. We eventually countered with Explorer I (1958) and Telstar

(1962), but the damage was done. The American public was caught off-guard. Someone, something had to be to blame. The American model of public education must have been at fault. “In the aftermath of Sputnik, Democratic presidential candidate John F.

Kennedy made public education a major issue, in the 1960 campaign against Richard

Nixon” (Kridel, 2010, p. 267). Kridel (2010) noted that the Rationale was unique in that 358

in coupled objectives to evaluation, and “teaching is relegated to a form of

implementation, the success of which is likely measured quantitatively” (p. 267).

Telstar was even immortalized in popular culture, in the form of a song. An

English band known as the Tornados (no “e”) released a worthy instrumental namesake

as a tribute to our belated successes in space. The satellite relayed television footage and

telephone calls, and, while no longer functioning, still orbits the earth. Since then,

however, the Rationale still orbits our pedagogical earth, still functioning to this day.

Listening to that broadcast, you couldn’t be privy to the family’s or country’s

immediate future. A World War was looming, and on December 7th of the following autumn, in 1941, the United States would be attacked and subsequently declare war on the Axis powers. Father would die on the upcoming Thanksgiving Day of 1940, and your family would be on their own.

The Providence Journal, Saturday, November 23, 1940

John Barlowski was no aesthete. He had come over with little regard for any of the arts outside of Polish egg decorating (quite a beautiful folk art form in the right hands) and the Polish paper cutting at which his daughters and granddaughters, became 359

quite accomplished. Unfortunately for the family, he died rather young at the age of forty from an “Esophageal Varices Hemorrhage,” the result of cirrhosis of the liver.

The Barlowski sisters were released early from their respective schools on the

Wednesday before Thanksgiving, accompanied by the news that their father was dying.

On the following overcast Thanksgiving morning of 1940, John Barlowski, laborer son of

Michelena and John from Poland, passed away with Father Frederick V. Slota by his side. Father Slota placed a gromniczna, a candle blessed on February 2nd, in his hand, administered the sacrament of extreme unction, and he was gone. As the three sisters and their mother walked from to the parking lot, the youngest asked

“What are we going to do?” No one could answer her question.

Night comes early when the winter solstice approaches in Rhode Island, dusk at

4:00, pitch black a little after 4:40 P.M. They huddled around the table, holding hands, their mother Maria trying to be as stoic as possible. Only the light above the table illuminated the kitchen. A few years later Marya remarked that the scene was reminiscent of painting The Potato Eaters by Vincent Van Gogh.

Uncle Frank (Swiatlowski) had passed away just the year before, and here they were at K.A. Romenski and Son’s again, providing their father’s only suit for burial, spending family savings for a modest coffin and vault. The gravesites at Saint Anne’s

Cemetery were already purchased by Uncle Frank, so at least that expense was covered.

Maria’s brother Frank (probably “Francis” according to Polish tradition), died at home on

July 5, 1939. He ran a bar at 12 Chaffee Street, living upstairs. His exact date of birth in

Poland was unknown. Frank was laid out in the house, as was the tradition at that time, 360

and his death certificate gave “Lawrence” as his first name. The cause of death was a heart attack. Occupation: “Liquor dealer.” Frank was forty-four.

John Barlowski, like Frank, was embalmed by a satellite of the Komenski and

Son’s Funeral Parlor in Central Falls, and placed in a modest casket in the front room at

106 Delaine Street. A housecat had to be moved to another location, per advice of the funeral director. John spent three days in state there, as is Polish tradition, because Jesus also was laid out for three days before his resurrection. The wake, called pusta noc, or

“empty night, would be observed on the last night in the house” (Silverman, 2000, p. 58).

The girls missed school Monday for the mass of Christian burial at Saint Adalbert’s and interment afterwards at Saint Ann’s Cemetery, in nearby Cranston. The diocese of

Providence owns a number of cemeteries, all considered “sacred ground” for Roman

Catholics, and it was below freezing as the family and friends stood at the gravesite.

There was only a flat marker to indicate where Uncle Frank was interred. Four burials were authorized at this plot, to be accomplished by “stacking” the last members of the family to die. The demeanor of the gravediggers irritated Marya after the service. The mass of Christian burial was a reminder to contemplate the triumph over death and human mortality, but the cemetery workers reminded Marya of the death of Ophelia, in

Hamlet. Death was just another day of work for the men, and they leaned on their shovels and watched, impatient to finish the job because of the cold. Finally, the family turned away and returned home. The wind had picked up, and the young children needed to get out of the weather. 361

John Barlowski Death Certificate [Digital image]. (n.d.).

Transition

As the thirties dissolved into the forties and fifties, you would be hard pressed to find many public schools similar to the model espoused by Classical. During the fifties and sixties, social engineers were diligently writing and driving wedges into our educational psyche. Gone was Dewey, replaced with standardized exams reflecting a market-driven business model, what Kriedel (2010) calls “academic vocationalism” (p.

268), and recommend that curriculum theorists “regard their pedagogical work as the cultivation of mind, self-reflexivity, and an interdisciplinary erudition. They hope to persuade teachers to appreciate the complex and shifting school subjects they teach, understand both as subject matter and as human subjects” (pp. 268- 269). John Dewey outlined in My Pedagogic Creed (1896) that education was “a process of living, and not a 362

preparation for future living” (p. 7), pioneering values cherished to this day. For example, he wrote Art as Experience positing education as an aesthetic and teaching as practiced artistry. If there was any talk of “reform,” it would have been based upon democratic processes and practices. Dewey and Bentley saw interactions from a transactional approach, a tool without ultimate or final realities. This pointed to transactions as reciprocal and democratic: “Unlike the empiricism of separate sense impressions and external realities, it “sees together” mind and object as joint contributors to problem-solving activity. A hypothesis in inquiry has an object “in mind,” and an attained object incorporates this idea within it” Ryan, 2011, p. 36).

Useful ashis theories seemed, they could only describe and inform a mechanical, instrumental process. Despite the seeming integrity of its design, the Rationale was subject, by its very nature, to being hijacked for nefarious purposes. It was “light” on theory. Of course, there is hope for positive change. Perhaps James G. Henderson and

Colleagues’ small volume will cause the same rippling effects for future generations of learners and lead-learners. Still, the Rationale isn’t about to go away easily. Tyler wrote concisely and clearly an all-too-easily digestible instrument, eminently practical. It proliferated, replicating itself as a means/end solution to curriculum design in the public schools. By the late 1960s and early 1970s social engineers and quantitative researchers had pretty much identified any logistical problems and fixed them. As politicians discovered this instrument and applied it to their constituents, Dewey just kind of faded out. Behavioral objectives took his place. As the 1960s drew to a close, Schwab 363

declared the curriculum field “moribund,” and curriculum workers had become irrelevant. John Dewey was banished to an appendix or two.

As accountability and assessment replaced engaging curriculum work, and universities began to follow suit, some stubbornly refused to get with the program. The work of Tyler might easily be systematically presented in an orderly sequence, but it didn’t seem to incorporate value and reflection. Educators complained that it was more of framework; a template for curriculum design. What Tyler – or any proxy, whether administrator or politician - thought might be inconsistent or unimportant objectives could be easily discarded. Curriculum theorists, many of whom had taught in the public schools themselves, understood that this was more than rebellious teachers causing trouble. They believed in structure and consistency but didn’t appreciate others from outside their classroom making decisions that affected their students.

Dewey somehow remains on the scene, stubbornly hanging on almost seventy years after his death. For some people, mainly curriculum workers and scholars, he provides magic beyond anything made possible by plugging assessments into objectives.

Is this mere nostalgia? Perhaps, at least as described by those invested in assessment and accountability. But nostalgia or not, there exists today a need for inquiry and analysis where John Dewey might just be the right choice. Assimilation of facts often seems paramount to understanding. Curriculum workers knew that their goal was not to faithfully reproduce “outcomes” through objectives-based study, instead allowing the teacher to be more than an intermediary. Eisner posits that the teacher would free to be an aesthetician, the artistic creator of engaging work and inquiry. “Teaching profits 364

from— no, requires at its best— artistry. Artistry requires sensibility, imagination, technique, and the ability to make judgments about the feel and significance of the particular…” (Henderson, 2015, p. xviii). Teachers might be better off through inquiry and reflection that refines their practice, their artistry. The aim of teaching and learning isn’t the stereotypical standardization encouraged by “reformers.” “More and more parents and teachers are awakening to the realization that the word “reform” has been hijacked by people who want to dismantle public education and the teaching profession”

(Ravitch, 2014, p. 25).

And what about the elusive concept of awakening that the reader’s own transactions with her narrative are supposed to illuminate? Is her allegorical presence, narrative and accompanying historiography something that will engage the reader? I truly hope so. I’ve “reactivated” her for an elevated purpose, providing a more broadly and interdisciplinary human view of educational practice and theory. Please consider

Frank X. Ryan’s (2011) empirical concept of what awakening entails:

Engaging life from the transactional view is like throwing open a window to the

breeze of common sense, a rarity in philosophy. This is a lake. That’s a mountain.

Up there is a star. They’re out there in the real world. I didn’t make them. You

didn’t make them. “Society” didn’t make them. (Ryan, 2011, p. 35)

Marya, the protagonist of my writing, is resistant to being channeled into a tidy ending. That would be more in keeping with a novel. We cannot rely upon hard data as a means to confirming my hypotheses, and this is not a “one size fits all” type of dissertation. There exists in this writing a holistic approach to informing curriculum 365

leadership. I believe that Marya developed an immense leadership capacity, collaboratively participating in the work of leadership. I am suggesting that this continued into her vocational calling, building leadership with other psychiatric social workers, psychiatrists, professors, and curriculum workers. Indications are that she engaged in excellent classroom instruction, knew well theories of psychology, research and teaching, and had a command of knowledge of clinical analysis and interventions.

Her graduate work and subsequent research at Smith provided her with those skills and tools, her classical and liberal education the wisdom needing for complex problem- solving. Despite the hierarchic structure and bureaucratic paradigms of psychiatry and interventions involving the mentally ill, Marya was able to forge collaborative relationships. I believe that she chose situations that had a positive environment, an empowering climate. In other words, leadership by those in management was distributive, those with power embracing a willingness to let others lead. The usefulness of this currere case study depends upon the reader and her response to the writing. It is a transactional exploration.

Suggestions for Future Research

Future research in a biographical narrative form has been an ongoing pursuit. I’ve become comfortable reaching out to persons with questions about their life, scholarship, knowledge and values. Thinking historically while working through curriculum theory is always welcome. Marla Morris (2016) writes that historiography requires both description and theorizing that description” (p. 26). I have attempted to do that in this writing and will likely pursue this genre in the future. I will be starting on a new project 366

after my defense, a biographical narrative of another historical personage. As is customary, it has germinated from idea to the beginnings of inquiry in a serendipitous manner. A possible new subject of inquiry was an elite educator and artist, Catherine

Stearns.

Catherine Stearns

While doing data collection for this ongoing work, I discovered a wife and husband who taught at the University of Rhode Island, in 1944. While it is not so remarkable that a

couple might simultaneously teach at the university level, they seemed unique. Down to the very last professor, Donald Stearns was the only male even remotely cracking a smile.

He is doing his best to stifle it, to no avail. Catherine was working as an art instructor, and that piqued my curiosity. I began the journey. Through a search it was determined that Donald and Catherine had twin sons, and I discovered that one was an architect 367

invested in historical restoration. His contact email was on the professional website, and

I introduced myself, describing how I came across his parents’ photograph. I wondered if

I might be able to tell his mother’s story in the future. Carl provided his phone, and we talked the following day. He had been looking at Catherine’s expansive oeuvre of paintings, and was glad I contacted him: “Karl, it’s interesting that you would call, because I was just thinking we need someone desperately to catalogue her work and write a narrative. It’s as if you appeared at just the right time” (C. Stearns, personal communication, June 14, 2017). I am thrilled, excited to do the inquiry. The challenge is manifold, entailing writing and curatorial work. The hope is to tell a story that is also a historiography, revealing the brilliance, creative undertakings and teaching of Catherine

Stearns in her own place and time. There are avenues to explore, a narrative to be worked through and insights to be acquired. In the process, I’ve made a new friend. 368

C. Stearns, Mt. Hermon Vespers (1962), courtesy Carl Stearns

Carl sent the above image of one of Catherine’s paintings, a lovely piece, with the following note: “This painting by Catherine is entitled Mt. Hermon Vespers (1962). It’s the school where I met Sue” (C. Stearns, personal communication, July, 13, 2017).

The Bergamo Conference

The annual Journal of Curriculum Theorizing conference is held at the Bergamo

Center for Lifelong Learning in Dayton, Ohio. A lot has happened there that has energized and defined the field of curriculum theory. Scholars attend the conference early in their doctoral careers, and as a result they stay in the field. In attendance for the past five years and presenting for three, Bergamo has defined my engagement within the 369

discipline. A labyrinth on the grounds is an invitation to quiet and clear the mind, a place to become reflective, entering the path with a personal mantra of openness. On a sunny afternoon, it’s a short walk to a place that provides a metaphor for writing historiography.

