Marisa Fusaro Turns the Clock Back

It has been fun getting reacquainted with one of that special group that were part of an educational experiment that the teacher (me) was part of also at Adams Street School back in the late 70's. The leader of that experiment was a lady by the name of Carol Baldassari who came from Leslie College and approached me at the school where I was teaching a split 5th and 6th grade class. Under her leadership we turned a traditional "egg crate" classroom into one with a loft in the middle surrounded by "learning centers" for various subjects. The classroom operated on a very liberal philosophy of "TRUST with RESPONSIBILITY". Kids moved about rather freely with only "Mr. Jogger" keeping an eye on them and he never squealed on anyone and if he did he would get his mouth taped shut! The loft had an upper floor which was carpeted and was used for "20 Minute Reading", a time during the day when EVERYONE including the teacher read a book or magazine. The lower part of the loft had a mimeograph machine where we printed our class newspaper. This was truly a revolution in classroom management abd there is no way that I could have done it without the assistance of that marvelous "lady carpenter", Carol Baldasarri. (I found her on Google and see that she is still connected to Leslie College. I wish I had her e-mail address.) She put all the kids on "committees" that Marisa reminded of in her recent e-mail from Ottawa. I don't remember all of them. but there was the "Measuring Committee" to measure and cut the plywood, and the "Assembly Commmittee", and the "Detailing Committee", and the "Painting Committee",etc. What happened in this classroom was this: WE RISKED A LITTLE CONTROL, BUT GAINED A LOT OF CREATIVITY WITH THE FREEDOM. There was not another class like it in the school and I don't know where there was one like it anywhere else. It was this class that Corrine Bostic came into to work with,but it was only half the class. Marisa Fusaro was able to work with Corrine Bostic,the author, and write her wonderful play "The Case of he Missing Emeralds" and then the next year work with the "lady carpenter" from Leslie College, Carol Baldassari. Those kids and their teacher (me) in those two years had an education that was rare and never matched. You were beautiful on that stage Marisa as were all of the Canadian actors and actresses, and I thought it was particularly good when you corrected that guy's pronunciation of WORCESTER!!! Now I hope the readers of this blog will go to www.reademtheirwrites.com and see what I am talking about.