DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21216#0201
alternative schools, Das Ende der Schule oder: Alternativprogramme im
Spätkapitalismus, 1974 p. 48). But Baez offers a when-there's-a-will-there's-a-
way answer to that reporters objections; mostly, I think, because she considers
normal schooling to be intolerable.
Just how to go about setting up Community schools is more difficult to ans-
wer than to note the need for them. After making similar comments about
"starting one's own school" on national television Baez received, according to
her Aunt and one time secretary, Tia Henderson, many many letters from
parents asking for advice about how they should go about doing just that. Hen-
derson told me this while commenting that unfortunately she had recently
disposed of the letters. She also mentioned that they were more or less at aloss
as to what to write back. Baez did not have a blue-print as to how to Start a
school similar to Staughton Lynd's. She had founded her own school but this
was for people over 18 and specifically for those who wanted to learn about
nonviolence. It also had a very large turn-over of students, the longest sessions
lasting about six weeks. What the many inquiries on the part of parents do show
is how they took what Baez said to heart and agreed with her that it would be
better to make one's own school for one's children than to send them to public
school. Normal private schools aren't seen as offering a real alternative. Baez'
own Solution was to send her son to the progressive Peninsula School where she
had gone to kindergarten. Her son attended this school up through fourth grade,
but then Baez transfered him to a public school, feeling that the Peninsula
School did not challenge him sufficiently and also because he was subject to
certain special pressures, being her son. She feit those who sent their children to
that school were likely to be "Baez-types" that is, people who admired her, and
that her son was being used to get to her. So her final rejection of the progressive
form was not general but had to do with the particular Situation of her son
having a famous mother. She did however State in our June 11, 1981 interview
that the school put too much emphasis on feelings and did not sufficiently
support her son's interest in science.
The school, at which Sandperl taught english for several years, was founded
by a quaker, Josephine Whitney Duveneck in 1925 (see her autobiography Life
on Two Levels, 1978 esp. pp. 142-159) along with other parents who were in-
tent on having "a more child-centered school for their children". (unpaginated,
196
Spätkapitalismus, 1974 p. 48). But Baez offers a when-there's-a-will-there's-a-
way answer to that reporters objections; mostly, I think, because she considers
normal schooling to be intolerable.
Just how to go about setting up Community schools is more difficult to ans-
wer than to note the need for them. After making similar comments about
"starting one's own school" on national television Baez received, according to
her Aunt and one time secretary, Tia Henderson, many many letters from
parents asking for advice about how they should go about doing just that. Hen-
derson told me this while commenting that unfortunately she had recently
disposed of the letters. She also mentioned that they were more or less at aloss
as to what to write back. Baez did not have a blue-print as to how to Start a
school similar to Staughton Lynd's. She had founded her own school but this
was for people over 18 and specifically for those who wanted to learn about
nonviolence. It also had a very large turn-over of students, the longest sessions
lasting about six weeks. What the many inquiries on the part of parents do show
is how they took what Baez said to heart and agreed with her that it would be
better to make one's own school for one's children than to send them to public
school. Normal private schools aren't seen as offering a real alternative. Baez'
own Solution was to send her son to the progressive Peninsula School where she
had gone to kindergarten. Her son attended this school up through fourth grade,
but then Baez transfered him to a public school, feeling that the Peninsula
School did not challenge him sufficiently and also because he was subject to
certain special pressures, being her son. She feit those who sent their children to
that school were likely to be "Baez-types" that is, people who admired her, and
that her son was being used to get to her. So her final rejection of the progressive
form was not general but had to do with the particular Situation of her son
having a famous mother. She did however State in our June 11, 1981 interview
that the school put too much emphasis on feelings and did not sufficiently
support her son's interest in science.
The school, at which Sandperl taught english for several years, was founded
by a quaker, Josephine Whitney Duveneck in 1925 (see her autobiography Life
on Two Levels, 1978 esp. pp. 142-159) along with other parents who were in-
tent on having "a more child-centered school for their children". (unpaginated,
196