A Study of the Presidency of Jack Niemeyer at Bank Street College of Education
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THE WAY WILL OPEN A STUDY OF THE PRESIDENCY OF JACK NIEMEYER AT BANK STREET COLLEGE OF EDUCATION by JOHN S. BORDEN Copyright © 2017 JOHN S. BORDEN All rights reserved. ISBN-10:197599406X ISBN-13:978-1975994068 DEDICATION This book is dedicated to two remarkable women who have been my teachers and shaped my life To my mother, Edith Silberg Borden, who was a fourth-grade teacher in Baltimore city public schools, taught me to read and spell during truly chaotic kindergarten and first-grade experiences, and believed in education as the path to a good life And To my wife, Marian Edelman Borden, who has always been an understanding and encouraging life partner, an exceptional writer and editor, and a pillar of patience with a warm sense of humor and deep appreciation of irony With Marian’s help, the way did open . TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 CHAPTER 1 - THE NIEMEYER EXPERIMENT BEGINS 3 CHAPTER 2 - THE MAKING OF A PRAGMATIC PROGRESSIVE IDEALIST 14 CHAPTER 3 - BANK STREET EVEN MORE SO – BANK STREET AT THE START OF THE 51 NIEMEYER YEARS CHAPTER 4 - DYNAMIC STRENGTHENING: TRADITION, TRUST AND 83 TRANSFORMATION CHAPTER 5 - SPLITTING THE SOCIAL ATOM: NIEMEYER, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL 126 JUSTICE CHAPTER 6 - JACK'S LEGACY: THE CRUCIAL LINK 160 BIBLIOGRAPHY 166 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 171 PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project in some ways represents my effort to discharge a moral obligation to a man whom I never had the pleasure of meeting. After Jack Niemeyer died in 2004, the College received a generous bequest from his estate. Gussie Kappner, the College's president, had known Jack and wanted to recognize his many contributions to Bank Street and education in an appropriate way. That was the beginning of the Niemeyer Series in Education Policy, and I was fortunate enough to be part of the College team that organized the lectures and panels that have been held since 2006. That was how I came to know about Jack, and to begin to appreciate what his leadership and love of Bank Street meant to the development and impact of the College. The title that I selected – "the way will open" – comes from a Quaker saying that Jack liked and used as a personal mantra as he faced so many difficult problems over his career. Jack was an historian, and he very much wanted to write a history of Bank Street that would reflect his ideas and perspectives. That was his project in the period from 1995-1999, but unfortunately one that he was not able to complete. I cannot claim that my effort would come up to Jack's standards, but I hope that he would have been pleased to know that this effort has been made. A truly complete history of Bank Street remains to be written, of course. For a small institution, Bank Street is a fascinating and complicated place, and its life has involved (and continues to involve) many accomplished and interesting people and projects. My project has been supported generously by Bank Street College under its sabbatical policy, for which I am very grateful. Interestingly, it was Jack Niemeyer who advocated for implementing a sabbatical policy. I am grateful to Bank Street President Shael Polakow-Suransky for his encouragement and support, and to the Human Resources Office staff for their counsel and assistance. I owe many thanks to the outstanding staff of the Bank Street Library, especially to the College Librarian Kristin Freda and Archivist Lindsey Wyckoff who were essential and always gracious partners in my work. Jack would be thrilled to know the College's records are in such good hands. I would also like to thank the many members of the Board of Trustees, and especially Chair Yolanda Ferrell- Brown, for their encouragement of this project, as well as their support over my twelve years as a member of the Bank Street staff. Life Trustees Lynn Straus, Kate Whitney, and George Scurria (and his wife Janet) deserve my special thanks for their help. The alumni and faculty who were interviewed as part of my research appear in the Bibliography, and I am grateful for the time and care that they devoted to answering my questions. Nancy and Alyn Rovin have been exceptionally kind with their time and attention. Speaking with them helped me to get a better understanding of Jack as a vibrant and enjoyable father, grandfather, and friend. Of course, those conversations made me feel even more dismayed that I never had the opportunity to talk to Jack myself. There are so many questions I would like to ask him! Jack’s grandchildren, Kailah Rovin Matyas and Josh Rovin also gave the project welcome support and encouragement. 