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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 358 174 UD 029 159 AUTHOR Leue, Mary M. TITLE Looking for One's Shadow at Noon: Vol. II. Finding the Self in School and Community. REPORT NO ISBN-1-878115-02-2 PUB DATE Mar 93 NOTE 173p.; Photographs will not copy well. AVAILABLE FROMDown-to-Earth Books, 72 Philip St., Albany, NY 12202 ($7.95; $8.95 Canadian; or 10.95 British pounds). PUB TYPE Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) (120) Books (010) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC07 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Anger; *Curriculum Development; Economically Disadvantaged; *Educational Trends; Elementary Education; Essays; *Free Schools; Literacy Education; *Nontraditional Education; *School Community Relationship IDENTIFIERS *Free School NY; *New York (Albany); Perls (Fritz) ABSTRACT This volume contains a collection of essays, reflections, and other writings (many of which originally appeared in several journals) on the relations among self and school and community. The first selection is an obituary of Fritz Perls, a leader of Gestalt therapy. The second essay, 'A Social and Political Reassessment of the Work of Wilhelm Reich Today," asks readers to step back and consider certain fundamental issues raised by his work. The next essay, "Reality and the Rose Curtain: Owning Your Anger," reflects on changes and trends in the Free School Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Following is another essay about that educational movement, "The Free School Controversy: A Letter from America" which offers reflections on community, the philosophy of education, and the nature of human relations. The next article, "Shoestring School," describes the Free School in Albany's South End (New York), a poor mixed Italian and Black neighborhood. A more formal history of the Free School follows, including many photographs of the teachers and students. "The Free School Community" offers reflections on the nature and rewards of the community that has grown up around that school. The final essay "The Pursuit of Literacy" argues for the importance of literacy in education and for democratic society. (JB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Olbce o Educahonai Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER 1E1410 ?(..tThis document has been reploduCed as *calved from the person or ofganashon origmating n 0 Minor changes have been made to improve ntproduchon Guilts,/ Pointe of view Of opinions at aeiedin this doc mint do not necessarily rp resentOficial OERI position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTEDBY 61 .44.Lein, TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER(ERIC)" IESI COPYAVAILABLE 2 LOOKING FOR ONE'S SHADOW ATNOON Vol. II Table of Contents Illustrations A Tribute to Fritz Per ls 1 A Social and Political Reasessment of the Workof Wilhelm Reich 7 Reality and the Rose Curtain: Owning Your Anger 24 The Free School Controversy: A Letter from America 37 Shoestring School 51 The History cf The Free School 78 The Free School Community 119 The Pursuit of Literacy 136 DOWN-TO-EARTH BOOKS ALBANY, NEW YORK Other books by Mary M. Leue: Jessica Dragonette's Fiery Breath Love Songs for the Irishwoman Rushing to Eva The Flying Bird Brings the Message dv Challenging the Giant: the best of EKOAE, the journal of alternative education (soon to be published: The Fifth Gospel) r 2 LOOKING FOR ONE'S SHADOW AT NOON; Vol. I Looking for the Self in Family and Society Vol. II Finding the Self in School and Community Published by Down-to-Earth Books 72 Philip St. Albany, New York 12202 Printed in the United States of America November, 1992. Second printing, March, 1993. ISBN :1-878115-02-2 Copyright by Mary M. Leue All rights reserved FOREWORD This collection of articles in two volumes represents a pretty fair sampling of my urgent concerns over aperiod of twelve years, between 1972 and 1984, with asprinkling of more recent ones.Looking for the central theme which runsthrough them all, my first awareness was that itis a broadone, encompassing as it does both concerns forpersonal growth and equally and by extension, for the society;for the quality of life in families and for the function ofschool in that society. Gradually, the theme of "school" has widened toinclude the entire issue of social institutions and theirimpact on life in the family and in society, and comes to rest inthe concept of community as the only proper testingground for those institutions. I call this collection Looking For One'sShadow at Noon, 4. because understanding human experience as I have been struggling to do has come more and more to assumefor me a mysterious quality which evokes the imageof attempting to reach the hidden through the seen, mainlyby a process