Marla Morris recommends reverence when honoring our ancestors, and especially our curriculum history as we attempt to archive the past. Morris (2016) writes that time “is not singular but plural; history is not linear but labyrinthine” (p. 27).

Bergamo Center for Lifelong Learning [The Labyrinth]. Photo compilation courtesy the author (n.d.).

James G. Henderson has designed a seminar that provides organizational structure as a non-restrictive and nonconfining model. A review of the CCLP as fits study-and-practice, “a recursive, multi-phased process supporting educators with democratic vocational callings and is found in a dynamic, open-ended folding involves the following process: 370

How do educators awaken to becoming lead professionals for democratic ways of living?

How do educators cultivate repertoires for a diversified, holistic pedagogy?

How do educators engage in critical self-examinations?

How do educators critically appraise their emerging professional artistry?

In addition to telling part of a life story, I hope that her narrative illuminates some

aspects of awakening to becoming a lead professional. When one is fully engaged in

leadership and capacity-building, democracy is at work. When one is part of a society

where she can imagine and achieve her highest capacities, democracy is at work. This is

what is meant by “democratic ways of living” that James G. Henderson describes as part

of his fourfold process.

I wonder if Marya and her family listened to the speech on the Stromberg-Carlson

radio that Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered on April 23, 1939. I am almost certain that

they did. Families sat near to their radios, facing the radio as if discerning images in the

aural signal. In effect, they were “seeing” the broadcasts just fine. Relieved from the

visual assault we experience from video productions, I believe that a more interpretive –

subjective, if you will – relationship was occurring. It was more transactional because

the listener could imagine the phenomena. Did John, Maria, Janina, Marya and Lillian

stare at the radio as Roosevelt suggested that democracy is integral especially to the

children in our society? Marya worked almost exclusively with children, as do teachers

in our society. Roosevelt (1939) described the concern for the welfare of children in his

address at the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy: “It is not enough, however, to consider what a democratic society most provide. We must look at our 371

civilization through the eyes of children. If we can state in simple language some of the

basic necessities of childhood, we shall see more clearly the issues which challenge our

intelligence today” (Roosevelt, 1939, ¶ 14). Whether teacher or social worker, what is

most necessary are the health and education of our society’s children. Food, shelter,

clothing and education must be available for every child, and sadly, this was not the case

then – and isn’t now. Again, Roosevelt tackled the concept of capacity-building in a

democracy:

Further, democracy is concerned not only with preparation for leadership, but also

with preparation for the discharge of the duties of citizenship in the determination

of general policies and the selection of those persons who are to be entrusted with

special duties. Beyond this, democracy must inculcate in its children capacities

for living and assure opportunities for the fulfillment of those capacities. The

success of democratic institutions is measured, not by extent of territory, financial

power, machines or armaments, but by the desires, the hopes and the deep-lying

satisfactions of the individual men, women and children who make up its

citizenship (Roosevelt, 1939, ¶ 11).

This seems to embody the sensibilities of John Dewey, of whom Franklin D.

Roosevelt was surely aware. Dewey believed that the core values of societal and individual democracy require that “each individual shall have the opportunity for release, expression, fulfillment, of his distinctive capacities, and that the outcome shall further the establishment of a fund of shared values. Like every true ideal, it signifies something to be done rather than something already given, something ready-made” (Segall, Heilman & 372

Cherryholmes, 2006, p. 207). From small beginnings come expansive results, if only we

keep a focus on the “ends-in-view.” When individuals – especially children - are allowed

to flourish and grow, society and the world will also. My brilliant friend and researcher,

Kathy Cadwell, allowed me to keep personal research goals in view through thoughtful

peer review and diligent investigative work.

Hope for the Future, A Tribute to Kathy M. Cadwell

The brilliance and tenacity of Kathy Cadwell has been a great source of information during the past five years. As previously indicated, she was never wrong. If Kathy wrote

that Marya was in a certain place at a certain time, then she was. Kathy, however, was occasionally secretive about her methods and sources. She had become a distant friend and colleague over the course of this inquiry. The last email I received from her was the following:

Hi Karl, Good to hear from you & exciting to hear chapters are underway! Look

forward to hearing more. Hit with shock of my life last fall. In Nov, officially

diagnosed with non - curable pancreatic cancer & given 6 mths to live...at 58 &

always having been an independent businesswoman, beyond tough. Declined

chemo...worst case scenario was only going to prolong life 5 mths & as I'm

terrified of doctors/hospitals & gloom, thought it would just finish me off

anyway. Always been fortunate not to have anything to do with them...2

surgeries in entire life...1 in 2003 & 1 in 1978...that's my whole medical

history...lucky I guess...until now. Instead, have pursued some alternate 373

stuff...drinking only alkaline water which is supposed to kill cancer. Was

hospitalized 23 hrs about 4 wks ago today for an unrelated problem & put out for

a quick procedure which seems to have knocked my socks off & still praying I

can get back on track as still very weak. Have been staying with a man since late

Oct...we lived together until 1994 & have been best friends & partners in business

since. So blessed to have him in my life. I never ever anticipated having to lean

on anyone....ever. Try to put my happy face on but not so good at it lately...an

email from you with all your latest findings will be most welcome. All the best,

Kathy (K. Cadwell, personal communication, March 3, 2017).

Six months later I read that an ambulance had been refurbished, restored and equipped with the latest medical technology in her honor. It was being driven for donation to a village in Nicaragua as part of a humanitarian program. Kathy was a kind and giving person, and would have appreciated the honor. 374

Hooper, R. (2017, October 2). Ambulance dedicated to Katherine M. Cadwell [Donated by Erik Vogel]. Retrieved June 16, 2018, from https://www.aldergrovestar.com/news/vandals-in-langley-damage-dedicated-ambulance- bound-for-nicaragua/

Maria Barlowski

Maria Barlowski still owned the house and rented the two upstairs apartments. In addition, the tavern at Chaffee Street was still viable, providing needed supplemental income. The Tessiers, a French couple in the middle unit, had long since moved on.

Robert Raughtigan had relocated after the death of his parents, residing further north, in

Warwick. The small prewar housing tract was built during World War II as a means to house military service families from nearby Quonset Point Naval Base.

The Providence House Directory and Family Address Book, 1935-1936, p. 236. No. 25

Sampson & Murdock Co., Boston, MA.

Maria Barlowski lived as long as she could, willfully enduring as a means to help her brilliant daughter cope with demons and depression. The following obituary was written by Janina, Marya and also Lillian, who had flown in from Chicago. It’s a fair assessment of a life, with all the salient details represented. What is missing is that Maria provided the glue that held the family together. She had been the matriarch. 375

Providence Journal, p. B2, March 7, 1974 [Maria Barlowski Obituary]. (n.d.).

Lillian’s remaining child and father flew in the day before, and Janina’s children,

John, Marya and Janina took the day off from school for the mass of Christian burial and interment at Saint Anne’s. Keeping with Polish and Italian tradition, the daughters were the namesake of their aunts, the son after their father. 376

Psychopathology, The Letter

Correspondence, Marya Barlowski [Peyton Rous Papers, Box 4, 1967]. (n.d.).

American Philosophical Society

Valerie -Ann Lutz of the American Philosophical Society was able to recover a mysterious letter from the APS archives:

Karl, I just re-read your e-mail. I'm so glad that the letters filled in even more

about your knowledge of Marya. I just did a quick Google search and found the

front page of the Brown newspaper with her photo and the article about her work

as editor-in-chief of the Herald-Record. From the bits that I've heard, she sounds

like an amazing woman and I look forward to hearing more. Val (V. Lutz,

personal communication, March 6, 2013) 377

Lodged in the papers and effects of Nobel Laureate Peyton Rous were quite a number of correspondences. One example was written by a middle-aged psychiatric social worker who struggled with her own issues. Marya was gifted musically, both soprano and pianist, and the letter provided both hope and frustration. Her mental illness, her psychopathology (as observed by this letter) reminds us of embodiment and curriculum theory, in the belief that we cannot separate our brains (who we are internally) from our bodies (physical traits). Whatever Marya truly had was an enduring illness, affecting her temporality, or lived time, and also her social and professional relationships.

How she was able to find meaning in this would be speculative, but Mark Johnson suggests that deep, profound and visceral sources of meaning may be understood through thoughts and emotions, part of the bodily processes. Dewey believed that aesthetics were a basis for understanding meaning and thought, and Johnson takes this a step further:

“…any adequate aesthetics of cognition must range far beyond the arts to explore how meaning is possible for creatures with our types of bodies, environments, and cultural institutions and practices” (Johnson, 2007, p.xi). Marya responded to the world through a lens affected and informed by her ongoing struggles.

There immediately was a small mystery afoot, specifically that she had a symphony accepted by the fabulous Leonard Bernstein, in 1967. The archivist for the

New York Philharmonic Orchestra has no record of the “lost symphony,” but suggested that it still might exist. A lot of materials were misplaced or lost during Bernstein’s last season as conductor. I've interviewed Alex Bernstein twice, and we both wonder if the symphony was real or delusional. The letter is written in her own hand to Peyton Rous. 378

Her initials are "M. B," with "Weldon" listed as a surname, a nom de plume assigned to the author of the musical score.

Dear Mr. Martin, Thank you for your query regarding Marya Barlowski materials

at the APS Library. As Valerie mentioned, we have only one folder of materials

related to Ms. Barlowski. The Peyton Rous Papers (Mss. B. R77) contain one

folder of correspondence. There are 4 pages of material in the folder. (M. Miller,

personal communication, March 5, 2013)

Since she received a liberal education at an Ivy League school, I speculated that

"Weldon" represented an affinity for the music of John Weldon. I contacted one of the world’s greatest Weldon scholars, Stephen Bullamore of the United Kingdom. His dissertation research was an analysis of the sacred music of John Weldon, and he responded with the following:

Dear Karl, Thanks for getting in touch. It’s an interesting idea. Of course,

Weldon’s music isn’t particularly well known and certainly was not in wide

circulation in the early 20thcentury. That which was in circulation was usually

attributed erroneously to Purcell! There have been assorted political figures

carrying the same surname, so perhaps one of these might equally have some

weight? All best, Stephen. (S. Bullamore, personal communication, July 19, 2017)

Stephen identified John Weldon (1676-1736) as Composer to the Chapel Royal,

“a highly regarded member of an elite musical institution in early eighteenth- century

England” (Bullamore, 2015, p. ii). This was an interesting sidebar, but did not provide 379

any definitive answers. I shared this information with Kathy Cadwell, and she redoubled her efforts.

Ever steadfast, Kathy provided the most comprehensive and accurate information available. Her research provides clarification as to all the persons referenced in the letter:

OK....I have been called the family history detective in the past & this mystery

has been bugging me...read this file again this afternoon rather than simply

googling her name & after about 3 hrs, realize that this card & letter came from

the files of Dr. Peyton Rous, the 1966 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine who won

for his discovery of tumour inducing viruses (thought the letter was addressed to

Dr. Rous :-). As you likely already know, he died in NY City in 1970 at age 90 so

was already 87ish when Marya wrote the letter...long career & was first

nominated for his work in 1926 by the Nobel Committee & continued to research

up until his death. Had to wait a long time for an award for his discovery of the

role of viruses in the transmission of certain types of cancer. Do you know what

year the Xmas card was sent...wonder if it was in reference to the 1966 award.

Anyhow, yes...right there on the letter is the Providence address...Dr. Rous was

married to Marion Eckford deKay, daughter of Charles deKay. Charles founded

the National Arts Club, NYC & was an art & literary critic for the NY TImes -

heavy interest in arts & music & there is a reference about how the different

interests of Peyton & Marion broadened the enjoyment of their lives together.

Mayra must have learned about an appreciation for music to have written what

she did....but where does Weldon come from..... 380

Found Weldon Berry Jr to be a 16 yr old boy who sang as a soloist in a 1963

Bernstein concert. The people named seem to be performers rather than

composers. This is too much fun...am going to hold back on Dr. Arthur Dell to see

if you know anything about him...let me know, as found some info I could share :-

). You must know lots more...did she go to Smith College or was she a

musician...... did she marry...& is your dad still living to enjoy all of

this.....Somewhere in my travels, also noticed a Jean Wenneis as a classmate...by

the way, if you could, appreciate if you would email a photo of my cousin Jean

Woolley as have never seen a picture of her. Best Regards, Kathy (K.Cadwell,

personal communication, June 5, 2013).

Jean Pepper Woolley and Marya Barlowski, Caduceus, 1940 [Digital image]. (n.d.).

I talked with Kathy via Skype that evening, and she was amazed that we had been collaborating on this research without knowing her cousin and Marya had been classmates and friends. She researched her cousin and discovered that Jean had attended

Classical and Pembroke also. Whether an example of synchronicity or otherwise, this represents another mysterious circumstance surrounding this research. 381

Jean Woolley Senior Photograph, 1941 [Caduceus, Classical High School]. (n.d.). p. 59 382

Correspondence, Marya Barlowski [Peyton Rous Papers, Box 4, 1967]. (n.d.).

