Family Focus Worth Remembering Best Elementary School grads to reunite to celebrate their special school. Eve Silberman Special to the Jewish News A n elementary school reunion? Many people barely remem- ber their grade school teachers, much less their classmates. But on Sunday, Aug. 16, graduates of the former Paul L. Best Elementary School in Oak Park, plus a few teachers and parents, are gathering at Como's in Ferndale for a reunion. What brings them back after 30, 40, even 50 years? Not the five-day, sleep-away school camps, unheard of in most schools of the late Fifties and early Sixties. Not the October school fair where it seemed every mom, dad and teacher were either selling hot dogs, manning the "dig for gold" booth or hawking plants. Not the roomy spaces over the cubbyholes where the kindergartners loved to climb. The pull is more subtle: the memory of a progressive and accepting school, whose dedicated faculty and committed parents created an environment that made children feel good about them- selves. "When I think back on the days at Best, I realize we had a special child- hood," Steve Carabas of Las Vegas wrote in an e-mail. "We were blessed with all kinds of wonderful, talented, energetic people, teachers and parents alike." Named for a former Ferndale assistant superintendent, Paul L. Best Elementary opened its doors in September 1954 — and closed them in 1976, when it was converted into a middle school. (Today, the building on Rosewood is the John F. Kennedy Elementary School.) Its visionary first principal, Scott Street, was a medaled World War II vet who wanted to create a school that reflected the democratic values he had fought for. It was a time when many educators promoted "community" schools, which encouraged kids to explore and understand both their own communities and the larger world. Accompanied by dedicated "room mothers:' Best students took field trips to the local bakery, fire station and visited the International Center in Detroit. Tolerance was preached — and practiced. In the late Fifties, when Former Best Elementary School teacher Larry Sophiea with Lillian Greenhut of West Bloomfield and her daughter and Best graduate Janet Greenhut of Ann Arbor. black faces rarely appeared on televi- sion, Street organized exchange visits between older Best students and kids at the predominantly black Grant School nearby. "It was a wonderful time in our lives:' says Lillian Greenhut, a West Bloomfield grandmother whose three children all went to Best in the 1950s and 1960s. She recalls how close she and other parents felt to the teachers and to Scott Street, Kadima Benefit Kadima of Southfield will hold their annual benefit on Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the Max. M. Fisher Music Center, Detroit. The event will celebrate Kadima's 25th anniversary and the 45th year of Beatles' music. Twist and Shout: The Ultimate Beatles Revue will feature a look- alike, sound-alike cast that appeared in the Broadway production Beatlemania. The benefit honorees are longtime Kadima supporters Ann and Norman Katz, who recently donated the Katz residential home for Kadima. who "wasn't a stand-off principal. He was one of the bunch." "Our kids excelled at that school," she said. Jewish parents like Greenhut had a special appreciation for Best. Many knew that before World War II the Ferndale school district had hired nei- ther blacks nor Jews. Jewish kids made up about a third of the population at Best Elementary. Following intense Other contributors include the Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan Opera Theatre, Karmanos Cancer Institute/Detroit, Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. An afterglow of refreshments will follow the evening's performance. Cost of a single ticket is $100. For sponsorship information or to buy tickets, contact Paula at (248) 559-8235, ext. 118. Proceeds will allow Kadima to provide comprehen- sive mental health services to adults and children. parental discussions on religious obser- vances in school, Street decided to have a "holiday tree" at Christmas time, deco- rated with art objects. "We respected Jewish holidays like Chanukah," said Dan Karagozian, a non-Jewish business- man from Fenton and a 1964 Best grad. In a controversy that made the front pages, Street was fired in 1959, just two days after several hundred Best parents honored him at a banquet. Superinten- dent Roy Robinson, a supporter, told reporters that the increasingly conser- vative Ferndale school board had fired him because he had campaigned for progressive school board members. Greenhut recalls Street's longtime fight with the board over Best School's choosing parent-teacher evaluations instead of report cards. And ironically, in a school that practiced tolerance, Street (now deceased) told a former Best grad, three decades after his firing, that anti-Semitism had played a role: Many of his most vocal supporters were Jewish parents. But though something was lost when Street left, the school continued many of his innovations, such as the school camps. The atmosphere of tolerance endured. Some Best kids got a rude awakening when they moved on to middle school. Recalls Mike Gerber, a Farmington podiatrist and1964 Best grad, said he felt "like an outsider" at Lincoln Junior High and at Ferndale High, where he encountered "isolated incidents of anti- Semitism." Reunion treasurer Nadine Zack Feldman, who will be flying in from Florida, reports that as the reunion draws closer, Best grads "seem to be get- ting really excited?' And more than one of the middle- aged (and near retirement-aged) grads has posted the Best School song on the Best Web page. It begins: "Best School is the best school/in the good old U.S.A." Royal Oak business owner Ilene Hill, a 1968 Best grad, said, "I could sing that song in my sleep." ❑ For information about the Paul Best reunion, call Mike Gerber at (248) 840-7628 or e-mail bestschoo12009@hotmail.com. August 6 • 2009 49