The necessity for morality in gifted education

By Annemarie Roeper

Original Publication Date: August 1985

In 1985, George and Annemarie attended a World Council for Gifted and Talented Children conference in Hamburg. Being in Hamburg, where George was born, and near Marienau, the school they grew up in and had to flee, made them both quite full of emotion.  In addition, the conference opened on the day of the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.  This confluence of factors made them both receptive to the power of the questions raised by German attendees about the moral hazard of identifying anyone as gifted and potentially superior. In this paper, Annemarie reflects on the questions raised and her thoughts about their responsibilities as educators to provide moral guidance to students.

Shared decision-making

By Annemarie Roeper

Original Publication Date: Jan-Mar 1986

Over the years, the organizational structure of the school evolved. The school’s educational philosophy called for allowing students to participate in shaping their own destiny to the degree to which they were capable. George and Annemarie realized that the institution needed to reflect that model and began to share their decision-making authority more extensively. In this article published in the Roeper Review, Annemarie recounted the process and the theory behind the new structure. The 1986 article is available here courtesy of the journal’s Open Access. 

A Roeper Bookshelf

Very few schools possess the rich foundation of original intellectual inquiry enjoyed by
The Roeper School. George and Annemarie Roeper aspired to change the traditional premises of education into a more humanistic, ethical, joyful, and self-directed “philosophy for life.” They wrote prodigiously, and their ideas inspired others to explore the implications of their ideas and innovations. Here is an annotated source list of published material — books, articles, an academic journal, and a documentary film – by and about the Roepers, their school, and the schools of Annemarie’s parents, Max and Gertrud Bondy.

 


Educating Children for Life: The Modern Learning Community

Annemarie Roeper

The Roeper School is best known as a school for the gifted, but George and Annemarie always thought their educational philosophy was right for all children. This book, first published in 1990, is a how-to manual for an educational model that respects each child’s unique emotional, intellectual and physical journey, nurturing that growth in a community of safety, discovery, and joy. It includes a detailed description of the evolution of The Roeper School. 

Available from Royal Fireworks Press, $15.00 online here.   

My Life Experiences with Children: Selected Writings and Speeches

Annemarie Roeper

This collection of 22 articles and speeches spanning Annemarie’s long career focuses on giftedness in children and adults.  Known for her insight into the emotional lives of the gifted, Annemarie covers topics such as self-image, stress, cognitive processes, gender, the lives of gifted adults, and the heightened commitment to ethics and social justice.  

This book is out of print, but The Roeper School has a limited number for sale for $20, including shipping and tax.  Use the Contact form for more information.


The “I” of the Beholder: A Guided Journey to the Essence of a Child

Annemarie Roeper and Ann Higgins. 

This lyrical book is Annemarie’s distillation of a lifetime’s thought about who we are, how we become our most true and honest selves, and the kind of settings that nurture that process. 

Gifted Unlimited, $18.95 here. 


Marienau: A Daughter’s Reflections

Annemarie Roeper & Karen Mireau

Shortly before she passed away, Annemarie completed this sweet memoir that vividly captures her remarkable childhood spent between the wars in Germany. The daughter of two brilliant, idealistic educators, Annemarie grew up in a world of art, music, freedom, love, and challenge. The rise of the Nazi Party destroyed that world, forcing her Jewish family to flee, ultimately to America, where they continued to work in the field of education the rest of their lives. 

Lulu.com, $17.95 here. 

 


Beyond Old Age: Essays on Living and Dying

Annemarie Roeper

After a lifetime of thinking about children and their development, Annemarie turned her thoughts to the developmental changes that come to the old.  In essays she wrote between the ages of 87 and 92, she explores her emotional response to aging, trying to see and understand its place in the lifelong process of growth, and trying to absorb and share the hard lessons of aging. 

Lulu.com, $19.95 paper here. 


The Roeper School: A Model for Holistic Development of High Ability

Don Ambrose, Bharath Sriraman and Tracy L. Cross (Eds). 

In this authoritative collection, top scholars in the field of gifted education and teachers, students, and alumni of The Roeper School examine the premises and outcomes of the Roeper model.  They conclude that it offers an education that is particularly well-suited for the opportunities and challenges of a diverse and rapidly changing world.

Brill Publishers, $54.00 here or through online retailers.


Across Time and Space

Kathryn Golden and Ashley James

This 60-minute film examines the educational philosophy of Annemarie’s parents, Max and Gertrud Bondy. The Bondys were part of the German progressive education movement that emerged after WWI in hopes that children raised to be tolerant, thoughtful, creative people could shift the world to a more inclusive and peaceful place.  It includes footage from the Bondys’ school in Germany, Marienau; their now-closed school in the U.S., Windsor Mountain School; and The Roeper School, founded by their daughter Annemarie and her husband and their former student, George Roeper.   

To purchase a copy, e-mail Searchlight Films.