American Philosophical Society

Alex Bernstein

The writing pointed to Leonard Bernstein. In spite of the overwhelming psychiatric evidence that the symphony was delusional, I pursued the leads. The 383

archivist and I worked through materials and I subsequently purchased The Leonard

Bernstein Letters, believing that one of his unidentified correspondents was, in fact,

Marya. I sent materials and a copy of the letter to all of the children of Leonard

Bernstein, with no responses. One evening at the Kent State Recreation and wellness

Center my cell phone rang, and it was Alexander Bernstein. The following is one of our interviews:

AB: Hi Karl, this is Alexander Bernstein. I received your correspondences and

thought that this might be a good time to reach you. Are you busy?

KM: Not at all. I’m at the Kent State Rec, all finished with my workout and

waiting for my wife to pick me up. I am so happy that you got back to me.

So, you received the materials that I sent?

AB: Yes, and Marya has an extremely interesting story! I wish I had better news

to report, but I haven’t found anything that resembles a “Lost Symphony” by

Marya from the year 1967 or any other. There’s absolutely nothing I can find

anywhere. Now that doesn’t mean that it will not turn up at some point, but as you

probably understand, we’ve gone through a lot of my father’s effects, personal

and professional.

KM: Well, I knew it was like sending up a flare, but I’m hopeful that it might turn

up somewhere.

AB: It is extremely interesting – that letter to Peyton Rous, where she closes the

letter, Love, Marya Barlowski. Is it four letters? 384

KM: No, it’s four parts of one greeting card. It was mailed and received in 1967,

I’m assuming to his office in Baltimore.

AB: Yes, and it leaves the reader wanting more. More letters and documents.

One can only speculate as to the scope and content of other correspondence. You feel that the music does exist?

KM: As I imagined the context of a possible discovery, I picture a dark corner in the basement of your childhood home where there are a few sheets of undiscovered paper with the symphony intact.

AB: (Laughs) That’s a good scenario, but it unfortunately hasn’t played out yet. It sounds a little like the plot of a good mystery story.

KM: That’s the way I feel about most of this journey! If I uncover any material that is interesting would you like me to forward it to you?

AB: Yes, certainly. Here’s my email. (Spells email address) I would appreciate you filling me in if any music is discovered. I haven’t found anything under

“Marya Barlowski” or “M B Weldon.” I did check the NY Philharmonic archives as you did, but to no avail. I didn’t find anything. This pseudonym – M. B.

Weldon - is also intriguing. What do you make of it?

KM: I’ve looked at it from all angles. There are a few oblique possibilities, but no matches. By the way, congratulations on your fabulous work with Artful

Learning. It’s great that you can continue the musical tradition by being a dedicated educator and supporting arts-based education. 385

AB: Thanks very much for that. We do like to instill a love of learning through

art, music and performance. You were an art teacher, am I correct in that?

KM: Yes, I taught for 36 years as an art teacher and am currently in a curriculum

and instruction doctoral program at Kent State.

AB: Well, good luck with that, and please contact me from time to time as you

come across further material.

KM: Thank you again for your time. Have a wonderful holiday season.

AB: You also!

My imagination was piqued, and surety reigned that there existed something written, some musical score that would offer a key to the entire journey. Even if suffering from psychoses or depression, why would someone write this? I pictured her sitting outdoors by the trellis with river and pear tree nearby, pen in hand, writing a letter than may never have been answered. There was intent and purpose in her undertaking, an act of communication. It gave her a few minutes of happiness. She had held it in her hand, pen to paper, affixed a stamp and mailed it to Peyton Rous. The letter was considered valuable and retained, finding its way into an archive. Seeing the composer listed as a pseudonym incorporating her first and middle initials with the surname

Weldon, I grieved over the fate of the letter, and of the author. Was life an exercise in meaningless futility, an attempt to assert control or meaning from an indifferent universe?

Perhaps the entire symphony was delusional, but…perhaps not. I am convinced that the symphony existed in a very real form – at least to Marya. I talked with Kathy Cadwell 386

again via Skype, and we pondered the mystery together. The following day, she sent this

email that referenced Her colleague, and, later, psychiatrist, Arthur Dell:

Hi, Yes, she wrote the letter in 1967 but was wondering about the Xmas card. Dr.

Arthur Dell was a native of Cuba b. abt 1916. He graduated from the University

of Havana in 1945 & moved to the U.S. in 1946. He was a

clinical psychiatrist at the Rhode Island Division of Alcoholism in Providence &

began work there in February 1952. An article in the Newport newspaper in 1954

reported that he became acting director of the facility after a former administrator

retired then another article in July 1955 reported he went back to the position

of being a clinical psychiatrist. The Providence directories show him living in

Providence ...earliest record is 1952 up until 1962 where records seem to

end. The Providence library may provide access to the directories and telephone

books from more recent years. Appears that he died in 2004 in St. Petersburg,

FL. This finding last night certainly put another slant on things...the plot

thickens!! Have you been able to locate her sisters...Have a great day, Kathy (K,

Cadwell, personal communication, June 5, 2013).

Lillian uttered the phrase “mental illness” only once, and Kathy Cadwell was able to dig up more information about Arthur Dell, her colleague turned psychiatrist. The nursing home in St. Petersburg had one assistant on staff who remotely remembered him, and that was all. My conversations and correspondences with Kathy were integral to the inquiry, the enthusiasm contagious. I had to seek out others for their expertise regarding psychopathology. I needed professionals to analyze and address the available 387

information. Therefore, interviews with three psychiatrists were initiated and completed.

One is a child psychiatrist from Northeast Ohio, another a Pembroke graduate from 1966 who practices in Boston, a third from Italy. Among the three, there would be differing perspectives, analyses and recommendations that might result in a balanced inquiry.

They all concurred that there was not enough information available to make a definitive historical diagnosis, their professional judgement rife with disclaimers. Despite themselves, they offer small flecks of interpretive gold. This is often how research progresses. Marianne Ryan values collaborating with scholars in libraries and archives.

She describes the manner in which scholars work as “panning for gold,” identifying a behavior called “chaining” where one idea and inquiry may lead to another, known as

“serendipity.” In other words, important findings may occur while doing unrelated work.

We connect and network with others building collections of research resources. In an important sense, there really aren’t single-authored papers, because the liberal arts scholar is “connected with other scholars, and that ideas tend to come from communicating and networking with them. One of our students identified the importance of getting passionate about a topic and that faculty members were critical in this step.

Research was described by the workshop panelists as an evolving or growing process, with the key component being an inspiring question to pursue, usually originating from a conversation” (Nixon, 2010, p. 232).

A conversation with daughter Janina D’Abate early in this writing was somewhat illuminating. We had three interviews that became conversational, and the following is the most relevant to this work: 388

JD: Hi, this is Janina.

KM: Thank you for getting back to me and leaving a voice mail. Did I describe my interest in my voice mail regarding your Aunt Marya well enough?

KM: There was a letter she wrote to a Nobel Laureate about her struggle with cancer. It said she had “stage three” cancer and that her vision was affected.

JD: Karl, she never had cancer. She committed suicide! (stunned silence)

KM: I’m…I’m unbelievably shocked…

JD: Yes, Karl, she did. (Changing the subject) You said that Aunt Marya and your dad were in love during World War II, and that you were trying to discover more about her. My mom, Janina, is still living, you know. She has Alzheimer’s, and is…Wait a minute! (Calls to her mother)

KM: So…your family watches her? How is she doing? Any better? Can your husband help out with her?

JD: Not really, but some days she is a little better remembering things. I never married, and it’s hard to meet men here. Where am I going to meet them, on my couch? In fact, some days I never make it to my couch. I just stay in the room!

KM: It must be hard, having all that responsibility and concern. Do you ever get out at all?

JD: Well, in the past month my girlfriends have visited from Rhode Island, so I had like, three girlfriends each week, and it wore me down. I’m just getting over being sick. I just was getting my voice back. You know, they don’t want to come and watch TV while they’re visiting in Florida. You’ve gotta go out all the time, 389

go to the beach, you know. Maybe go out and have a few cocktails. So we picked my mom up from daycare, and usually I’m a light sleeper I wake up and go to check on my mom, and she’s not there. She’s not in her bathroom, she’s not on the front porch, so I was like, “Janina, mother, where are you? She was like..I found her sitting in the car.

KM: She could have been anywhere

JD: Right, I mean, she’s not very ambulatory. I mean, she has, like, a walker and stuff, but, um, you know, it’s scary. And I’m like, Ma, what are you doing in the car? And she’s like, Oh well, I thought you told me to go to the car. And even today, she was walking outside and I saw, Ma, what do you think you’re doing?

And, again, I thought you told me to go to the car. Whatever!!

KM: Janina, I’m so sorry. It sounds like you do manage, however.

JD: Yeah, what are you gonna do, you know? Eventually I’ll have to put her somewhere, you know. Right now she’s in there, you know? About my girlfriends, three in a row! Feast or famine. Then I might not have any visitors for a year.

KM: Hopefully we can get together and talk when I’m down in Fort Lauderdale, maybe have lunch at The Whale’s Rib.

JD: Yeah, I’m not going anywhere. Did you ever see that movie “Forget Paris?”

It’s with Billy Crystal and Deborah Winger? He goes to Paris to claim his father’s body or something, and he meets Deborah Winger. He’s a basketball referee. It’s old, it’s like ’95, but it’s wicked funny. You gotta watch it from the 390

beginning! Yeah, it’s wicked funny. If you like Billy Crystal, you know how funny he is.

KM: He’s good in just about everything!

JD: We get a few independent channels too. Have you seen any movies lately?

KM: We saw Admissions, a movie with Tina Fey.

JD: Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah. She’s good.

(Twenty minutes of movie talk follows)

KM: So.. you’re getting better? Not as sick?

JD: My ears are better, and my voice is starting to come back.

KM: It’s still good to hear your voice. You sound like a Rhode Islander.

JD: Oh yeah, I’m very Rhode Island. I went to Prout School in Wakefield, you know. They have good spinach pies there near the beach. Do you know about spinach pies? KM: I discovered them in 1976, at a place called Pit and Patio at Narragansett Pier. JD: Speaking of lunch, it’s easier to get together for lunch during the week because my mom will be in her group.

KM: Do you go to the beach there in Deerfield?

JD: Yeah, yeah… I go, but usually only when I have company. The beach is only

10 minutes from my house – a ten - minute drive.

KM: Maybe one day we can talk about your aunt again when I’m researching her lived experiences.

JD: There’s really nothing to research, I don’t think I know anything except what 391

I already told you. She died when I was thirteen or so, and I don’t remember all

the details. I don’t have much else to tell. There is an old photograph on my

dresser of Marya and my mom. They are about five years old. That’s all I’ve got.

(This was never provided)

I wish I had accessed that lovely photograph. It still exists as a reminder of the inherent value in the fulfillment of a child’s life, of her dreams and future capacities. The small framed image rests on a dresser in southern Florida, perhaps taken in Olneyville, near to the trellis and pear tree. Someone with a camera interrupted their play, and they dutifully stood for the snapshot, perhaps by the grapevines while the two girls played outside. Until Janina chooses to share this with me sometime in the future, I can only speculate as to what a telling contribution it would provide. Can you imagine the thrill of seeing the faded photograph; holding the object up to the light and seeing the sisters in early childhood? I believe that Janina will eventually share it with me, and the process of historiography will be activated once more. This inquiry – perhaps all inquiries – are open-ended, subject to revision as new information is provided. The inference paradigm forwarded by Frank X. Ryan through the Circuit of Inquiry will likely be subject to new data to be tested and result in an undated “realized objective.” Stated another way, the nonreflective state will give way to a new plan and hypothesis to be “tested,” and this writing is not an “absolute.” It is a transaction that “holds that values and goods are fully realizable objects of inquiry. But they are constructed, not other worldly” (Ryan, personal communication, March 3, 2016). 392

Isn’t this what James G. Henderson’s vision of collaborative lead learning is all about, at least in part? I believe that collaborative lead learning is just that, an exchange.

Jen Lowers distilled his vision of lead-learning as taking place among two or more lead learners, sharing resources and exchanges to create a unique learning experience, a realized “object.” The leadership process requires collaboration for understanding concepts pertaining to curriculum work, involving “complicated conversations” with those in the field and without. It may incorporate peer review, conversations, recommendations, clarification, the arts, brainstorming, and all forms of communication. All this described, the interviews with psychiatrists follow, in their entirety. The interview with psychiatrist

William Rowane is the most lengthy, but he spent a lot of time and effort in the preparation. He wanted to be certain that the reader and I have a solid grounding in psychopathology and a historical perspective relevant to this inquiry.

William Rowane

KM: Hello, Bill. Thank you for getting back to me. Still on?

