I went to Dewey because my older brother went to Midwood ...



I went to Dewey because my older brother went to Midwood High School and hated it. All these long years later, I can’t remember exactly why, but I think it’s because he felt as if he didn’t fit in. My mother came home from a PTA meeting one evening when I was in eighth grade brimming with excitement about he new high school that had opened. “It’s called John Dewey and you can study Marine Biology,” she told me. “The principal was at the meeting tonight, and he told us all about the school. It sounds just right for you!” It’s true that the first principal of Dewey, whose name I don’t recall, spent a lot of energy recruiting families. My mom went for it, hook, line and sinker, and so did I.

What really thrilled me was a class called “Animated Filmmaking.” …..really INTERESTING computer generated (!!!) program sheets….sure enough, in MODULES 20, 21 and 22 (!!!) at the end of that first Monday, it says: ANIMATN51.

Noah Lewin ‘75

I too, thought the school was a wonderful experience, and I loved the enthusiasm of the teachers, the broad selection of courses (marine bio, all of the history offerings, film classes, the 4 in 1 program) the independent study options , the art and music classes, and the overall feeling of creativity. The school encouraged us to think “outside the box” well before that was a commonly-used phrase.

Jeanne Cohn-Conner ‘74

I was intrigued by the curriculum and lured by the beautiful campus and the fact it was a new school.

Things I loved about Dewey:

-There was pretty much something for everyone. So many classes, clubs and extra-curriculars to choose from all of which I think were pretty comprehensive or different as compared to traditional high schools.

-I had many inspiring and gifted teachers

-I did love the campus, sitting outside on the grass and eating lunch or playing my guitar.

-Changing classes every 7 weeks. Got rid of teachers you didn’t like , but also gave you the possibility of breaking down the traditional 2 semester school year into 5 terms that could offer more specialized courses of study . Loved that flexibility!

-The music program.

-Being busy from 7:40 am until well after 3:40 (clubs and such). I was truly involved and happy.

Dana Schenk ‘74

Favorite teachers

Edwin Klibaner

Had him for AP Bio. In AP bio, tests were only essay questions. I got my first test back with a zero on it. I asked him about it and he correctly said to me, “How do you expect me to read that slop?” He told me to sit at the lab desk and write it out in a manner that could be read. A test that everyone else finished in 30-40 minutes I sometimes spent four hours sitting at the lab desk breaking my fingers writing it out. I would sometimes be there unproctored one or two hours after school ended in a room with the text book right there. Kids need to be made to tow the line be understood, respected and honored. None of these things were what he was there to teach.

A year later I was in the library writing something and Mr. DeSena who I had had 3 or 4 years gave me this big Hi5 that I could write now. I still remember the warmth of DeSena’s kind word and I am eternally grateful to Mr. Klibanner.

….I feel now as though I became part of a living organism . One cell that joined many oozing through the primordial soup that was high school. Those years attracted phenomenal musicians. In 1969 a beloved choral conductor, Ben Chauncey died. After that an award, in his name, was given to the most promising musician in the city. Three of the next four awards given were to Dewey students. Michael Wilner, John Boenzi and alan gilick or Eliot Goldenthal. That was the level of artists the school attracted. I met people from Harlem, the South Bronx, and Queens. I myself took program that was supposedly going to start at eight in the morning and end at four in the afternoon. We were all attracted to this marvelous beacon of light, a bonfire starting to kindle and we fanned it until we exited.What came after was unknown, what was before irrelevant. What was present was, for lack of a better phrase, ensoulment. We knew nothing of mods, cycles, or disks. It was an experiment that we chose not to be observers of , but rater participants in. We helped shape what was to become our enrichment. …..The organism still breathes.

Eric ‘73

My Dad was on the CBS News crew that covered the bd of Ed Dewey announcement, and put me on the list with Dr. Siegal, then and there. Siegel said I was the first! And, my folks wanted me to start in 9th grade in 69, which couldn’t have happened had I gone to any of my public jr. high options, so they sent me to private school of 7th-8th grade. And, since students were actually enrolled (programmed in)

According to nearest and furthest public schools, and then the offbeat private schools, I ended up with student id 932! The last one prior to school opening! Even my private schoolmate, Nathan Chess, Was one under me! And, 932, less those that didn’t show, were how many students attended Dewey in 69. 9th and 10th graders only! Less than half the schools original 1500 population without those upper graders!