Roeper Review: A Journal on Gifted Education

Don Ambrose, PhD (Ed)

The Roeper Review, a peer-reviewed journal of gifted education, was launched in 1978 by George and Annemarie. At the time, there was very little information available about gifted children. Teachers and administrators across the country, desperate for guidance, began subscribing to Roeper’s school newsletter, which included articles about giftedness amidst the classroom news and student poetry. In 1976, Roeper added a Professional Section to the newsletter, and in 1978 spun that off into a full-fledged professional journal. Still published by The Roeper School — a remarkable thing for an elementary/secondary school — it is currently edited by Don Ambrose, Professor of Graduate Education at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., and offers current academic research from around the globe. Distributed by Taylor & Francis.

 

Windsor Mountain School: A Beloved Berkshire Institution

Roselle Kline Chartock, with a forward by Governor Deval Patrick.

Chartock, a scholar of education, the Holocaust, and the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, brings her deep background to a subject that combines them all – Windsor Mountain School, which was founded by educational innovators who fled the Holocaust and settled in a private-school-rich region of New England.  Windsor Mountain, perhaps the most radical of the schools, had an openness to diversity, experimentation, and globalism that attracted parents as diverse as singer and activist Harry Belafonte, jazz composer Thelonious Monk, and former Secretary of State George Schultz.  Chartock researched the Bondys’ background and interviewed former teachers and alumni, concluding that this long-closed school is still relevant for the model it provides of education that nurtures independent thinking, compassion and creativity. 

Available from online retailers.


People of Windsor Mountain

Rick Goeld

Goeld was a student at Windsor Mountain School from 1961-63, and he interviewed other former students and teachers to provide an oral history of this remarkable school.  Through extensive statements from people who were at Windsor Mountain over the years, he demonstrates an arc that paralleled the larger social changes from the 1940s to the 1970s.  No matter what the era, though, students reported the profound impact it had on their lives to spend even a small portion of time at a school that respected their humanity and their right to shape their own destiny. 

Available from online retailers.

Educational Statement of Purpose

The school's current description of its educational approach

Original Publication Date: Adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2013

In 2013, after a number of years of meeting and drafting, the Board of Trustees adopted this description of the Roeper Educational Model. In it, the school points out that its educational approach is particularly suitable for gifted students, but that the model holds validity for all forms of education. The importance of authentic relationships, of giving all students a voice, of presenting multiple perspectives, of focusing on problems, projects and complex questions, and of an institution committed to equality and justice, among other elements, are the path to nurturing empowered, engaged adults.

The Architecture of a Roeper Education

The intersection of giftedness, the Philosophy, and pedagogy

Original Publication Date: Spring 2018

In this illuminating article by Roeper Upper School Director Karen Johnson, all the threads of a Roeper education are woven together: the tenets of the philosophy, their applicability to the complexity and precocity of gifted students, and the humanistic pedagogy that gives students their voice and their empowerment.

Citation: Johnson, Karen. “The Architecture of a Roeper Education,” Keeping in Touch: The Roeper School Community Magazine, Vol 11:3, Spring 2018, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Philosophy and pedagogy

Incorporating the values of the philosophy into curriculum

Original Publication Date: Undated, 1990 (est.)

Beyond the Classroom

Education outside the walls of the school

Original Publication Date: Summer 2017

From the very beginning of the school, the Roepers encouraged students to get outside the classroom and into the world.  They saw this as a way to expose students to multiple perspectives, other cultures, real-world problems, and to forge deeper relationships among themselves. In this article, Historian Marcia Ruff recorded some of the experiences alumni found most memorable.

Gifted Child Institute Agenda

A gathering of experts to design a new program

Original Publication Date: May 30, 1956

The school’s transition to a school for the gifted was an extensive process.  In May 1956 George and Annemarie transferred ownership of the school to a non-profit educational trust so they could solicit grants and donations for the project.  On June 1, 1956, they held a gala dinner to launch the project.  George gave a speech explaining why it was important to take an interest in gifted children, because it was a somewhat controversial choice.  Some in the community were sad about losing this educational opportunity for any child to choose.  For more, see here and here.

This document is the agenda Harry Passow sent out to participants before the meeting, which was called The Gifted Child Institute.  It’s a sign of the more-relaxed pace of the times that the Institute ran for five days.

 

Summary of the Proceedings of the Gifted Child Institute

The gifted child program developed by invited experts

Original Publication Date: June 1956

The Gifted Child Institute, held at Roeper June 18-22, 1956, led to a plan that encompassed the identification of gifted children, a discussion of the meaning of learning, and the organizing principles of the curriculum. The participants were interesting in developing motivation (how to nurture a love of learning) and self-awareness (how to have a healthy emotional balance). The curriculum was summarized overall as a study of “people and their problems.” It was a broad approach, studying cultures around the world through their myths, technology, and aesthetics using writing, experimentation, critical thinking, and hands-on projects. The explicit goal was to understand the complexity of the world and to find a means of contributing to its betterment.  Attention was paid to heightening awareness of gifted girls and expanding their social and professional options, as well as ensuring that students of all races and ethnicities would be identified and admitted to the school.

After the Institute, the Proceedings were collected and printed, thanks to the generous assistance of the Birmingham (MI) Public School district, and made available to anyone who was interested.

Implementation of the Gifted Child Project

The first report on the new program for gifted child education

Original Publication Date: March 1957

In March 1957, George published an update on the changes that had been made at the school to begin to incorporate the recommendations of the Gifted Child Institute.

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