BR: Oh yes, and I’m going to be gone for a few days, so I wanted to make

sure that we connected. I wanted to qualify, being a child and adolescent

psychiatrist, I really don’t treat schizophrenia when somebody does come

across that I think is heading in that direction, or does have it I usually

refer to someone who treats it a lot. Most of my bread and butter are

ADHD and depression, anxiety and other childhood things. Now, having

said that, I want to qualify two things. Number one, part of my training 393

was adult psychiatry psychiatrists have to do a couple of years of adult psychiatry I have worked in settings where I have taken care of some psychotic youth I also. I had a younger brother who had a significant case of schizophrenia that I thought was kind of unusual because there was no family history that could be one of the factors. He passed away at age 32, and it’s not uncommon for people with schizophrenia to have early death usually because they don’t take care of themselves. High rate of smoking, drug abuse. They get things like pneumonia and infections easier, get into bad situations. He was, um, he was actually, became ill as a teenager, and was in a long-term hospital. He was in a community for a while in a very structured group home setting

KM: She was the Ideal Classicalite and then she was also “most athletic.”

BR: Let me qualify schizophrenia. It’s probably a group of disorders, but it could be one disorder with different manifestations. There are some common features, but there are multiple types, and multiple subtypes.

There is paranoid with significant paranoid delusions, there are cases of disorganized schizophrenia-these people really become disorganized they have very little organization. They used to use words like “simple schizophrenia” but now have differentiated words. The symptoms are a little more vague. One issue is you have that plurality in this illness there are a lot of things that look like schizophrenia that they call schizophrenia but they could be something else. Sometimes people have significant 394

psychotic breaks you know and it looks schizophrenic but may have more of a disorder such as bipolar-type disorder and have a lot of psychotic symptoms. There are often types. People with autistic spectrum disorders that can have a lot of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, the restricted affect, socialization, limited discourse, the neural range kind of thinking and some of them can be fragile. Sometimes under stress they can have a psychotic break, somewhere at the breaking point.

Actually, some people with severe anxiety are disorganizing, so you have to be careful. Even people with a severe case of ADHD, you know, tend to have more thought disorganization, breakdown a little bit more under stress, and, then, of course, drug states. Different drugs can cause psychotic states. Chronically, there’s some recent research that says that teenagers are vulnerable to psychoses, you don’t have to be psychotic, but using marijuana can precipitate or push them over the edge. Substances like hallucinogens can be a lot worse, like a methamphetamine can cause acute psychosis, so I think sometimes. So we talk about someone with a psychotic-type illness, the term schizophrenia is applied to a lot of these, more long-term, degenerative, so there’s kind of a decline in function, decreased organization, behavior, thinking, sometimes inappropriate or lack of disorganized affect, sometimes causative situations like hallucinations delusions, and even significant psychotic thought patterns. 395

So, I talk about somebody who doesn’t fit the right picture you know, you can sometimes question could this be something else that contributed to the same endpoint

KM: That endpoint, the end of the narrative, was in 1974, on her death certificate, if you work your way down it says “Cause of Death” – pending toxicology was initially written, then crossed out, with “Acute Respiratory failure,” then cause was “Excessive consumption of alcohol.” Further down, of the left side of the form, very lightly, almost written in hushed tones, “suicide.”

BR: That’s another aspect of this because excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to more of an organic brain syndrome where you can have more disorganization and increased hallucinatory activity, even paranoid delusional thinking, so organic brain syndrome where you could get into this, although alcoholic dementia is also a possibility.

KM: In 1974 there weren’t pharmaceuticals that could be of help to her?

BR: Actually, there were some earlier agents. Thorazine was probably the first one, and the old anti-psychotics were out. I was trained in the 80’s, and that’s all we had were the older ones. They were just developing

Causeral which came out in the late 1980’s, but I’m not sure what came out that may have been later 70’s early 80’s, but I know Thorazine came out in the 1950’s and so they actually did have anti-psychotic agents but these were the old anti-psychotics, they were pure dopamine blockers. 396

They decreased agitation, they could decrease hallucinations, at least the agitation around the hallucinations, and this would help with the delusions.

It would help the affective part, but not the cognitive. There was a dulling, so they weren’t good agents, and there were significant side effects, so there could be a high rate of kinesia, which isn’t always reversible. Sometimes it is reversible but has symptoms like tremors.

So…there were some treatments. The treatments we have today began with Causeral in the late 80’s. Abilify came onto the scene about ten years ago offering a significant advantage over the earlier agents there were agents back then but nothing significant.

KM: I’m just going to guess, in somewhat of a qualitative sense…her

Mother died in March of 1974. Marya stayed with her in that house, and,

I’m guessing, that once her Mother passed, that that element of care and concern was missing. Her mother must have helped her manage. Can you project hypothetically about this scenario?

BR: People with schizophrenia do have a higher risk of suicide, I think it may have been higher than with people with mood disorders. Causeral is the one antipsychotic that has a documented anti-suicide effect but it is more common, such as a bipolar disorder and depression, but I think that in bipolar it’s higher than in depression alone. But I think that in schizophrenia it’s higher than in bipolar disorder and, especially, because if she had alcohol in the mix, or cocaine, the suicide rate goes way up.

397

You know, as opposed to marijuana, which just kind of numbs people out.

A combination of psychosis and alcoholism could, if that was a factor in this case, could have increased the suicidal risk significantly.

KM: There is a letter that Marya wrote to Peyton Rous, the noted Nobel

Laureate that is in archives of the American Philosophical Society. In the letter she describes her stage three cancer, but her niece has stated that she never really had the disease. What she said was confirmed by the certificate of death, that she committed suicide on July 20, 1974. She indicated in the letter, under the pseudonym of “M. B. Weldon,” that she had a symphony accepted by Leonard Bernstein. Her neighbor, Robert

Raughtigan, has said that she was perfectly capable of doing so, with her musical ability and brilliant mind. She could accomplish anything when she had the motivation.

BR: Sometimes people with severe somatoform disorder will become delusional in terms of fear of illness. It’s also not uncommon, you know, for the extra part of a delusion. There’s also a disorder called delusional disorder, where someone appears normal, they may be a little cool and distant, but their thoughts are organized, they’re articulate. They seem normal, as opposed to a schizophrenic, but they have a delusion. It may be more grandiose, like they believe a certain rock star is their friend, or that the FBI is after them. 398

KM: With all the news regarding Edward Snowden that may not be far from the truth.

BR: (Laughs) Right! Right! We may be under surveillance! They seem normal, but they believe that someone is spying on them, or in some cases, they believe their spouse is having an affair despite all the evidence to the contrary, it’s not quite as common, it’s a little less common than schizophrenia, some people who otherwise seem fine, but they have this delusional system that some see as more biological and is thought to be maybe, somehow related to, you know, to schizophrenia, but different.

With schizophrenia the symptoms are probably getting more significant over time and degenerative.

KM: Delusional disorder certainly seems to fit. Her sister, who has the beginnings of dementia, has walked me through the entire house. The father died on Thanksgiving of 1940. Lillian was thirteen and Marya fifteen when he passed away. Lillian has mentioned “mental illness” to me twice during our interviews, then conveniently has memory loss. It’s obviously painful to discuss the subject.

BR: It’s always hard when you’re going back and looking in time to get information and try to piece it together, you know, versus when someone’s being evaluated in the here and now. We have different constructs now, and have a lot more information about mental illness, and correlates, biological and genetic, psychosocial, as well as having better treatments 399

KM: My objective out of all this is to tell her story, and all history comes from a point of view, a “lens,” if you will. I need to understand.

BR: Whatever it was, it probably got worse, as the actual disease process was progressing in the brain, maybe worse because alcohol was an issue that could have contributed. How old was she when she passed?

KM: Forty-nine. She had also worked with schizophrenic patients at

Greystone Park.

BR: In the movie A Beautiful Mind you probably noticed that they used insulin shock back then, which is quite damaging, hypoglycemia of the brain. In certain cases, they still use ECT, but in a very controlled way, some of those treatments persist but in a much more refined, scientifically based way. Old treatments like lobotomies and insulin shock aren’t done anymore. There are certain intractable conditions where deep brain stimulation is enacted.

In psychiatry we talk about differential diagnoses where we’re presented with a certain set of symptoms, where you think what are all the possible things that this could be when we think about all the possibilities do a good assessment- observations, sometimes medical lab assessments, or . But when someone has been around metal illness a lot, you always have to think about factitious disorder. You know where somebody has taken it on for psychological reasons, not on a conscious level. Someone who takes on an illness in a malingering kind of way, 400

purposeful, to get money. But sometimes people take on a factitious

illness where it’s done. It’s not technically real, but they have taken it on

an unconscious level. The psychiatrist in me is thinking about all the

different possibilities, you look at their age, their family, their cultural

context and everything about their presentation from their thinking to their

dress, to their mood, their activity, you know, their whole nine yards, and

you try to narrow it down to make a diagnosis of course, diagnoses change

over time too. They just came out with the DSM5, which is the 5th major

reclassification of major mental disorders they did some readjustment with

schizophrenia and its subtypes. For instance, now we can officially

diagnose ADHD by age 12 or 13, before it was age 7. I’ve diagnosed

people in college, so there are a lot of changes in the field.

Elyssa Beron Arons 401

Elyssa Beron Arons does not get chances to travel often because of her devotion and dedication to her psychoanalytic practice. She’s not particularly engaged with academic research, more invested in seeing her patients. In an interview conducted by the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Elissa described the evolution of her vocational calling:

But my work life has just been enormously rewarding. Very interesting. And,

you know, it feels like a continuous line—the evolution from a Biology major to a

Humanities major. Going to medical school and ending up in psychiatry. It’s all

part of the same thing. The interest in how people work and think. (Pichey &

Arons, 2015, p. 22)

This illuminates well the dovetailing of her medical work with education in the humanities at Pembroke. Our interview is below.

KM: Hi Elyssa, it’s Karl

EA: Sure! Glad we could connect on your inquiry.

KM: The person I’m interviewing you about was a brilliant scholar with

about a 160 IQ, and Phi Beta Kappa at Pembroke.

EA: Would you spell her name for me?

KM: (I spell her name) People interviewed have said that she was very

quiet and that she often looked sad except when pictures were taken she

took her life in 1974. It was tragic and ironic, since she worked as a

psychiatric social worker for the Department of Alcoholism and died from

consumption of alcohol. 402

EA: I see… Uh huh, she looked chronically sad, perhaps depressed, except when photos were taken.

KM: Her sister mentioned the term “mental illness” on more than one occasion.

EA: You’re breaking up I can’t hear you…Yeah yeah yeah. OK, that’s better… So… there was family history of mental illness and suicide?

KM: Possibly. Her sister lost a son at an early age, but I don’t have any more information about that. A psychiatrist friend indicated that maybe

Marya had a factitious disorder because she had previously worked for

Greystone Park in New Jersey. It’s possible she could’ve taken this on.

She did write a letter to a Nobel Laureate Peyton Ross indicating that she had a symphony accepted by Leonard Bernstein… it was maybe delusional…

EA: Well …it probably was delusional, but she was functioning at

Pembroke and then graduate school at Smith? And do you know anything about her personal life about her romantic interests? Did she have close friends?

KM: My Dad was probably one of her earlier romantic interests. He had been in love with her.

EA: That was when they were both undergraduates at Brown?

KM: No, he was in the Navy. Sailors and soldiers stayed at one of the

Brown University dorms. 403

EA: I see, OK. You have read writing of hers and you’ve interview people that knew her, yes? So… you’ve been writing about her?

KM: Yes. Her father passed away when she was 15 on Thanksgiving

Day, for example. She was of Polish background and they were the first- generation children of immigrants. All three graduated from Pembroke, and all were smart. Marya was the most brilliant.

EA: Right, right… yeah… because I know nothing about the woman in you have some questions for me about possible mental disorders. What I would ask a medical student about is the history of the present illness. I would want to hear better illness indicators – more descriptive - and multiple symptoms before I could even conjecture anything, because I don’t know about her past. I don’t know if they were medical symptoms or not…

KM: When you read between the lines in the letter you know that something was going on but the neighbors say but she was perfectly capable musically she could assimilate information impressed things processed things in a heartbeat

EA: But you don’t remember or know anything about any episodes with her depressive episodes or whatever it might be the daughter hospitalized at any time? was she ever hospitalized for mental illness?

KM: She did have a psychiatrist who passed away about six years ago, but he would’ve been able to provide specific information I’m sure. 404

EA: Right, right that’s absolutely correct.

KM: I’m approaching this from the periphery, and realize this is somewhat generalized, relying on a lot of conjecture.

EA: The trouble is you’re not giving me enough concrete material as far as something to go on, maybe a story of depressive symptoms, maybe a story of psychotic symptoms that I could talk about. It’s interesting, however. So… this is what we’ve got. She was brilliant, had trouble with alcohol, she worked as a psychiatric social worker and then committed suicide. That’s not enough information to make a positive diagnosis.

KM: She was like John Nash is a beautiful mind, in the sense that she had episodes… but I don’t have the specifics.

EA: If you can get her sister to describe what the episodes looked like… what did she do, what did she say? How did she behave? Any clinical details about what the episodes were like. Because it’s possible she was manic-depressive, it’s possible she was schizophrenic, I don’t know… we don’t know anything about what she was like clinically. For me to say a thing… I can’t say anything.