1 JACK NIEMEYER AT BANK STREET COLLEGE OF EDUCATION Two other people were of exceptional help because to some extent they plowed the field for me. The late Edith Gordon was a truly devoted Bank Street alumna. Without her extensive interviewing over more than ten years, this cupboard for this project would have been much less full. Her unpublished dissertation, Educating the Whole Child, also contained many treasures. Gordon's interviews and dissertation were helpful to Joan Cenedella in her excellent dissertation, The Bureau of Educational Experiments, which was a tremendous resource for both the early and later phases of Bank Street's development. I also want to acknowledge two former Bank Street presidents and a former dean. Fran Roberts, Jack's successor, has given me much time, patience, and thoughtful encouragement. Fran, a sociologist, suggested looking at Burton Clark's institutional saga concept for framing the project. Gussie Kappner has been, as is always the case, a terrific source of information, ideas, and feedback. Her encouragement has meant a lot. Fern Khan was Dean of Continuing Education when I arrived at Bank Street in 2004 and has always been a kind and helpful colleague, including with this project. Judy Barrett, who was Jack's neighbor and volunteer editor, was a wonderful source of information about Jack's later years and his thoughts and memories about the College. Judy kindly arranged for me to visit the place that Jack called home at 77 Seventh Avenue, a delightful sunny corner apartment on the 20th floor. She also told me how much Jack felt connected to Bank Street, even long after his retirement as President. That insight gave me the idea of framing Jack's devotion in terms of love – as in, Bank Street was the love of his life, at least as an educator. Hamilton College Archivist Katherine Collett has been very kind in locating and supplying many photographs of Jack, from his days as a student to his 70th alumni reunion in 2000. I appreciate her assistance very much. I want to acknowledge former Bank Street Board Chair John Shutkin, who has always been a constant source of wit and wisdom. He knew Jack a bit as a fellow Trustee, and in thinking over some of my questions about Jack's impact on the College, said that he had realized that Jack was the "crucial link" between the smaller Bank Street of Lucy Mitchell's time and the broader institution that it is today. Hence, the title of Chapter Six is dedicated to him. Special and boundless thanks are due to Rhonda Dossett, who is my wife Marian’s writing partner and who generously provided the skill and perseverance needed to turn my manuscript into this book. Any errors or oversights in the final book are entirely my responsibility. This project has been intriguing, engaging, frustrating, and fun. I could not have completed it without the steadfast support, patience, and editing skills of Marian, who is also a much better writer than I am and to whom I have dedicated this book. I am pleased to report that Marian thinks that she would have liked to meet Jack, too. John Borden June 30, 2017 2 CHAPTER ONE THE NIEMEYER EXPERIMENT BEGINS In early June 1956 John H. "Jack" Niemeyer sat in his make-shift "president's office," a "cubby-hole" carved out of space next to the auditorium and lacking a telephone.1 He was now officially president of Bank Street College of Education, and the weight of not just expanding Bank Street's reach but sustaining its very existence was squarely on his shoulders. Although Bank Street had existed for four decades in various forms, it was approaching a critical inflection point, and Niemeyer had spent a year as "president-elect" learning the scope and variety of challenges that he would have to handle. He had left a comfortable position as head of Oak Lane Country Day School, Temple University's progressive laboratory school, to move to New York's Greenwich Village and take on the formidable task of literally creating the position of president at an institution that never had such a leader and might not truly want one. In many respects, his job was far more complicated and professionally dangerous than that of Bank Street's founder, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, who had created and led the institution since 1916. Beyond Bank Street's peculiar challenges, the world of preK-12 education was unsettled, especially for those like Jack who believed deeply in progressive education principles shaped by John Dewey. The progressive education movement appeared to be in rapid decline, blamed by political leaders and parents for multiple deficiencies in public schools. Progressives, an ambiguous label covering a wide range of educators, seemed unable to articulate compelling strategies for addressing the education priorities of post-WWII American society.2 The 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown vs.