David S. Winclair 72/73

…..let’s all think of the alternatives available to us back then. In ’69 my choices were Yeshivah of Flatbush H.S. and Sheepshead, my local school. Dewey was expansive affirming, empowering, positive and for the most part FUN. I acted on stage, played in the band, sang in the chorus, wrote up those awful ISGA schedules for Lew Smith. How about when George Bader walked out of a performance of the Mark Sidney Band because he thought it was obscene?

I met people of all stripes that I had never been exposed to having gone to a private elementary school. Black kids, Hispanic kids, Native American kids, gay kids, bi-kids, kids with no parents, kids with four parents, kids with two mothers, kids from Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn I didn’t know existed….

Much of who I am today was formed in the four years spent at “hippie high” in Coney Island, and I have no regrets at all for having attended and participated in the learning, in and out of class.

Len Signoretti ‘83

…..when the second year students arrived in ’70 there was a sense of them invading “our” school. We were an odd mix of people in that first year. Many of us had to fight with our guidance counselors to come to Dewey. I know I was told it would “hurt” me academically. It didn’t, but it did spoil me for life.

Tzipora Katz ‘72

My recollection is of many things not found in most other schools even today. We had the pass/fail grades but also independent study. There were the Resources Centers to get help from a teacher in the field you had questions about, unusual courses such as American Dream, chamber music, film, mass media and marine science to name a few. We had a terrific library. Think of the environmental studies of Plum Beach and Gerritson Bay we did. What other schools encouraged these types of things? For me, the Dewey experience was being exposed to whole areas of study and new things on an almost daily basis. This is a far cry from “teaching to the test” and rote memorization which were more the norm at the time.

Keith Dom Powell ‘74

Let’s look at the resource centers, the DISKS, the course offerings, the idea that H.S. kids were responsible enough to have free time during the school day, the independent study offerings…..

I was a participant in researching the material that Lew Smith used as the basis for his American Dream class, which if I understand it correctly is now taught in one form or another in H.S. curricula around the country. In 1971, I doubt I would have had that opportunity at my local school.

Dewey was also the place where, in the face of growing racial and ethnic tensions, a solution was created-by a teacher that not only diffused the instant situations, but also continued to teach kids why their thinking and behavior was destructive, and how they could easily take all that energy and mis-information about each other (and each other’s backgrounds) and use it to positive ends. That program exists today in schools across the country and has done incredible things with the kids who otherwise would have been lost to senseless and ignorant violence.

I was, in a very real way, saved by the “Dewey Experience”. Being there at that time in my life enabled me to get a grip on who I was and what I could be academically and socially.

Jay Brodsky ‘73

Sophomore year I discovered dance. I studied ballet and modern dance for the next tree years. I discovered I enjoyed reading novels. I took several DISKS and read, read, read my way through most of my English requirements in the privacy of my home.

…..I studied: environmental design, sculpture, fashion design, cooking, jewelry design, sewing, science fiction etc. I think I took 9 classes a term, every term just because I could.

…I can attribute becoming a successful college graduate to the intellectual curiosity I gained while attending John Dewey High School. I was mentored by an intellectually curious and enthusiastic staff.

Rochelle Paskin (Hamilton) ‘75

…..And those experiences-like playing on the beach with critters in marine bio, forming our own theater and dance companies and taking them on tour to other schools, singing with the reject chorus, walking out of school to protest the BOE budget cuts, Dewey Days, folk dancing, doing a 4-in-1 and spending one day a week working at Equity Library Theater, taking all of the DISK tests for geometry in one day because I never bothered to go to class and needed the credits…and the friends we made along he way….

Naomi Berger ‘74

…Doing an art project on environmentalism in Bob Sarnoff’s class where the entire class had a hand in painting a poster decrying air pollution – the poster hung for years in the lobby. I also remember the first Earth Day and the parade on campus with a coffin hoisted on our shoulders…and the counter demonstration led by some of the students who thought it was all a bunch of crap. ….I also smile when remembering a group we formed called Students and Teachers for Human Rights. About 20 of us who decided we needed to go on a retreat to formulate our mission statement. We rented an old nunnery somewhere

in Westchester for the day , played football, sang songs, prepared and ate a huge meal and by the way…talked a bit about our mission. If memory serves, the faculty advisors were Ed McCarthy, Tom Heineg and Janet Lipschultz (or was it Caroline Hecht?) I also remember the issue of Streams of Conscious that Sol Levine refused to release because he thought a story in it was obscene. Again, if I remember correctly, someone snuck into his office, took the boxes out and distributed the mag….. An ironic footnote in the career of a Pulitzer Prize winning classmate, Donald Margulies.