KM: She only outlived your mother by three months committing suicide soon afterwards in the same house where she lived as a child

EA: So she killed herself three months after her mother died? 405

KM: Yes, so I’m just guessing but her mother must’ve been involved with her care. I’m assuming there was a note somewhere. Alcohol was the means by which she killed herself.

EA: How old was she when she died?

KM: She was 49 years old, born in 1925.

EA: Why are you even going in the direction of schizophrenia? It’s possible she was somebody with a depressive problem that led her to alcoholism. Why would you presume psychotic disorder?

KM: Bill pointed to the contents of the letter, but indicated that without more information it would be difficult to assess in the here and now.

EA: It’s possible that she had a mood disorder and was alcoholic. And you know alcoholics often medicate… try to medicate themselves out of their symptoms by drinking too much. And it does sound like she drank herself to death. The only evidence of anything psychotic might be this delusional letter about a symphony but you have nothing else that I can pin anything on. So… I’m not sure that I can give you anything except that maybe she had a bad mood disorder and alcoholism.

KM: That’s really an excellent suggestion and I really do appreciate your help with this.

EA: I’m glad to help let me know if you come across any other material that might be helpful

KM: Thank you! 406

EA: My pleasure, and good luck to you! Goodbye.

A subsequent email communication from Elyssa Arons:

There isn’t much to suggest a "patient" in this material. It is limited, and probably

biased because of her economic status, I am guessing. "Very sad face" could

mean many things...anxiety about the interview, self-consciousness about her

appearance or qualifications or social status. Of course, it could also be

depression, but nothing else in this brief material suggests that.

Good luck on your comps and proposal. (E. Arons, personal communication,

November 6, 2015)

Mirela Vlastelica

Welcome dear Karl, I would like to know about, I will save your e - mail address.

And thank you! She looks so cute, but in the same time there are "some

shadow" beyond...Difficult to speculate about. Frankly, at first look she

reminded me on my deceit auntie, and she was never a happy one. Her

story also reminded me on the Ingmar Bergman's movie Face to Face.

Regards, Mirela (M. Vlastelica, personal communication, August 15,

2016).

Dear Karl, I'm a quite out of the story now, but could you be sure that it

was suicidal attempt or only alcoholic abusement or addiction

episode? And in what function she needed alcohol: as a consequence of

copying with trauma, as an oral gratification in regressiveness, as a

substitute for a "lost" object, or her effort to achieve the feel of 407

"wholeness", etc., I don't know what to say. Did you firmly exclude her

psychopathology as an "onset?” Sorry, I have got no the whole picture of

her in spite of your story, this is only my free-floating associations.

Regards, Mirela (M. Vlastelica, personal communication, May 4, 2016).

Conclusion

As to whether I’ve contributed to the field of curriculum studies and honored a life will be up to the reader to decide. The organizing questions center around curriculum leadership, professional awakening and educational purpose. What conversations could one have about Marya that might be relevant to curriculum studies?

Did she become involved with others in her learning and peer teaching? Did she reach out and collaborate through lead-learning in school and, later in psychiatric social work? Did she see herself as a lifelong learner? Did she utilize creative thinking that draws upon past experience for real world problem-solving, objects of inquiry that helped and valued others? Did she accomplish that is her psychiatric social work, at least as far as the indicators tell us?

Did Marya see herself as a lifelong learner through graduate study, teaching and learning from peers and other professionals? Did she help children and families with their struggles, facilitating a caring and compassionate environment for her patients?

Did Marya see herself as part of a larger arena, invested in human value, integrity and equity? With her academic grounding, compassion and empathy, I strongly feel that she believed in the equality of our human condition. 408

While writing about spiritual awakening and capacity-building, it has energized my own. The currere case study took me into uncharted realms of historiography, leaving me refreshed and hopeful. Roger Simon describes the underlying purpose of narrative memory as having “a lot to do with questions of how we talk about hope, how we talk about the notion of history’s function in how it brings us together or not as human beings” (den Heyer, 2014, p. 44). I sincerely believe that there has been some form of transaction that did bring us together as human beings; that some “higher purpose” was served.

Transaction is inquiry of a type in which existing descriptions of events are

accepted only as tentative and preliminary, so that new descriptions of the aspects

and phases of events, whether in widened or narrowed form, may freely be made

at any and all stages of the inquiry. (Dewey & Bentley, 1949, p. 137)

Dewey and Bentley described “transaction” as a mutual exchange, a central tenet to Knower and the Known. I hope that both writer and reader have generated implications to consider. This isn’t the impact of one individual or event on another, but a mutual transaction that generates new knowledge, open to revision. The knowledge created may not be universal and unchanging, because “integral to Dewey’s philosophy is the claim that inquiry is a process by which practical as well as theoretical knowledge emerges” (Rogers, p. 91). I appreciate the willingness of the reader to accept impermanence, since change is inevitable and beneficial. The research emerges on its own timetable, on its own terms. There are periods of time where nothing seems to 409

happen, the process more frustrating than rewarding. Kathy Cadwell, as always, offered positive advice:

I'm working on gathering my thoughts again regarding your project. Left in a

hurry without shutting my computer down & am trying to remember how I got to

what I found as it wasn't particularly straight forward...the best research results

never are...anyway...more to come...Regards, Kathy. (K. Cadwell, personal

communication, June 29, 2013)

I hope that research James G. Henderson and colleagues has been furthered by my biographical and autobiographical inquiries. As a positive consequence, her story has been shared with thousands, and included in a number of archives for future researchers.

I believe that there has been purpose in my writing, and word is getting out. As a result of presenting at conferences, I am carving out a specialty for future work. Recently Olga mansky of the Boston Psychoanalytical Association and Archives asked permission to mention my research in her newsletter, leaving me feeling validated and honored:

I filed and read the files you shared with our archives. It’s incredible that you

were able to collect that much! Do you know why she died so young? It looks like

this happened only a few months after the death of her mother. I am working on

the library winter newsletter, where we usually report on recent .

If you don’t mind, I will include a brief piece about you and Marya. If you don’t

want me to share any of the details below, just let me know. I would love to

include her photo (if this is fine), as there is always a chance that some of our

older members will recognize her and provide more info. It sounds that she 410

worked at the VA hospital in Brockton and many of our members are affiliated

with the VA hospital in Boston. Let me know what you think. Here is the draft of

my blurb: Karl W. Martin, a doctoral candidate from Kent State University,

Ohio, requested materials from our Putnam Children Center collection for his

dissertation, a biography of Marya Barlowski, who was a Putnam Center social

worker in 1951-1952. Marya Barlowski graduated from the Brown University

Women's College in 1945 and earned her master's degree in social work at Smith

College in 1947. Her Smith dissertation focused on a pastoral clinical study of

psychotic patients and their contacts with theological students at the New Jersey

Mental Hygiene Clinics. After a brief career at Putnam, where she interned

alongside Sophie Lowenstein Freud, Marya worked as a psychiatric social

worker at the VA Hospital in Brockton, MA and, since 1966, for the state division

of alcoholism in Providence. She died at the age of 49. (O. Umansky, personal

communication, February 5, 2018).

Her Death

Perhaps she had experienced feelings that life was not as good as she had initially hoped. It’s likely that Marya felt deprived of her earlier idealism and agency. As to the management of her “mental illness,” all indications point to a gradual decline. She was back to living in her childhood home – the green “triple-decker” walk-up at the banks of the Woonasquatucket River - with her ailing mother. The demographics of Olneyville had begun to shift, with many Poles leaving for Cranston, Woonsocket and East

Providence. The 1960s were over, and the woolen mills were closing, the neighborhood 411

unraveling into what we would classify as “urban blight.” Her younger sister Lillian had lost a son relatively early in life, and lived near Chicago. They spoke weekly on the phone. Janina was a successful librarian in Rhode Island, involved with leadership and service to the community. Her three children were doing well, the youngest skating all over the country for the Ice Capades. Janina visited often to check up on both Maria and

Marya, since her younger sister still had upsetting “episodes” that required attention, and, occasionally, intervention.

Below is the last photograph of Marya. Beth Curran, librarian for the main branch of the Providence Public Library, had the microfilm machine cleaned especially for the inclusion of this photograph in my dissertation. While still grainy, at least the features are recognizable.

Barely three months after her mother’s death, Marya succumbed. Her obituary provides a clinical description of a life that has come to its conclusion. There is a lot we do not – or cannot - understand. Michael Gattone, the nephew of the undertaker at 412

Thomas Gattone and Sons was able to provide a death certificate because of a loophole in

Rhode Island law, which has since been closed. It’s a valuable source of information.

Besides listing the empirical facts, a close inspection reveals that there was initially some confusion - and hesitancy - about identifying the cause of death. A section is partially erased and crossed out, new writing in its place.

Michael and I had talked for half an hour on the phone about the responsibilities of his calling. His uncle had inspired him to service, providing help with the inevitable mortality we face as human beings. He wondered about my motivations: “You just have to know, don’t you?” I replied in the affirmative, and a few weeks later a letter arrived in the mail. I couldn’t bring myself to look. It sat unopened on the dining room table for days, my wife Michelle becoming both vehemently frustrated and intensely curious. She finally opened the document, read it, and handed it to me. It was like reading the end of a novel first. The surprise was over. As in the movie Citizen Kane, I had to work backward. What were the circumstances that resulted in a tragedy like this? Are there larger meanings that the story of this life might illuminate? Or as speculated previously, there may exist only tragedy, with no meaning, transcendence or salvation with which to console ourselves. We may never know the answer to these queries. That may truly remain the unanswered question. James G. Henderson believed in this narrative as having substance, valuable as a springboard to future research, and for that I am grateful.

It has pointed toward a multitude of future inquiries. 413 414

Marya Barlowski Death Certificate, August 15, 2013, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. [Digital image]. (n.d.).

Janina discovered her there, at the house. She checked in on a daily basis, with phone calls and visits. When the she called late on Saturday afternoon, there was no answer. She called a few hours later, with the same result. Finally, Janina made the drive from Johnston to Olneyville in the early evening. Seeing her sister unconscious, she called the police and tried to resuscitate Marya until the rescue squad arrived. When they took her away, Janina recalled that they had been teammates at Classical. They shared a long history, and Janina had always been her trusted older sister, mentor and protector.

There were 102 suicides in Rhode Island in 1974, up from 68 in 1972. It’s possible that the numbers reflect suicides being underreported in previous years. Two researchers speculated as to the reasons behind these numbers: “Suggestions as to mental 415

tranquility in Rhode Island are seemingly unsubstantiated and perhaps misleading. In the

year 1974 people were faced with a faltering economy in addition to their personal

problems. They were truly thrust into an ‘age of anxiety’ which can predispose to self-

destruction” (Sturner) 1974, p. 364).

The reader and I will probably never know the motivations behind what happened

at 106 Delaine Avenue that beautiful Saturday morning. While Marya was enduring

extreme pain and anguish, undergraduate students were throwing frisbees up on College

Hill. It was a perfect summer day, and many Rhode Islanders were already on the way to

the South County beaches. We are left with speculation as to why this happened – and

many other unanswered questions.

Her grave is located in Saint Ann’s cemetery, Cranston, Rhode Island, the

headstone crafted in 1975. The site is forgotten, the tombstone adorned only with lichen.

It is also the resting place for her parents and uncle. Previous to my interest in her story,

this had been the unremarkable legacy of a daughter, sister, scholar, and psychiatric

social worker.

I stop to pay my respects when visiting in Rhode Island, drawn to Saint Ann’s

Cemetery for reflection and contemplation. Visiting her Olneyville home isn’t possible

because it was burned and subsequently razed in 2010. The site now is an empty lot by

the Woonasquatucket River, adjacent to the Delaine Street bridge. The television series

Body of Proof was shot in Providence and surrounding areas of Rhode Island, and Her home is featured in the episode entitled Point of Origin. Presumably set in Philadelphia, a shot of the skyline cuts to Delaine Avenue looking over the bridge. The protagonist, 416

Peter, drives over the bridge only to discover flames engulfing the house. He bursts through the front door of the home once occupied by the Barlowski family, rescuing a woman lying prone on the living room floor. More a foyer than a living room, it was the area where family, friends and guests were welcomed. Her father was laid out there for three days after his death, and she most likely died in the same place. The episode is extremely valuable to me, because it provides a means to “visiting” the home when the forensic investigators do a walk-through. The newer wallpaper is burned off, revealing the original that existed during the sisters’ Classical days. I wonder if the film crew ever became reflective, wondering about the lives that were played out in this home, their struggles, successes and joys. The Nickerson Center - where Marya, Lillian and Janina worked as camp counselors - served as a lounge for cast and crew. During the third season, production was moved back to California. 417

Stills from Body of Proof, Point of Origin [Barlowski House, 2011].

(n.d.).