of allowing whatever comes up, be it sensation,feeling, intuition 01 or belief which constitutes one responseto that "given," to have its proper "place" or teaching functionwithin the realm of one's being. Reading over these essays, especially the ones inPart 11, most of which were written during the70's and 80's, 1 am struck -1- I by the changes my attitudes have undergone since that period. When I have asked myself why I have still wanted to publish this material, the snwer is that it clearly represents a phase in my growth which is partisan and opinionated,yet still vigorous and provocative.As such, I realized that it could stand for that same process within each of us, andthat so long as I was not claiming to be "objective" or "balanced" in my beliefs, it was quite all right to want to publish them.I hope that one or two will strike a spark of recognitionwith some reader. It will perhaps also be clear to him that there is very little of so-called "enlightenment" in these essaysat least, as the term is usually used. They stand more or less as they "came in," with whatever dcgreee of insight, joy, paranoid projection, rage, judgment, or whatever was aroused in me atthe time of their writing.It is this sense I have of "standing" upon my shadow in the clear light of noon which has formed the basis for the title of these meditations.Perhaps I use the term "stand" in a sense which is similar to Martin Luther's, "Here I stand; I can do no other,"In the sense that each formulation represents my "position" at that time in regard to that issue, and is thus a function of what one might call"shadow projection."If any "clear light" begins tofilter through the darkness of each shadow projection, this will have occurred as a result of my "not doing" far more than in anyother way. Thus, the notion of "looking for," contrasted with "find- ing," the self in the titles of these two volumes refers not to any - - particular degree of enlightenmentI believe I have attained, but simply a feelingof having endedthe search as a goal in itse f - and begun merely tolive my life.The "contrast," then, is not really there, but is more akind of flickering between"dark and light" which one mightliken to the flickering ofprojected images seen on old moviefilm run at a slow speed,created by the passage of the shutterbetween the still pictures to givethe illusion of motion. The truth is that nothing seemsquite as clear-cut. as "given," to me as it used to,but seems to depend for itseffect on the varying conditirAis of responseI myself bring to bear onthe events of my life.More and more I seem to perceivethe hands of the divine coming throughthe image of my own hands,the voice of God speaking through mewhen I speak clearly.Each time 1 find that invisibleshadow under the light of high noon, that darkness seems to light up moreand more completely. This strange quality of evocativeness comesthrough the writing more as I look back onIt than it did when I wroteit down. I say, "Did Iwrite that?" The answer tothat question seems to me by no meansself-evident. January, 1993. Volume II FINDING THE SELF IN SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY TRIBUTE TO FRITZ PERLS from Energy & Character COMMENT: This obit is the first writing of mine ever to see print! My dear therapist and friend David BoadeUa was the literary midwife to this first effort, published in his journal Energy andCharacter. in May, 1971. My part of itis very personal, very biographical, and this approach to Gestalt therapy feels to me a lot like Fritz's own.1 seem to be trying to look past his words to the man htmself. Actually, the piece had a different ending, now missing, in which 1 resurrected old Fritz, sat naked with him in a hot tub at Esalen and watched to see whether or not he would playerotically with me as he says of himself he loved to do with the pretty young girls, tickling their nipples with his beard and watching them grow erect.Using myself as a model, I was sadly aware that he would not have attempted this with me, forgcwe him., and let himlie back down in his coffin, his life's work done. This acid test of the whole person seems to have struck David as irrelevant,certainly too erotic, perhaps too disrespectful, undoubtedly inappropriate in a sertous journal! And that's OK too. Actually, the point I was trying to make was a serious one. made later by Martin Shepherd in his two books In and Outa a Psychiatrist'sHead, subtitled My Tantric Summer- and his 1 biography Fritz. Shepherd saw clearly, as felt I did. using myself as a model, the significance of his exaggerated sexual promiscuity as a defense against the fear of death, as I was expressing - and seeing - my own doubts and fears about my sexual desirability through this fantasied relationship with Fritzdoing so as the ultimate tribute to his method.