Jay Brodsky 69-73

….I think Dewey affirmed a different perspective for me-one that I had kept inside, tentatively, some gnawing sense of not fitting in, wanting something different, without really knowing what it was. At Dewey there was this sense that everyone was good at something: if you were terrible at geometry, you might still be that kid who did an amazing wood sculpture or took great photos. There was something very “democratic’/open about the ways in which we were evaluated. (I don’t just mean grades- but not having grades was part of that.)

Some sense that we were larger people than our performance in any one class. Like we deserved respect, and to be nurtured so that what was inside of us would come out-like it would be a good thing-whatever that was, and some of us really were (and maybe still are) “clueless’ as they say. But even that was OK ‘cause “life was for learning”.

Ellen Sperling ‘74

….happy, because what I remember is the freedom of learning and expression, and environment of semi-anarchy

that in itself promoted responsibility for one’s own studies and one’s own path. I remember modern dance classes and field trips in marine bio (e.g. collecting ctenophores, however you spell them) and taking a bus ride to visit a small town with American Dream students even though I wasn’t even part of that class. I remember hanging out on the campus lawn in the sun. I remember changing my middle initial to “Q” after receiving, by accident, an overdue library book notice meant for the OTHER Ruth Leibowitz. I remember having a “tribe” of friends who were really important. For me, those Dewey years were the first years I ever felt I belonged anywhere or with anyone.

Ruth Lebowitz ‘74

To me Mr. Pero was the most amazing teacher I ever had. His theatrics and sense of comedy were like nobody I had ever seen. It was like being taught by John Cleese, of Monty Python, who Mr. Pero sort of looked like. And that song, Brother Can You Spare a Dime, still haunts me to this day. I don’t recall Mr. Pero singing it and I’m sure I took his New Deal class. I had Mr. Bader for the 40’s class.

Harold Kramer ‘74

The experiment of Dewey was that it was completely non-competitive. It was based on John Dewey’s theory that a non competitive environment filled with student driven choices fosters learning. I can tell you that for myself that was true. I was an athlete, so the non competitive approach did not play to my strengths, but I learned how to be so much more once I got to Dewey. I learned how to write poetry, to let myself become creative, to do art somewhat successfully to stretch myself into different areas. We were allowed to make decisions, good or bad about what we wanted to do and how we wanted to spend our time. I believe Dewey is the only reason I went to college because at Dewey, that was the expectation.

Linda Bille ‘78

Andrew wrote on August 7, 2008 at 5:34pm

Yup, I was there in '73. First 4-year graduating class for those who started in '69 in 9th grade. The school grew by about 1000 students a year, '69 opened with about 1000-1500 students.

It was quite an experiment. Modules, Cycles, no "grades," a very open campus, mostly young first-time teachers. A lot of male teachers as they were avoiding being drafted for Viet Nam after finishing college or grad school. The Science departments had a lot of wannabe medical students who never made it. At least teaching science kept them out of the army. Some of those young men and women must be turning 65 this year. I wonder if any of them have been working at Dewey all these years till their retirement!

School opened long before the gym was finished. We had "fresh air" exercise instead.

I was one of the first editors of the Vanguard, the student newspaper. I helped put out the inaugural issue. I also helped bring the equipment into the departments, mostly music and biology. Before the elevator worked, I remember we "rolled" cartons up the stairs to the bio lab. Turned out the cartons were packed with microscopes; not a smart move.

The Music Department got its first music synthesizer sometime during 1970. My buddy Murray and I used to cut classes to hang out in the little recording room between the music classrooms to play with it. Once in a while we would connect the synthesizer to the speaker system that served the auditorium and classrooms and interrupt classes. "Accidental" of course.

We also invented "Dewey Day" a class-free day between each cycle that we used for field trips, expositions, country fair, etc. I think the country fair still continues after the Fourth Cycle.

Early on, most students got along well together, ethnicity wasn't important, we were all new and there were no upperclassmen. No traditions. We voted to pick red and grey as the school colors and for the first many years we were "way to cool" to have traditional HS things like prom.

I was involved in the first several music and theater productions at JDHS. We "invented" Sights and Sounds as the combined music and art festivals. The first "Broadway Show" productions were Once Upon a Mattress, Oliver, and The Apple Tree. I played bassoon in the orchestra in all three shows. Herman Gersten directed the Wind Ensemble and Victor Solotoff directed the Orchestra and the Broadway Productions.