Season 2, episode 5

Frank X. Ryan

“If only we refuse to take our world for granted, we can detect something artful lurking at the heart of life, inviting us deeper into the world, allowing us to penetrate further and further into the mystery of its creation, perhaps even promising us a new relation to everything we know” (Boyd, 1990, p. 12). I have taken this inquiry into an empirical realm where knowledge is informed through sensory experience and induction, the objects subject to future revision. The writing has inspired an examination of my own life, the contemplation of a larger picture. Biographical narrative has become a model to envision educational futures, awakening something different from the habitual educational discourse. If not a cosmic endeavor, isn’t the exploration grounded in something a bit less mechanical and instrumental that a pragmatic circuit of inquiry? If we think of Dewey and Bentley’s concept of transaction as “seeing together” the what and how of our reflections concerning past and future, perhaps her story is honored and valued through a reactivation of her world and what we can learn from it. I recently shared these thoughts with Petra Hendry, scholar and theorist from Louisiana State

University in Baton Rouge. She didn’t mind a small drift into something a bit less mechanical and fixed, something that cracks the “illusion of consciousness,” a subjective

“something” that makes this writing more complete: “Karl, Really appreciate the notion of research as a ‘cosmic endeavor’!! Best to you, Petra” (P. Hendry, personal 418

communication, February 2, 2018). Perhaps there are constraints that require “seeing together” in other than a straightforward way, not corresponding with empirical sensory stimuli. That avenue will be explored in further writing, and it is a tempting notion of research. Following this line of thought, a “complicated conversation” with Dewey scholar Frank X. Ryan concludes my dissertation. Once again, I needed professional help to keep my writing on track and empirically sound.

Daniel Dennett is a Tufts professor who is considered a Physicalist. His nemesis,

David Chalmers, believes that Dennett's theories do not explain subjective experience. I asked Dr. Ryan if there might exist a parallel in the Empiricism/Rationalism "mind conforms to objects vs. objects conform to mind" debate and wondered if that would be too simplistic.

Dr. Ryan responded in the following manner:

Great to hear from you, and I hope all is well. I haven't yet read this piece

but am familiar with the dispute between Dennett and Chalmers. It would

be glib to claim to authoritatively summarize these complex positions

simply in terms of empiricism and rationalism, but I will give it a shot. In

an important sense, both Dennett and Chalmers are empiricists: They both

believe that experiences are subjective events that are distinct from the

mind-independent world and occur, if not wholly in the head, in some

configuration of brain and body. However, they represent different

extremes of empiricism. Dennett is something of a holdover from the

heyday of logical positivism and . What we call the mind or 419

cognition is not isolated in some phenomenon called "consciousness," but rather in a set of behaviors. According to Dennett, human evolution has equipped us with the capacity to make our world coherent and reliable--a necessary survival skill. Accordingly, we "construct" narratives from sketchy stimuli that help us successfully solve problems and overcome obstacles. What we call the cognitive or "consciousness," accordingly, is actually the sum of these diagnostic and constructive behaviors.

Dennett's behaviorism places him in the camp of "extreme empiricism," where nothing is acknowledged or admitted that is not perceptibly behavioral. Chalmers, to the contrary, is an empiricist who nonetheless insists upon a genuine "rational" function of the mind. This skews toward rationalism in the sense that Chalmers insists that "mind" cannot be reduced to purely physiological functions or behavioral patterns.

There's something "else" we might not want to get mystical or spooky about, but nonetheless appears to manifest itself cognitively in ways that exceed the sum of its physiological parts.

A pragmatist like Dewey is closer to Dennett than Chalmers.

However, rather than dismissing consciousness or reducing it to mere behaviors, Dewey insists that constructive problem-solving behavior is a philosophical backdrop for all allusions to "reality," not just a subjective limitation that keeps us from knowing the world as it "really is." In other words, Dewey is trying to bridge the gap between empiricism and 420

rationalism, not merely stake out one of the two poles of empiricism itself.

Nice to know you're still in the game! (F. Ryan, personal communication,

June 15, 2017).

The empirical purpose of my dissertation was exactly as stated. Using biographical narrative and currere case study, I hoped to provide Deweyan-inspired educational artistry as a model to envision alternatives to standardization and the legacy of Tyler. To me there was “something more” that ventured into that other pole of the empirical domain. The question of the soul kept haunting me; the value of the human life

I had resurrected. Stated another way, there seemed to be spiritual purpose in my efforts to connect the loose ends of Her biography. After all, I had become her voice, writing about her special purpose in the world. She occupies a larger arena now, created through transactions among family, friends, colleagues, scholars, researchers and readers. The discoveries, excitement and problems I intended to resolve are the first steps towards new knowledge. As to the “unanswered questions” of the research, John Miller (2000) suggests that “the soul dwells in paradox and does not approach life in a linear matter” (p.

27).

"The dualists believe that science can uncover only half the picture; it can't explain what Nabokov called 'the marvel of consciousness - that sudden window swinging open to a sunlit landscape amidst the night of non-being" (Boyd, 1990, p. 2).

Socratic acquisition of knowledge is manifested in “doing” the learning; that generating more questions than answers is a positive outcome. Since that addressed the phenomenon of "awakening" I’ve been exploring, it brought to mind one of my favorite 421

passages of T. S. Eliot., a paragraph from Little Gidding: "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploration will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time” (Eliot, 1991, p. 200)." That was to represent my awakening and the conclusion to this writing, until Frank X. Ryan (2017) responded, sharing the following that I will always remember: “I penned this in an undergraduate paper 40 years ago: ‘Fear not the unanswered question, but only the unquestioned answer.’ This sufficiently impressed my professor that he reminded me of it decades later. I applaud you for advancing the spirit of this remark” (F. Ryan, personal communication, June 17,

2017).

Empirical Discussion of Problem Statement

The beginnings of a narrative and some inventive curiosity transposed a few conversations into a magical vehicle of inquiry and research, a medium for creative, playful expression. Every fold of the inquiry becomes a dance floor. If one were to ask any of my colleagues they would describe this as perpetual motion: no wires, no mirrors, and solidly empirical. What you see is what you see.

And, you may see elements of the story that appeal to someone growing in the profession, or even in other vocations such as social work. The narrative may generate interest and apply to any endeavor where human spirit and growth are allowed to flourish; where individuals are motivated to their individual calling. This writing is informed by pedagogical surfers in the field like Henderson, Castner and Schneider, curriculum workers “going for it” in a different way, offering a counter to the Tyler

Rationale. We have little control over the “waves” and climate of the field, but must 422

learn to interact, creating the outcomes and new knowledge we seek. Their research points to alternatives to standardization and accountability.

Currere is evidenced also. My autobiographical journey is braided to a biographical narrative examination as I explore what the currere exploration of Marya might resemble, and also what it would inform. Madeleine R. Grumet describes currere as “an attempt to reveal the way that histories (both collective and individual) and hope suffuse our moments, and study them through telling our stories of educational experience” (Pinar et al., p. 521). One can easily imagine Marya as being invested in a perpetual exploration of subject understandings. Following the model of 3S understanding, democratic self and social understandings would have been a part. Even

Peter Hlebowitsh saw potential in this, believing the themes of her narrative “noting how the work of your heroine spoke to and accounted for the nature of the learner, the values of the society and the demands of the subject matter” (P. Hlebowitsh, personal communication, September 23, 2015). Marya wouldn’t have responded to challenges to personal and professional challenges in a two-dimensional manner. I believe she would have – and did – embrace a historical version of the fourfold process. This research is organized around an empirical purpose pointed to her awakening through her requisite intrinsic motivation(s).

In the process of reactivating a life I have ventured into my own currere and the intellectual history of the field. The historiography began in the early twentieth century with a family member. Lois Kneeland, my maternal grandmother graduated from

Classical High School in 1918, coinciding with the curriculum field becoming self-aware. 423

Lois Kneeland, Classical High Graduation Photograph [Classical high Caduceus,

1918, p. 21.]. (n.d.).

She completed her undergraduate work at Rhode Island State School, eventually becoming an excellent fifth grade teacher. Grandma introduced me to Classical High

School when I was a young boy. She was also part of the new student orientation committee when Marya entered Classical, in 1937. Marya died in 1974, a few years after the field was declared moribund by ground-breaking curriculum scholar Joseph Schwab.

The development of currere and reconceptualization of the field were to follow soon after.

Psychoanalytical avenues of exploration offer implications for the method of currere. Sophie Freud described well the field of psychiatric social work, providing information that helped my understanding the journey Marya took through her vocational calling. Margaret Layshock and Enzina Sammartino were illuminating because they knew Marya as classmates, and she had made lasting impressions upon them. Margaret attended Classical and Pembroke, Enzina only Pembroke. Margaret was in classes and sports with Marya at Classical. Enzina, however, was connected with Marya through 424

classes, Glee Club and Question Club. Sister Margaret Dorgan provided first person

reflections of her experiences at Classical, the challenges to becoming valedictorian

(1944), and also affords a sense of spirituality and transcendence. Mary Cadbury

informed as to academic excellence and leadership of the Phi Beta Kappa, Question Club

and the work expected of an Ivy-League student. While not the primary story, they have

all helped give voice to my subject, and are folded into the narrative. Each one has a life

story to tell, each counted, each respected.

William Pinar suggested that in looking at an individual’s lived experiences a

currere case study would be a valuable exploration: “Seems like a potential dissertation to

me, Karl. But I would stay focused on her and acknowledge context only as relevant to

the story you’re telling” (W. Pinar, personal communication, December 1, 2014). As a

student of educational experience, my very being has been enveloped by and immersed

in self-formation through this academic research. Pinar’s currere historical refinement as

an allegorical/biographical application “provides a strategy for students of curriculum to

study the relations between academic knowledge and life history in the interests of self-

understanding and social reconstruction” (Pinar, 2012, p. 44).

James G. Henderson agreed, but is this exploration informed by Henderson and

colleagues’ new writing, framed as an alternative to the Tyler Rationale? I believe so,

because my intuitive nature took me through a historiography of curriculum doctrines and

theory. The story and subsequent recounting of it is enlivened with the narrative. The

history folded into the scholarship, writing and actions of my subject into a Deweyan- inspired model for alternatives to the Tyler Rationale. Herbert Kliebard (1970) wrote that 425

“one of the most disturbing characteristics of the curriculum field is its lack of historical

perspective” (p. 56), and it is hoped this provides that perspective to the work of James

Henderson, Dan Castner and Jennifer Schneider. Their fourfold process takes its cue

from John Dewey, and his ontological way of being. In their first of four folds,

awakening situates motivation as a key component. Henderson and Gornik’s Reflective

Teaching: Professional Artistry Through Inquiry describes subject, self and social

learning as pointing towards democratic teaching and even living and being. When you

apply peer review, reflection, refinement and lifelong learning, it’s a committed

undertaking. This kind of connoisseurship is valuable for all professionals, not only in

education and social work.

Just drain the water from the backyard pool of standardization, accountability,

quantification and technological product orientation, and watch teachers and curriculum

workers “pull out the stops” as they see education conceptualized as Dewey-inspired freedom and democracy. This is not curriculum work likened to a downhill slalom, defined in minutes, seconds and market-based reform. Nor is it embodied by the cobbling of objectives and assessments, the teacher a mere representative with no creative input or engagement. Where is the teaching artistry when one is in service of external objectives? As an alternative, three curriculum workers have designed and published a worthy alternative to the Tyler rationale. Almost identical in size, it might possibly have the same rippling effects over time. The germ of this idea came from a person who believes in powerful curriculum - based leadership that supports a more worthwhile concept of “reform.” 426

James G. Henderson, December, 2013. (n.d.).

Photograph courtesy of the author.

His name is James Henderson, and he is a world champion. A master of this pedagogical surfing, he specializes in the freestyle expression of his dynamic and creative ability. An enormously versatile theorist and educator, his determination has put him on a level with the best curriculum workers in higher education. But why is his most current research and writing important, and why is an alternative to the effects of the Tyler

Rationale a valuable endeavor?

The Rationale was an outgrowth of the 1930s Eight Year Study, addressing traditional and progressive secondary education. Peter Hlebowitsh (2005) considers most 427

Reconconceptualist efforts as promoting the behaviorist critique Kliebard of Tyler, but even he concedes that “well-meaning interpreters of Tyler have indeed taken his ideas and turned them into behavioristic devices that have favored hyperspecific objectives and highly atomized classroom applications” (p. ii).

The Tyler Rational was designed during the first half of the Twentieth century as

a systematic procedure to guide curriculum workers. The Rationale outwardly

appeared to be a valuable tool, a short volume without highly specific objectives

that might lead to accountability and social efficiency. Hlebowitsh, in the

introduction (1949, 2013), offers a good place to begin: “The Rationale, which

was originally fashioned out of face-to-face interactions with school teachers,

gave curriculum developers an enduringly useful way to plan the conduct of the

school” (p. iv).

