AAUS Summer 2018 Newsletter

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL SUMMER 2018 NEWSLETTER ANNUAL MEETING About 18 of us gathered in Rm. 100 for the annual meeting. Regardless of the size of the group we always seem to have a good time.

At this time we re-elected the board; President: Alan Stickney, ’65, Vice-President: Dick Baker, ’62, Secretary: Carole Hardy Moyer, ’64; Treasurer/Membership: Steffanie Woodruff Haueisen, ’64. We also appointed Gary Page, ’66 as Events Director since he has been invaluable in planning evening social events for us. I failed to mention the usual Sat. evening get together on Annual Meeting Saturdays in the prior newsletter so he is also responsible to remind me next spring to include that announcement. Isn’t the aging process fun? You can’t remember the things you forget.

Under new business, we listened to a presentation by Dr. Rob Kelly who had been awarded a grant from our Endowment Fund. He studied “Investigating the role of Reading Accuracy with First Graders in a Literacy Intervention” and showed us a chart with his findings. It was very interesting not only see our Endowment Fund in action but hear some results of current educational research.

We also read aloud a letter of thank you from the University regarding how helpful to the students these grants are. For the next academic year no one met the deadline to apply for our particular grant so in 2019 there will be no Endowment Fund grant.

If you would like to contribute to the AAUS Endowment Fund here is how: Make out a check to the Ohio State University and in the memo line write for Fund # 607422. Please note if you have written this down before, our fund number has changed.

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I don’t know why. To get your donation to the correct fund please use the new fund number! Then mail it to: College of Education and Human Ecology, Office of Advancement, 110 Arps Hall 1945 N. High St., Columbus, OH 43210 If you wish to donate in memory of someone, then please also let me know so I can put it in the newsletter. The University doesn’t pass on that information to me

Here we are in Rm. 100 Front Row (l to r): Carole Hardy Moyer(64), Martha Dale Jackson’s lovely daughter Tamara, Steffanie Woodruff Haueisen(64), Al Stickney(65), Ben Reynolds(62), Steve Beyer(67). 2nd Row (l to r): Gary Page(66), Fred Vickers(66), Tom Boggs(66), Martha Dale Jackson(55), Julie Nusken(55), Wayne Moore, '60, Eddie Violet(61), Mary Ellen Anderson Tyus, '61. (Eddie’s sister, Cindy Violet(69) had to leave before the picture) Back Row (l to r): Dave Baker(65), Dick Baker(62), Tom Abernathy(56) (peeking out), Bill Taylor, (would have graduated in '72, his mom was Claribel Taylor, fac).

Many thanks to Tom and Sondra Abernathy’s granddaughter for supplying our meeting with yummy cupcakes.

We set the date for next year’s meeting for June 22nd, 2019.

Ben Reynolds (‘62) showed us a framed poster featuring University School which he had created and donated to the Blue Danube restaurant, a favorite stop for University School folks. The poster hung there for many years and because the Blue Danube recently closed, Ben rescued his poster.

We have now made arrangements to hang it in University School.

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After adjourning, we went outside to the Rotunda entrance to see the newly installed Historical Plaque recognizing University School. Again, we wholeheartedly thank our donors who made the plaque possible. We all agreed that it is indeed very lovely and somewhat unusual in that the background is gray, making the plaque scarlet (the Ohio State logo), gray and white. Very appropriate!

There is a punctuation error right after Alumni Association of University School, a mistake which occurred during production. I have asked that it be painted over and we will see what happens. If that doesn’t happen, then the sign will be unique and unusual just as the school was.

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Here we all are milling around the sign so you can see the perspective of where it is located in relation to the entrance.

Also we send our condolences to Ron McNabb ’54 on the passing of his wife, Sybil.

FAREWELLS… The Farewells continue; more University School “family” has passed away. Our deepest sympathies to all the family and friends of the following list of friends now gone.

FEEDBACK Thank you for all the comments and feedback we have been receiving. There were many, especially about Project Phoenix which will be interspersed in the next several newsletters. Project Phoenix was a highly current combined area study experience which received widespread attention in the area of Science education. There was a Science magazine write-up, articles in the local newspapers which earned the project much acclaim. This was the late 1960s and Space exploration interest was huge.

*Marguerite Anderson Slagle, fac *Mary MacLean Krumm, ‘38 *Henry Eckhart, ‘50 *Steve Kaplan, ’55, brother of Ruth Kaplan Uhlmann, ’53 and brother-in-law Craig Mathews, ’47 *James Bitonte, ’62 brother of Joseph Bitonte, ’59

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In their discussions about Project Phoenix, members of the Class of 1965 have sent in several of their tidbits: Al Stickney writes: INTERESTING PHOENIX PHACT: Did you know that Ed Cox was the Captain of the U-8 capsule?

