REPORT ON THE MODERN SCHOOL REUNION By Jerry Mintz, Director, Alternative Education Resource Organization 516 621-2195 Fax 516 625-3257 e mail: jmintz@igc.apc.com The members and friends of the Modern School had their annual reunion on Saturday September 24th. The Modern School Movement is based on the work of Anarchist Francisco Ferrer, who was executed in 1909 in Spain over the protests of Emma Goldman and others. In his name, Ferrer Modern Schools were established around the world, including on founded in 1911 in New York. Attending this reunion for the first time was 100 year old Alfred Leavitt, who was a student under one of the early teachers at the Modern School, Will Durant. He remembers Durant first meeting a student at the Modern school, who eventually became his wife, Ariel. Leavitt went on to become a well known artist, who has 20 of his works in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Leavitt said that he remembered important luminaries of the time such as Jack London, Margaret Sanger, Emma Goldman, and Peter Kropotkin when they visited the school. In a rousing speech, congratulating the group for their tenacity, he said he "intends to slide into the 21st century" and is still a romantic. This was attested to by Eleine Shappel, a 30 something Director of the United States Branch of the Eureka Free University of Moscow. She sat next to him. She is from Harkov, Ukraine, where, also originally from the Ukraine, Leavitt once lived Nellie Dick, 101 year old former teacher at the Stelton, New Jersey Modern School and a founder of other Modern Schools was also a participant in the reunion. She was born in the Ukraine of Jewish Anarchist parents. A book entitled "No Master, High or Low" has recently been published about some of her early work in England, when, at the age of 13 she started the Anarchist, Socialist, Communist Sunday School in 1907. Nellie's son Jim also attended. He grew up as a Modern School student, with freedom at attend or not attend classes. He was never interested in learning how to read until he was ten years old. "By that time I could put together a radio, but I just hadn't been interested in reading. If I had gone to a public school they would have failed me and told me I had a learning disability. When I decided to learn to read, nothing could stop me. I went on to get scholarship all the way through Columbia Medical School." At 73, Jim Dick is still a practicing and well respected pediatrician. Others attending the reunion included Fernanda Barone, who is the archivist for the special collection of Modern School documents at Rutgers University. She is seeking funds to preserve the materials, which are falling apart from extensive use. Leonard Schear, 85, told about how he became a well known architect after he started apprenticing at the age of 14. Also Jerry Mintz reported on the Publication by Macmillan of the Handbook of Alternative Education of which he was Editor in Chief. Co-publisher and packager of the book is the Solomon Press. The Solomons, father and son Sidney and Raymond, attended the reunion along with Sidney's wife, Clara, a former Modern School student. The Handbook lists 7300 educational alternatives. Mintz has also produced five videos on the Modern School. The Reunion opened with the singing of old Modern School songs, and concluded with a spirited discussion and debate on current issues in education.