In Memory of My Teacher, Annemarie Roeper, I Fear Not
(August 27, 1918 – May
11, 2012)
Legendary educator
Annemarie Roeper once told me that ‘if you plan on standing up for the underdog
don't expect to be popular’.
What is soon be a year
ago, I tweeted out this sentiment praying these powerful words would inspire
others just as they had inspired me. One response flooded me with such
emotion that my eyes welled up with tears:
"The emotions
are the heart and soul of giftedness. The heart and soul of the human being is my
passion. Anne Marie Roeper :)", tweeted Joseph Ephraim from his account
@freelancejoe, to which I almost immediately replied with the tears then
streaming down my face:
"She was my
teacher. Three years before passing in
2012 she wrote to me, "Don't you see I will always be with
you?"
At age 16, Annemarie
Roeper was the youngest protégé of Anna Freud to ever enter medical school, an
honor cut short when the Nazi’s marched on Vienna, where she had grown-up
across the street from Sigmund Freud and his family. She fled Europe with her
husband-to-be George, with whom she had bonded with at age 6 when he had first
arrived at her parents’ boarding school. Arriving in the United States,
they made their way to Michigan where they founded The Roeper School.
While The Roeper School was established to meet the unique needs of gifted
children, Annemarie’s vision of what constitutes education embraced all
children for which she emphasized the necessity of a holistic or ‘whole child’
approach.
Her vision transcended education to include a
‘global view’ about which she was wrote as early as the 1940s. To her, a global view is to see “the whole of
the community and the ramifications in the world”[1].
Possessing a global view
since her childhood, Annemarie was a natural humanist, possessing a finely
honed, internally developed sense of justice and fair play. She was not
only profound in her wisdom but in her fearlessness in acting upon her
convictions. She never wavered from a position necessary to bring about a
fair or just result.
She modeled her inner
strength to me in a situation that not only proved life-altering but is
directly related to the situation now negatively impacting my children and
me. This occurred over a decade ago during the initial conflict with the
Warren Consolidated School District which, in turn, precipitated a decision by
The Roeper School that my oldest daughter was no longer going to be accepted as
a student at the school which had not only provided her an education but had
come to be a second home for my children and me. Ultimately, my daughter
continued her education at The Roeper School.
The details of that
conflict are no longer relevant. What is relevant is that while that
conflict was on-going, Annemarie, after having unsuccessfully advocated that
the school’s decision to exclude my daughter was contrary to the very ethics
upon which it was founded, resigned her position on the Board of
Trustees. Her decision, consciously arrived at and executed without any
hesitation, was the catalyst for resolution.
Resigning her position
on the Board of Trustees was incomprehensible to me as The Roeper School had
meant the world to Annemarie and her then late husband George. For years,
I functioned under the ego-based misconception that she had done so for me as
we had a teacher/student relationship. It would many years and not until
after her death before I understood that her decision had absolutely nothing to
do with me. Annemarie acted as she did because it was the only right
thing to do if she were to honor her deeply held inner-developed core
beliefs. Her faith in what she believed was stronger than the need to
maintain the last vestiges of a formal role with the school she loved so very
much. That was and is to this day powerful.
.
In standing in silence
with the truth for all these years, I had wondered if I might have somehow
honored her legacy, her conscious decision to be my teacher, and the investment
of her time spent teaching. This was a question I repeatedly asked myself.
The answer was “No”, until now. What I
know for sure is that it is one thing to stand in silence with the truth but,
it is an entirely different reality to feel unfettered in speaking the truth in
a dignified manner with the intention that there be relevant social
change.
Annemarie wrote that in
order develop the same the psychological mechanisms she had modeled for me, the
student must first feel unconditional love and acceptance by their teacher,
with that relationship having a shared interest in a subject matter. I have found this unconditional love with my
current teachers. We have as shared ethos as to the inviolate nature of a
breach of the public trust and as to the rights of all children to be protected
from harm.
“When selves have gone
through many of these states of growth without losing their emotional ability
to grow, they almost invariably become people with a sense of justice who
understand their interdepedence with the rest of the world.” (pg 40).
Annemarie explained:
“Society does not see the world as interdependent, but rather as divided by those at the top of the hierarchy and those that serve them…Over the centuries, we have seen that this framework does not work. It has led to the belief that humankind is master of the work, which it is not. Moreover, it has led to great destruction and tragedy for earth and humankind.” (pg 93).
“Society does not see the world as interdependent, but rather as divided by those at the top of the hierarchy and those that serve them…Over the centuries, we have seen that this framework does not work. It has led to the belief that humankind is master of the work, which it is not. Moreover, it has led to great destruction and tragedy for earth and humankind.” (pg 93).
She was definitive
that we “see the community as a circle of interdependence, rather than a
hierarchy of dependency, with peers and community members as
cooperators.” (pg 100).
My faith is
unwavering. I am committed to honoring Annemarie and
all of my other teachers by paying it back going
forward.
#ImaginePeace
#OneOhana
#DeverouxCleary
#AnnemarieRoeper
#SpeakingTheTruth
#Interdependence
#Community
#UnconditionalLove
[1] The “I”
of the Beholder, by Annemarie Roeper, Ed.D., with Ann Higgins, Great Potential
Press (2007).