Over the years, I moved into school administration and felt the need to try some of the things I had experienced myself at U-Hi. It was certainly a challenge for my teaching staffs and we had serious discussions but the majority were great people to work with. (note: The union president filed 31 grievances my first year - He won only one based upon "Past Practices") .

Ed Cox replied: As to earlier emails regarding Project Phoenix and Al’s recent one, I can still count on my memory to tell me that I was the astronaut captain that left the capsule after 20 hours or so. Fellow Astros were Martin Foster, Jim Miller and I’m thinking Jon Miller perhaps.

Best, Ed Cox

To introduce my beliefs to my staff, I went to the store and bought 15 different types of cookies and separated them with one cookie of each type into a bag. Each bag now contained 15 different cookies.

I gave one bag to each of my 12 teaching teams and asked them to grade each cookie. Needless to say, I received 12 entirely different "grades" for the cookies. This was an elegant example of the subjectivity of personal grading!

Different strokes for different folks!

David Jon Miller, ’65 sent in the following: I have sincerely enjoyed the exchanges that are taking place among us concerning Project Phoenix. Speaking as one of our former "astronauts", many other influences also came our way at University School. We did not immediately recognize them, yet they became lasting pillars in our lives.

I had the opportunity to hire over 70 teachers during my career. All were from a traditional college experience so I am sure the interview process was educational for most of them. I had three questions, based upon my U-Hi years, that I asked well over 250 teacher candidates. I can count on two hands the number that answered all the questions the way I had grown to expect from my teaching staffs. See how you do!

I was far from a quality, responsible student, as was expected of me, during this time of my life. My educational and personal development took quite some time lasting well into my college years.

As I began my teaching career, thanks to the influences of Mr. Tharp, I always questioned some of the ways we did things in evaluating students. The fact that I had survived in a school that gave no grades constantly made me question the value of grades when comparing a student's educational development. I assure you college was culture-shock when I received my first D!

Question 1- Billy takes a test on Tuesday and gets a traditional D! He goes home but comes back to the teacher the next day and tells him that he now understands the material. He asked to retake the test. Do you let him?

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If you answered No, the interview ended quickly! However, if you answered Yes, the interview continued.

Studies, Diverse Art experiences, opportunities to interact with the college environment and use the University's opportunities to learn even more raised many, many eyebrows.

Question 2- Billy retakes the test and gets a traditional B. What grade do you give him?

I believe that we all know there are better ways to educate students than what we "traditionally" believe. If you are in education, or any other learning opportunity environment,....take a chance!

If you answered C, the interview was now over. He should get the B! There should be no time limitations on the learning process. Our goal was the mastery of the material, not the time it takes to do so. We should be goal oriented, not time oriented.

MEMORIES From Shirley Hendrick Frondorf, ’44: “When I was going to University School we lived in Worthington. Worthington was pretty country-like in those days. I rode a shuttle bus home from school that didn’t run very often up towards Worthington and when it got to Worthington it stopped so I had to walk the rest of the way. Very cold. Finally I had a boy friend who had a car. We were all kind of wild then. After school we went across the street to a kind of saloon on the corner of Woodruff and High and drank beer – nobody said anything about age cards. What a wonderful time it was, and what a wonderful school it was.

Nothing can compare.”

Question 3- Do you believe in averaging grades for the grading period?

If you answered Yes, that would have been strike three! Would you want your salary paid based upon the average grades your students get or by their final, current abilities? You should have enough knowledge of your student's accomplishments to know what their final education level is and evaluate them accordingly.

Did I hire you?

Finally, I was fortunate to speak at the National Middle School Associate in San Antonio. Texas. I chose to present many of my University School thoughts to the 1800 school principals in attendance. I included this evaluation concept as one of my topics. Some disagreed but many said it gave them some thoughts to take back to their schools. We had great discussions in the break-out rooms. It proved difficult for people raised in a traditional format to grasp what we grew accustomed to and lived daily. "Core", Interdisciplinary Units, Non-graded classrooms, Cultural

Please continue to send in memories, comments and biographical information.

You folks are really interesting and your comments insightful. Many of us had slightly varying impressions and experiences of life at University School during the different decades but the life lessons learned at University School seemed to have carried us through our lives in similar ways. E-mail; jswhaueisen@yahoo.com or mail to AAUS, 587 Fox Lane, Worthington, OH 43085.

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