The education Marya received at Classical was embodied more than mere subject matter and the rote assimilation of facts. Perhaps that is what Peter Hlebowitsh meant when he recommended E. D. Hirsch, suggesting that traditional education may also be progressive, eschewing labels and common denominators. Leigh Bortins (2010) believes that learning is a “continuing conversation (p. 5), and that “successful education ought to propel a student to want to learn more. Learning should inspire joy bound with constant astonishment at the marvels of creation. Learning should breathe life into us— ignite our imaginations and inspire us to share the ideas we learn with people we love” (p. 14).

This appears to be still in evidence at Classical High, a 2017 Blue Ribbon exemplary high school “where there is a coherent, sequential curriculum facilitated by knowledgeable 428

teachers” (S. Barr, personal communication, October 3, 2017). Even Classical has been affected by the Tyler Rationale, evidenced by the barrage of testing required as a public high school, but how did his research produce these symptoms?

As a means to the embodiment of ethical values, the Tyler Rationale does not provide inherent safeguards, and may be utilized as a means for control and accountability. According to James G. Henderson (2017), this may have been somewhat unintentional: “Perhaps Tyler’s inattention to the distinction between critical and vulgar pragmatism is not so much a personal limitation but an artifact of the academic culture of his generation of curriculum scholars. In short, the lack of critical awareness incorporated into the Tyler Rationale may mainly be traced to habit and custom.

It is quite possible that, over time, that Democratic Curriculum Leadership might also reach a wider audience and find global readership. The four processes Tyler incorporates - purposes, organization, experience and evaluation - might then be balanced with Henderson and colleagues “fourfold” process of critical awakening. Peter

Hlebowitsh describes the criticism in the introduction: “The most well-known criticism of the Rationale, authored by Herbert Kliebard in 1972, ties it historically to the social efficiency traditions that prevailed in the early parts of the twentieth century” (Tyler,

2013, p. viii).

Tyler himself seemed to be aiming high in an opening statement of the rationale:

“No doubt some excellent educational work is being done by artistic teachers who do not have a clear conception of goals but do have an intuitive sense of what is good teaching, what materials are significant, what topics are worth dealing with and how to present 429

material and develop topics effectively with students” (Tyler, 2013, p. 3). He could have launched into the purposes, connoisseurship and artistry of teaching, but that was not to be. John Dewey (2004) wrote that “acting with an aim is all one with acting intelligently” (p.120). Tyler must have been aware of Dewey that identified aims with intelligence and experience, a means to foresee future possibilities: “…a terminus of an act is to have a basis upon which to observe, to select, and to order objects and our own capacities” (Dewey, 2004, p. 99). Tyler likely considered the writing Dewey advanced about “aims” as exclusively a means to an end as opposed to “ends in view.” Dewey

(2004) is describing an artistry of intelligence and consciousness: “…it is a name for the purposeful quality of an activity, for the fact that it is directed by an aim. Put the other way about, to have an aim is to act with meaning; not like an automatic machine” (p. 99).

The Tyler Rationale is much too prescribed, the four processes too like an “automatic machine.”

By contrast, the fourfold process of professional awakening, creative teaching, generative lead-learning and participatory evaluating embody an invitation “to embrace experiences that foster awakening, awareness and critical insight” (p. 2). The focus is on how her story informs awakening and generative lead-learning. There are some materials out there about intrinsic motivation, but I hope the reader has transactions that paint a good picture of what this looks like. The lived experiences and scholarship prepared and pointed Marya towards a folding process of her own awakening. She lived in an era where there were fewer opportunities for women, but her intellectual curiosity and creative imagination placed her on the level of the foremost scholars and social workers. 430

It all began very early in life, and there possibly existed an emergent ontological cumulative way of being. Qualitative indicators depict provocative clues regarding her awakening and awareness, a real sense of her human spirit. This was awareness that had a spiritual capacity.

There is only one available artifact that informs the early stages of her life, a small index card where her teachers evaluated and estimated her abilities. The yellowed paper provides a small window into her personality and spirit. It is a relevant, empirical and qualitative source of information concerning her core capacities and values. Down to the last, each teacher regarded her as a gentle personality with superlative intellectual facility.

Julian Street and Manton Avenue Elementary

Teacher Notation Card [Classical High School Archives]. (n.d.). 431

O. H. Perry Junior High

Teacher Notation Card [Classical High Archives]. (n.d.).

Classical High School

• Early acceptance to Classical High School

• Summa Cum Laude, Classical High School, 1941

• Most Athletic, Classical High School, 1941

• Ideal Classicalite, Classical high school, 1941 (Criteria: a student who most represents

what an embodiment of the values of Classical high)

• All A’s during entire tenure at Classical High

• “Wearer of the Purple C” during entire tenure at Classical High, lettering in multiple

women’s sports including basketball, cageball,

• Head Cheerleader

• Debating Society

• Classical High Valedictorian, 1941 432

Pembroke College at Brown University [Marya Barlowski Recommendations]. (n.d.).

Undergraduate scholarship at Brown University

• First Entrance Premium in Greek upon admission to Pembroke College of Brown

University

• Second Entrance in Latin upon entrance to Pembroke College of Brown University

• Elisha Benjamin Andrews Scholar. Marya was named an Elisha Benjamin Andrews

scholar in 1942.

• Phi Beta Kappa. The Phi Beta Kappa chapter at brown had a special arrangement

whereby an election was held on a semester basis.

• Marya earned an A.B. in Greek and Latin Studies, Magna Cum Laude, in 1945

• Graduated with high honors in Greek and Latin 433

Pembroke College at Brown University [Marya Barlowski Recommendations].

(n.d.).

• Newspaper work all four years, reporter, features and desk editor.

• Editor-In-Chief of the Herald-Record, 1944 - 45.

• Question Club. Inducted into the top leadership organization at Pembroke, 1944-45.

Pembroke College at Brown University [Marya Barlowski Recommendations]. (n.d.). 434

Pembroke College at Brown University [Marya Barlowski Recommendations]. (n.d.).

Graduate School

• M.S.S. in Psychiatric Social Work, Smith College 1947.

• Dissertation Research: Appraisal of a Clinical Pastoral Training Program, Part III: A

Study of the Contacts with Psychotic Patients by Theological Students.

Vocational Calling of Psychiatric Social Work

• Leadership and Service at the James Jackson Putnam Children’s Center in Boston,

founded by Dr. Marian Cabot Putnam, Her professor from Smith College, working with

“atypical” children now known to be on the autism spectrum. Marya initially interned

there and subsequently was hired as a full-time psychiatric social worker.

• Leadership and service Ohio State University, including lecturing and mentoring student

interns.

• Leadership at the newly-opened Columbus State School for disabled children. She was

mentored by psychiatrist Roger M. Gove providing leadership and help to children and

families of children excluded from public school because of disabilities. 435

• Leadership and service with newly- formed Boston Veteran’s Association. She was a

pioneer in the emerging field of service to disabled veterans and their families at the

United States Department of Veteran Affairs hospitals in the Boston area. After World

War II veteran’s benefits were expanded due to the G.I. Bill. Affiliate programs with

medical schools and VA hospitals were developed and expanded. She was connected

with the Jamaica Plains hospital up until 1959 and the Brockton Campus after 1961. Her

enthusiasm for the war effort at Brown University translated easily into helping veterans

who served.

• Leadership and Service at the Rhode Island Department of Alcoholism, serving those

individuals and families suffering with addictions. There she collaborated and served

with psychiatric social worker Anna Frances Shaw. Ten years her senior, Anna was also

educated at Classical High and Pembroke.

Final Notes

The Rationale itself was structured by four processes addressing fundamental questions

of educational purposes, experiences, organization and assessments, underscoring the

elements of scientific management Ralph Tyler espoused.

He saw his Rationale as a systematic procedure that could be used to guide

working groups in schools, one that, as many critics fail to remember, was

fashioned in the experimental curriculum work of the Eight Year Study. To

criticize it raised the question of its alternative. (Hlebowitsh, 1995, p. 89)

Dwayne Huebner (1999) explores in depth the language of curriculum work,

believing that the objectives outlined by Tyler do not engage in/with the complicated 436

conversation embracing differing viewpoints: “I believe Tyler erred in treating these differences as differing sources of objectives which could be synthesized technically and situationally” (p. 207).

As a worthy alternative, Dr. Henderson’s fourfold process of professional awakening (becoming a lead professional for democratic values), creative teaching

(practicing holistic pedagogical transactions), generative lead - learning (building the necessary repertoires for creative teaching) and participatory evaluating (democratically reviewing expressive outcomes and social impacts) is a vast improvement on the

Rationale, not relying upon sequential and structured objectives and assessments. James

G. Henderson, Dan Castner and Jen Schneider feel thathis framework was worthwhile

(purpose, experience, organization, evaluation), but that the Rationale relied too much on accountability and compliance. Their work is invitational, attracting educators who are intrinsically motivated to pursue democratic curriculum leadership. But what does this process entail?

The “traditional” education Marya and her sisters received was probably more

“progressive” than one might think. It was not depersonalized and de-contextualized and existed long before the emergence of the effects of the Tyler Rationale (published 1949).

The Rationale is technological, but the teachers at Classical and professors at Brown saw themselves as intellectuals, allowing for self-education, critical thinking and growth.

Students such as Marya Barlowski, Vernon Alden, Hermes Grillo and Margaret Dorgan were allowed to learn and flourish as part of their personal experience and growth, and these capacities motivated them in their vocational callings. Marya became a leader in 437

the field of psychiatric social work, Vernon Alden in higher education, Hermes Grillo in thoracic surgery and Margaret Dorgan in theological research and writing. They represent divergent vocations, but with a convergent grounding of liberal education, preparation, and, perhaps even spirit. Huebner (1999) posits a unique perspective on spirit as emblematic of intrinsic motivation and capacity-building: “Spirit is not owned by religious traditions nor its use limited to religious context. A person or team may be described as having ‘spirit’ suggesting drive, optimism, hope, enthusiasm, acceptance of one’s condition” (p. 342). Marya is surely the embodiment of Huebner’s furthering of the term “spirit,” and this also applies to the struggles she endured. He writes that a creative person may seem “inspired” and that a “person who lives with and overcomes handicaps with courage and acceptance is spoken of as a person who has ‘spirit’” (p.

342). Reader, please consider the handicap with which she wrestled, and the effort it must have required to overcoming this as she became a leader during her lifetime.

The pre-Tylerian Classical High school education is not easily pigeonholed and helps inform curriculum theory through the narratives of their graduates. Peter

Hlebowitsh described this traditional education most eloquently:

It is classical indeed, in the sense that it is rooted in a working belief in the power

of the subject matter to intellectualize and civilize, but it’s progressive too, in as

much as its advocates argue that it offers us common knowledge and values that

inform a common discourse dedicated to bringing about some working

understanding and appreciation of both what we hold in common and what we do 438

not. You could find Dewey making this argument and you could find E. D. Hirsch

making it too. (P. Hlebowitsh, personal communication, December 12, 2014)

There were opportunities for creativity and reasoning through high-level learning, empowering intrinsic motivation in these first - generation children of immigrants (and still is today). To this day, nearly one hundred percent of the students graduate and subsequently complete a college degree. The process begins with intrinsic motivation.

Dr. Henderson and colleagues’ fourfold process as currently conceptualized builds upon intrinsic motivation. This incorporates a more idealized approach to curriculum theorizing that is better attuned to the nature of the learner, values of society and the knowledge inherent in the subjects.

It cannot be used for enforcement purposes because it draws its inspiration,

perseverance, and moral strength from educators’ vocational callings—from the

thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that inspired them to be educators that advance

enduring democratic values. This text’s

awakening/teaching/collaborating/reviewing process is irrelevant to educators

without such intrinsic motivation. (Henderson, 2017, p. 14)

The purposeful subject – and hero – of this writing was Marya Barlowski, a brilliant student, scholar and social worker who was never content to “sleepwalk.” Going through institutionalized professional ritual and somnambulism in her calling of psychiatric social work - was not included in her pursuits or vocational calling.

Indicators point to the facts that going through simple, repeated behaviors personally and professionally was not incorporated into the vocabulary of Marya Barlowski. I believe 439

that she was invested in her own problem-solving artistry that took her through the labyrinths of the most challenging issues faced by those she served. Her journey points to being a critical and creative problem-solver. The personal and professional journey of human understanding was centered in heartfelt open-mindedness, empathy and continuous learning. Her continuum of learning manifested itself in four areas: study, research, vocational service and collaborative leadership.

There is evidence that Her problem solving was reciprocal, with her study and calling influencing her, a transacting that blurred the edges of subject and object.

This is embodied in James Henderson and colleagues’ insight into their fourfold process,

“the recognition that this problem solving is grounded in individuals mutually shaping and changing one another and their institutions.

This awakening, teaching, lead - learning and participatory evaluating process is valuable to all educators who possess the core qualities of intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent

satisfactions rather than for some separable consequence. When intrinsically

motivated a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather than

because of external prods, pressures, or rewards. (Deci & Ryan, 2000, p. 56)

There is a dearth of information available about the intricacies of such motivation.