The first concert of the Wind Ensemble included music from Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair, a Bach G Minor Fugue, and a Kabelevsky Overture. I think we sold tickets for $2.00 each. The Wind Ensemble was a very skilled group as most NYC public school students back then had already had several years of instrumental music in grade school and junior high school.

At that time, you had to select Dewy instead of your district high school. The Dewey school day was significantly longer than the other schools, 8-4, if I recall correctly. My friends who went to Lincoln or Lafeyette were on split schedules and only were in school for 5 hours a day! Dewey was full of students who volunteered to spend 3 hours a day more in school than we had to!

At the end of the day everyone would head for home or work, mostly on the subway. There were several episodes of kids pulling the emergency brake and stopping the train during those years. The Transit Authority was helpful in that they ran a special train from the Dewey stop toward Coney Island that pulled into the Brighton Line platform and continued as a Brighton Line train. That saved a switch for about half the students who were continuing on the Brighton Line. Bunches of others would hit the F train or the Surf Avenue bus toward Sea Gate.

Most of my time in Dewey I worked after school at Lou Powsner's Mens Shop on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island. That became interesting after Lou's son Farrel became a Math teacher at Dewey and then married another Dewey teacher. Farrel used to call his Dad and Lou would holler at me if I cut my math class or blew off my homework.

Since I lived in Coney Island (31st and Surf Avenue) I used to have to fight each year to get a "Type 3" pass to get me on both the Bus and the Subway. Their theory was that I should be able to walk from Dewey all the way down to Surf Avenue and get the #36 bus. That was a long walk and you had to cross the Coney Island Creek on Stillwell Avenue and it smelled horrid, especially at low tide. Somehow, I managed to finagle a type 3 pass most of the time, or I would bike to school (wasn't uncool back then, though nice bikes got stolen). There was a bike rack near the statue, don't know if it still is there.

I have wonderful memories of High School even though I wasn't much of a student. I was too busy living free, having fun, hanging out. I just missed being a hippie and I did my best to imitate one. That first Earth Day at Dewey was a blast, all the students walked out of their classes! After that, Earth Day became a school celebration of sorts.

Within 30 days of my writing this, Dewey will have been a functioning High School for 40 years. To me, it will always be a brand new experience where the students got to "make" a school.

Good wishes to all the successive generations of Dewey students!

Andy Hoffman

….They (lockers used to be bright colors. Mine was dayglo green. Having multi colored lockers helped on navigate the circular hallways of Dewey. So if you passed say the blue lockers, you knew that you were near the math dept. depending on what floor you were on. There was a feeling of pride knowing that as a Dewey student, you were being treated more like a college student on campus then just a lowly high school student.

….When I went to Dewey, the school actually organized a protest against the Board of Ed in downtown Brooklyn to protest the proposed budget cuts for that year. It was a huge rally outside the offices of the Board of Ed. Made the news too.

…The spirit of rebellion was very much alive in Dewey back then. I remember being I Mr. Kass’ hygiene or sexual education class. We sat in a circle in the class. One day Mr. Kass came in with an air horn and would blast it randomly during his lesson. This went on for about ten minutes. He then asked if anyone could figure out why he was blasting that ******horn. No one could. He said he wanted to see if anyone would take it away from him.

Blew my mind. He was making a point that you didn’t have to take *****from people. . That you should stand up for your own rights. Just get up and do something. That has stayed with me all these years. And that was hygiene class.

Harold Kramer ‘75

I remember Mr. DeSena’s class and my English class wherein Mr. Levy taught had a wall between them. There were two windows facing the resource center that looked into Mr. DeSena’s class and Mr. Levy’s class. Mr. DeSena would be teaching and suddenly let out a bit ROAR in the middle of the class session. This would happen at least once during the class, sometimes twice. Of course, my entire class would start laughing. Anyway, MR. Levy’s class would be totally disrupted.

One day, after another roar, Mr. Levy asked us all to make a paper bag mask that was our class assignment. We then waited the next day for Mr. DeSena to let the roar our and Mr. Levy led us all outside on our knees into the resource center to crawl along the wall with the window into Mr. DeSena’s class. At this command, right after Mr. DeSena roared once again, we all stuck our masked heads up into the window!!!! Just another memory.

Marie L. Fero

…I don’t remember what class I had with Mr. Levy but I do remember that he taught me to make what I call “the flying saucer noise” by whistling and humming at the same time. I also remember he would settle the class down by saying “Save it for the weekend”. I still think of him whenever I hear that.

Jeff Benjamin ‘74

Jack Nowinski: Madrigal singers – I remember him having us over on Saturday afternoons to this house in Far Rockaway.

