LETTERS Reed welcomes letters from readers found on page 50. The grinding wheel from kindergarten to fifth grade, concerning the contents of the left Reed for parts unknown many and everybody knows exactly where magazine or the college.Letters years ago.] they are and where they’re going. must be signed and may be edited The most enthusiastic prosely- for clarity and space.Our email IS SUCCESS FOR ALL tizers of SFA are invariably teachers address is [email protected]. A SUCCESS ? who didn’t know anything about Reed is now on line.Visit the elec- best practices in the teaching of tronic version of this publication at From Io McNaughton ’90 reading or cooperative learning http://web.reed.edu/ community/ How ironic that the very same pro- before coming across the program. newsandpub/reedmag /index.html. gram that drove me away from the And in my experience, SFA is teaching profession was invented driving the most thoughtful, by two Reedlings. experienced, creative teachers THE DOYLE OWL IN THE FIFTIES Slavin and Madden’s Success For away from the schools that need All has indeed been a lifesaver for them most. Success For All is an From David Lapham ’60 many troubled schools, but not easy way out for districts that In the summer of 1950 I had been because of any particular charac- don’t want to train and pay their a Reed student for two years. I was teristic of the program itself. teachers to use their own smarts living in a two-room apartment Instead, the program’s success has and initiative to develop their with Gary Snyder. As I was moving to do with elements that could be own reading programs. out, Don Berry, who had been repeated using any combination of By the way, Mr. Slavin, don’t be waiting for space at 1414 SE teaching practices. Success For All so quick to compare your reading Lambert Street, moved in. I had works because of three things: lev- program to the “structured enjoy- been offered the heating plant job eling, consistency, and articulation. ment” of Disneyland. Remember at Reed: starting it in the morning, As your article stated, all children that the employees are throwing up shutting it off at night, keeping in Success For All schools are placed and passing out inside their Goofy proper temperature, and heating in reading classes according to their suits, and that the children are the swimming pool with the under- skill level, rather than their chrono- being told what and how to imagine. water pipe. The job came with a logical age (this practice is known sleeping space. I was living frugally as leveling). Give any good teacher THE REAL FALLOUT OF on the GI Bill and was happy to a group of 10–15 children whose WORLD BANK POLICIES have it. I was supposed to sleep skills are about the same for an hour upstairs at the gym. The previous and a half every morning, and the From John E. Peck ’88 occupant of the job had stayed in a likelihood that their reading skills I was rather dismayed to read small loft room in the heating plant will improve is extremely high. Marlaine Lockheed’s take on the itself, but that space had been con- Of course, no school would be recent protest in Washington, demned. I took a look at the little able to undertake the project of D.C. (“End Note,” November 2000), room in the heating plant, anyway. leveling without a high degree of especially since I was among those There in the top bunk was the commitment from school person- “well-meaning (but) poorly Doyle Owl. How long it had been nel, which brings us to the second informed” demonstrators below there and how long it remained point: consistency. In a Success For her ninth-floor window! I guess there I do not know. I never men- All school, everyone’s on the same my B.A. in economics from Reed tioned the Doyle Owl to anyone. page. They’re teaching the same College and my own (albeit brief) I was a history major and felt that way, using the same terms, having experience as a subcontracted such things should be left to people the same expectations of the kids. World Bank researcher in in physics and chemistry. As a side In this kind of environment, kids Zimbabwe didn’t serve me very note: I was pleased to find that the can move right to the work of well. More disturbing is the heating plant had a large sandstone learning to read without having thought that current World Bank grinding wheel. I used it to sharp- to learn about their teacher’s employees like Ms. Lockheed were en woodcarving and engraving management system (or person- either not allowed or felt too intim- tools for Lloyd Reynolds and his ality, for that matter). This saves idated to engage in actual one- students. (I had learned this in pat- a lot of time and structures the on-one dialogue with the taxpaying tern shop at Benson High School). kids’ learning very effectively. citizens to whom their agency is The wheel may still be there. Thirdly, Success For All is artic- democratically accountable. The I hope it is. ulated over the grades. There’s no “global village idiot” comes from [ Ed. Note. Don Berry ’51 died this overlap or redundancy from level media spindoctor fancy—courtesy past February; his obituary can be to level. The program takes kids (continued on page 52) AQUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF reed PERSONALITIES, ACTIONS, & IDEAS http://web.reed.edu/community/ newsandpub/reedmag Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Oregon USPS 458-840, ISSN 0895-8564 Vol. 80, No. 2, May 2001. Postmaster: Send address changes to Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland OR 97202-8199 FEATURES Published six times each year (as quar- terly magazine, annual report of donors, 2 JOSÉ BROWN: ARTE POVERA and as catalog) in February, May, July, Memories of a dancer August, October, and November by Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., 10 MAKING VISUAL SENSE Portland Oregon 97202-8199; 503/777- Seven alumni artists and their work 7591; fax, 503/777-7595. It is distributed free of charge to its alumni, parents, 14 RAW DEAL faculty, staff, and friends. Reed Arts Weekend and how it involves students President of the College 18 JUST ASK! Steven S. Koblik Students learn what goes into an art exhibition Director of Public Affairs Harriet M.Watson 20 UNLEASHING THE IMAGINATION A longtime member of the Collegium Musicum reminisces Editor: Paula Barclay, Director of Publications 22 BERKVAM AND GILLCRIST RETIRE Assistant Editor: Nadine Fiedler ’89, Two beloved professors will soon leave the faculty Assistant Director, News & Publications Alumni News: Marianne Brogan ’84 DEPARTMENTS Jessica Saxton, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations; 24 NEWS OF THE COLLEGE Class Notes: Patti MacRae ’71 30 NEWS OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Design 35 CLASS NOTES Anderson McConaughy Design 53 END NOTE Founded in 1908, Reed College is a non- profit educational institution incorporated as the Reed Institute, named in honor of Portland pioneers Simeon and Amanda COVER: Professional dancer, choreographer, Reed. Reed is a private, independent, and teacher José Brown ’71. nonsectarian, four-year college of liberal arts and sciences. It has an enrollment of approximately 1,300 students and awards the bachelor of arts and the The contents of this magazine are selected to stimulate thought and discussion, to master of arts in liberal studies degrees. demonstrate the range of opinion and activities prevalent at Reed College and in its broader community, and to provide news about the college and its alumni and friends. E reed is printed on recycled paper with soy inks. osé Brown ’71 died May 1, 1996, in Portland, Oregon, of AIDS. He was a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher. He attended Reed for two years, then transferred to the Calif- ornia Institute of the Arts, where he majored in dance. He danced in the New York By Louise Steinman ’73 companies of Pearl Lang, Kei Ta kei’s Moving Earth, and Rudy Perez and Rael Lamb’s Dance for a New World. As director of his own company, Changing Dance Theatre, he choreographed and performed in New York, Japan, Denmark, Spain, Italy, and Greece. His last work in Copenhagen was King Lear, translated by novelist Peter Hoeg and per- formed in the National Museum. In Tokyo he per- formed in the Noh Theater of Hideo Kanse, and in New York his choreography was seen at Hundred Grand, P.S. 122, the Merce Cunningham Studio, La Mama Theatre, and St. Mark’s Church, where his production Satyricon 2000 was performed. His last performance in Portland was a solo dance concert, Soldiers, given on April 1, 1995. —Reed, November 1996 Dance is an ephemeral art: when his untimely death. Since I began “What if?”As his beloved Reed the dancer and choreographer this journey—interviewing some dance teacher Judy Massee put it, vanishes, what remains is the of his friends, reading his journals “José was really thinking about Big memory of the dancer, the memo- and letters, viewing videotapes of Things all the time. All the time. ry of the dance.I wanted, in this him dancing—I have been inspired What if? What if some angel had article, to celebrate the memory of and saddened, exasperated, elated, really come with some big founda- José Brown ’71, as well as consider and amazed. Most of all, I have tion grant? What if there had been some of the questions provoked by been haunted by the question a MacArthur grant for José?” Program notes to José’s last performance The title of this program, Soldiers, was suggested to me by casting the I Ching.