As a means to inform these intricacies, it was proposed that the use of a historical biographical narrative would be an engaging means to address this, perhaps motivating educators to engage in the fourfold process. As a bonus, her narrative adds an informative historical element: “In short, though curriculum history can promise no 440

solutions, a rediscovery of the past can serve as a partial corrective to a long - standing characteristic of the field - that of ahistoricism” (Ponder, p. 463). As an example, Marya embodied intrinsic motivation for educational excellence that led her to become a lead professional in her field of psychiatric social work. She was engaged in the professional development and advancement of the fledgling field, also teaching the theory and practice of psychiatric social work.

Hermes Grillo was a classmate and colleague of Marya Barlowski at both

Classical and Brown. Amy, a professor of education at Mount Holyoke, teaches a class each semester that delves into intrinsic motivation and capacity-building.

She defines leadership and lead-learning in the following manner: “In my view, the essence of leadership has everything to do with capacity building through the reflective support of autonomy and nurturing of intrinsic motivation…any other form of leadership sounds more like “management” to me” (A. Grillo, personal communication, December

3, 2017).

The means to inform these intricacies has been through the biographical examination of the vocational calling of Marya Barlowski with reference to the awakening, creative teaching, generative lead - learning, and participatory evaluation folds. More specifically, Marya informs and is informed primarily by the folds of awakening, and generative lead-learning. Marya was a brilliant Greek and Latin scholar who was the valedictorian of her graduating class Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island, arguably the most demanding secondary school in the country at the time. She attended

Brown University for undergraduate scholarship in Greek and Latin, and Smith College 441

for study and research in psychiatric social work, her vocational calling. Vocation is derived from the Latin word vocātiō, meaning “call,” or “summons.” This involves a specific disposition, inherent qualities of mind and character that move one purposely toward a future calling of larger ideals, the embodiment of what it means to be a social worker or educator.

Through connecting to Dr. Henderson’s and Colleagues’ work, I believe that becoming a teacher (or practitioner, instructor and curriculum leader of psychiatric social work) requires an almost “missional” calling. This calling describes the intrinsic drive that “unconsciously, from the motivation of his occupation, reaches out for all relevant information, and holds to it. The vocation acts as both magnet to attract, and as glue to hold” (Dewey, 2011, p. 237).

I further believe that this might explain why educators would want to examine what initially influenced and motivated them, pointing them towards their vocational calling. A historical biographical narrative is a worthy means to tell this story, “an education which acknowledges the full intellectual and social meaning of a vocation would include instruction in the historical background of present conditions” (Dewey,

2009, p. 306).

There exists a plethora of novels, stories and movies wherein an innocent person is on trial, with little evidence to support the accused. The final arguments are over, the jury returns and a verdict is about to be read. At this poignant moment an eyewitness bursts into the courtroom with evidence exonerating the accused. The innocence is established by someone who was there, someone who was actually part of the 442

experience. It is assumed that someone with this knowledge is a better source than someone with a theory. Margaret Layshock is certainly that person.

Margaret Ajootian Layshock competed alongside Marya on cageball and basketball teams, including a few championship squads. She attests to the athletic prowess and leadership Marya had, but was not a close friend. They were often near to one another is the yearbook sports photographs at Classical High because of their proximity in the alphabet. During an interview two years ago, Margaret shared the following:

Her story…I think it piques one’s interest. She was quiet. Yeah, very

quiet. Well, I guess…to sum it all up…my relationship with her

was…that I was in awe (spells it out emphatically) A - W - E. I was in

awe of her because she was so brilliant. In classes she always knew the

right answer to give. We weren’t on the same wavelength. Truthfully, I

don’t know if there was anyone on the same wavelength as she, she was so

serious. I never knew her personally, never did anything with her

personally. I guess…I guess I assumed that she just studied all the

time…I don’t know…I don’t know…but she was just way off the charts”

(M. Layshock, personal communication, June 6, 2015).

As a brief summary of the problem, the goal was to provide currere - based empirical insights into why educators would want to engage in the fourfold process Dr.

Henderson is theorizing. This inquiry has been presented as a historical biographical narrative of a real person in her own place and time. The writing was deeply engaged in 443

exploring Her temporal and contextual world, and also my own personal story and evolution in thought and perspective. Even unheralded biographical subjects can be inspiring as models, providing an engaging personal component. The reader may well feel what I’m writing, developing an empathy for my subject, and in turn be motivated to experience Dr. Henderson’s and colleagues’ fourfold process. Therefore, the inquiry delves into curriculum leadership capacity-building through biographical narrative, and how this described and pointed towards her scholarship and vocational calling. This currere-based inquiry will provide insights as to why educators would be motivated to engage in Dr. Henderson and colleagues’ fourfold process.

It is hoped that Her experiences serve as an invitation towards professional excellence that piques a reader’s interest, also summoning a kind of hopefulness. This might be engendered through empathy for someone painfully withdrawn becoming emergent in scholarship, service to others and vocational leadership. By leadership I do not mean leadership defined by power, but rather a collaborative and creative expression of her ethical grounding and intellectual capacities.

And, there are dreamers. My imagination has taken me beyond the gravity of traditional academic writing and even (thankfully) common sense - on a truly magical journey. Unlike downhill racing, there is no world’s record to be measured in minutes and seconds. Instead, it is a journey of curriculum work best described as a dance of perpetual motion. Not limited only to education studies, it is “about” the antithesis of personal and professional stagnation. Jen Lowers believes I have “painted a good picture of what generative lead-learning and awakening looks like through Marya’s story” (J. 444

Lowers, personal communication, March 28, 2018). I envision an inspired Thomas Hart

Benton visually creating a mural about Marya, incorporating personal and contextual elements of her life.

Neither the life of a person nor their problem-solving artistry may be compartmentalized and commodified. That is the realm of standardization and bureaucratic decision-making. Instead, this writing gives a “face” to the “the journey of understanding and the pursuit of professional virtues that are central to the problem- solving discipline and artistry” (Henderson, et al., 2018, p. 1). Perhaps it also adds a

“resonance” as one explores their future or current vocational calling as democratic educator or social worker, or, indeed, any calling. There was triumph and success that balanced the tragic eventualities of her life. A colleague from the Journal of Curriculum

Theorizing at Bergamo Center framed her journey – and mine - as a message of hope:

I can see that you are fascinated with this all but forgotten women, a brilliant

schizophrenic who captured the heart and imagination of your father so long ago

and who has captured your imagination today. She came from a very unique place

and received the type of education that may also be said to be all but forgotten in

today's era of hyper-accountability and standardization. (J. Blanken-Webb,

personal communication, November 7, 2016)

Jane feels that this is an “intriguing tale” and is interested in seeing what there is to learn from Marya and Classical High School, and wonders if others will become intrigued and be drawn into the narrative. Her story might possibly offer some amount of peace to the reader. There might exist other benefits that would apply to the mental 445

health professions and psychiatric social work. Jane believes that this biography and historiography “challenges or, perhaps, enlightens, the way we think about mental health and mental illness--especially in cases in which there are very clear signs of great intelligence” (J. Blanken-Webb, personal communication, December 27, 2016). 446 447

Letter of Recommendation, Smith College [Pembroke College, Eva Mooar, Associate

Dean, March 5, 1945]. (n.d.).

The above letter says it all, even describing the beginnings of her vocational aspirations. Her calling was always there, but further study, scholarship, and the historical equivalent of collaborative lead learning resulted in the interest and capacity for psychiatric social work. This is conveyed in the spirit of awareness. The reader will have to decide if the narrative reflects a sense of the fourfold process, threads of it tied to the past. Based upon the research, would Marya have responded positively and enthusiastically with personal and professional intrinsic motivation? Does she serve as a model personifying connoisseurship, a “supreme artist” of her calling? It is suggested that this narrative historiography is informed by James G. Henderson and colleagues’ extraordinary volume entitled Democratic Curriculum Leadership with its fourfold process “committed to integrating democratic values and decision-making into their professional practice” (D. Flinders, 2018, back cover endorsement).

I am grateful to those who read this research and believe that curriculum is a way of being. I entreat the reader to consider that some ontological “essence” of work that

Marya accomplished will outlive her mortal years. Not a supernatural phenomenon, this writing offers a hopefulness that her narrative may become the beginnings of something larger; something that defies shallow perspectives and linear thought. William Blake encouraged others towards contemplative, imaginative action and spiritual breakthroughs.

He addresses “fundamental dilemmas of human existence-our place in the universe, our 448

dread of mortality, our yearning for some ultimate source of meaning” (Damrosch, 2015, p. 2). This is an invitation to look beyond technical, instrumental approaches to curriculum work, leadership – and life, towards the fullness of problem-solving artistry.

Therefore, the creative genius of William Blake ends this dissertation with an eloquent poem, unpublished during his lifetime.

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in Eternity’s sunrise

She lives in eternity’s sunrise.

Barlowski Family Tombstone [Saint Ann's Cemetery]. (n.d.).

Photograph courtesy of the author. APPENDICES APPENDIX A

LETTER OF RECRUITMENT (PHYSICAL OR VIRTUAL) APPENDIX A

LETTER OF RECRUITMENT (PHYSICAL OR VIRTUAL)

My name is Karl Martin, and I am a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction at Kent State University. I’m doing research that involves the lived experiences of a person from Providence, Rhode Island, and incorporating the history of teaching and learning as fits contextually into her life story. I would like to conduct an interview with you that will take approximately 30 minutes. There should be no exposure to risk, participation is fully voluntary, and you can end the interview and withdraw from the study at any time. If you agree to be interviewed, I will mail through the postal service – or email – a “participant’s agreement.” If we are recording, I may ask for oral consent, and will ask if I may use excerpts from the transcript. For instance, some questions may address the climate and culture of Providence, Rhode Island or personal anecdotes about individuals, families, community, school and church. I thank you so much for your consideration to participate.

Best wishes,

Karl W. Martin White Hall, Room 404 150 Terrace Drive Kent State University Kent, Ohio 44242

451 APPENDIX B

PARTICIPANT’S AGREEMENT APPENDIX B

PARTICIPANT’S AGREEMENT

Participant's Agreement:

I am aware that my participation in this interview is voluntary. I understand the intent and purpose of this research. If, for any reason, at any time, I wish to stop the interview, I may do so without having to give an explanation. The researcher has reviewed the individual and social benefits and risks of this project with me. I am aware the data will be used in a research study and oral history that will be publicly available in a doctoral dissertation. I have the right to review, comment on, and/or withdraw information prior to the dissertation’s submission. The data gathered in this study are confidential with respect to my personal identity unless I specify otherwise. I understand if I say anything that I believe may incriminate myself, the interviewer will immediately rewind the tape and record over the potentially incriminating information. The interviewer will then ask me if I would like to continue the interview.

If I have any questions about this study, I am free to contact the lead researcher, my faculty advisor (Linda Hoeptner-Poling: [email protected]) If I have any questions about my rights as a research participant, I am free to contact the chair of Institutional Review Board at Kent State University. I have been offered a copy of this consent form that I may keep for my own reference.

I have read the above form and, with the understanding that I can withdraw at any time and for whatever reason, I consent to participate in today's interview.

______Participant's signature Date

______Interviewer's signature

453 APPENDIX C

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS I APPENDIX C

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS I

Interview questions I:

• Please tell me your name, your birthdate and our relationship. • What is your earliest memory of family, school and community? • Who were you parents? • What were your parents like? • What was the happiest moment of your childhood? • What were some of the best experiences of your school/college experiences? • Who were the most important acquaintances, friends and faculty at Classical High School And/or Pembroke College? • What was your favorite class? Sport? Activity? • Can you describe a typical school day? Saturday? Sunday? • Who was the most important person in your life? Can you tell me about him or her? • What are the most important lessons you've learned in school? In life? • What are you proudest of in your life? • How long have you lived in _____? • How has it changed over those years? • Did you know John, Maria, Marya, Janina or Lillian Barlowski? • Who are some of the other neighbors, friends and colleagues that you remember? • If so, what stories and associations do you remember? What childhood, school or professional memories do you have of them? • Did you know of them, seeing them at church, school or the neighborhood? • What was the community like when you grew up here/first moved here? • What do you miss most about the way the neighborhood, school or Church used to be?

455 APPENDIX D

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS II Appendix D

Interview Questions II

Interview questions:

• Please tell me your name and our relationship. • What is your earliest memory of family, school and community? • Who were you parents? • What were your parents like? • What was the happiest moment of your childhood? • Why is education so important to you? • What was your favorite class? Sport? Activity? • Who was the most important person in your life? Can you tell me about him or her? • What are the most important lessons you've learned in school? In life? • How long have you lived in _____? • How has it changed over those years? • Please tell me the story about your connection to Anna Frances Shaw? Margaret Dorgan? • How did this journey affect you? Change you?

• Can you tell me a little about Anna Frances Shaw? Margaret Dorgan? • Who are some of the things you remember about her? • What stories and associations do you remember? What childhood, school or professional memories do you have of them? • Did you know her? Do you remember her well? • Please tell me a little about her. • Are there stories that family has shared about her that you might remember? • Can you share any old photographs of her and your family? • How did the journey and discovery make you feel?

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