Herman Gersten: I never had him for a class, but he let me listen to all the music going on in his office, inspiring life long love of classical music, ran a summer madrigal group which alternated houses, including his, took groups of us to concerts, and taught us how to eat Chinese food with chopsticks.

…Mr. Weiner: Anthropology. I can still remember the names of early man and when I saw a Jane Goodall movie last year, it brought back Mr. Weiner’s demonstration of pant-hoots. And I still remembered the names of the chimps.

Bob Levy: In addition to being hilarious, he was a terrific reader of poetry.

Jerry Majzlin, Janet Lipshultz and Mr. Kaplan: Repertory Company. Doing Rashoman and plays by Ionesco and Shaw in high school.

Debbie Kass Orenstein ‘75

Abe Chiavetta : Boy he was a good teacher. AP English was a treat for the head from September to June, under his gentle, thought-provoking leadership.

Saul Bruckner: I had a terrific year with him, and we got in tough a bit in later years. Tough and fair. A hard marker to bring out the best in written work.

Mr. Weiner:…but a year of Anthro with him was great fun and I learned stuff that stuck with me for the long haul.

Al Guastafeste: I was in his choruses for years and still can’t imagine trying to “teach” a class with a hundred kids in it. We sang fun things, hard things, challenging things….he kept order; he pushed us forward, and got good results. Take a look at a Sights and Sounds program and see how many asterisks there are for All-City Chorus members…a lot!

Lew Smith: I knew Lew Smith before I came to Dewey through Scouting. He was great teacher then too, training young leaders for running their troops. He turned American Dream into an institution was very creative, energetic and charismatic.

Silverstein and Siegel: I was a mediocre science student. Marine Bio got me even me really interested. I always thought of that class as one of the things that made Dewey unlike every other high school in the city.

….Russian Literature class, taught, with window’s open, midwinter…for effect, and direct experience. Dewey style, of course.

And Jeannie Meisner, a real dancer…leading our little troupe of dancers performing in schools. And we were only high school students. Another “only Dewey” experience.

…Carmina Burana – taught to, performed by HIGH SCHOOL students.

Dan Feldman, Social Studies. Inspiring! “Sociology of the Family”; taught to 15, 16 an 17 year olds.

Mr. Weiner, Anthropology. Anthropology, taught in a HIGH SCHOOL; incredible. Perhaps it’s just my memory, but seems to be that there was a large evolution photo simulations displayed on classroom walls. A classroom experience I associate with truly igniting my interest in science and psychology.

Mrs. O’Meara, Math. Jay Sachs, as a “Master of Ceremonies” home room teacher: Let the games begin…and it was only 8AM…..Dewey was often a very funny place.

Raphael Suarez ‘74

When I was there, Mr. Lustig (who in my opinion was one of the greatest teachers Dewey was lucky enough to have. He always backed the students and was truly anti establishment. He experienced the sixties and brought it with him to Dewey!) had some great electives in the social studies dept. I took all of them including Japanese Studies, Psychology of Sports, The Kennedy Years and The Sixties. He held tie dying events by the statue. He ended every year with a Hippie Wedding (full of rotesters, dancers, singers, anti war songs, drug raids etec..) and when he retired in 2005 he held a mini Woodstock!...I was able to bring my other daughter who was 4 at the time to the final hippie wedding in 2004. It was great, she wore flowers in her braided hair and had on all the tie dye. She threw flowers and blew bubbles.

They still had the Sci-Fi class. English courses also included a Broadway class in which we attended two shows during the cycle and a movie class where we had to analyze whatever movie was chosen at the time. I also enjoyed taking fold dance for gym. I loved all the health Occupation classes. Where else is a sixteen year old going to dissect a fetal pig, draw blood, and learn how to run dna tests. Dewey was like no other!

Harold Kramer ‘74

Edited Postings

From John Dewey

High School

Graduates…

Memories

Did I ever feel cheated that my "M"s at Dewey would have translated into higher numerical grades than some other people's "M"s, had we all been at a more traditional school?  Not in the least.  But this is not because of any socialist or egalitarian leanings on my part.  A grade, (even a degree for that matter), is a trapping of accomplishment, not accomplishment itself.  It is a knock-off of success.  By not spending time chasing after it one frees up so much time and energy for actually chasing the real thing.  I seem to recall that, by the time I finished Dewey, I'd finished 6 years of curriculum in 4, and still had time to tear up my program card and do nothing but play paddleball for the entire last cycle.  

After Dewey I had lots of A's, but I never had it so good again

Arthur Lander

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