o r?. NO MORE MOSQUITOES,
PERIOD!
" 4
mosqumt
Nip
THE MOSQUITO TERMINATOR'---L
99.9% Effective Results!
You Spend Your Time and
Hard Earned Money to Keep Your Backyard
Looking Nice,You Deserve to Enjoy it
MOSQUITO FREE!
$250° OFF
For Ordering
Please Visit:
MosquitoOne.com
or Call
734-922-5700
Regular $74.95
Now $49.96
Single application only.
First time client only.
Expires 9/15/14.
Discounts available for seasonal packages.
Overwhelmed by caring for
an aging family member?
4t„t
07
-
4
rr
We can help
Planning • Managing • Providing Care
Taking care of a loved one can feel like the toughest
fulltime job you've ever had, but it doesn't have to be.
Call: 248.702.6510
•
•
•
•
Companionship
Help Around the Home
Meal Prep for Special Diets
Ongoing Oversight by a
Nurse or Social Worker
20
August 7 • 2014
dgeway
Home Care
A Division of Feinberg Consulting, Inc.
www.bridgewayhomecare.com
PAUL L. BEST SCHOOL
december -
12
-
1954
Dedication program cover from Paul Best Elementary School in Oak Park
Reading, Writing
& Tolerance
Best Elementary grads prepare
for a reunion Aug. 17.
Eve Silberman
Special to the Jewish News
I
n her kibbutz in Israel, former Oak
Park resident Shira Chai, 61, finds
escape from the tensions of a country
at war by scrolling through the Facebook
page of the Paul L. Best Elementary
School — which she attended in the late
1950s and early 1960s, and which closed
its doors in 1976.
For Chai (the former Sally Kotler), the
attraction goes beyond remembering
happy times, like the popular Best Fair,
ghost stories told around the campfire at
school camp and the field trips to every-
thing from the former Wonder Bread
factory to a Van Gogh exhibit at the DIA.
She remembers that she and the
other Jewish students (about 30 to 40
percent of the school) enjoyed a "sup-
portive environment for all religions"
One teacher observed both Christmas
and Chanukah — by having the children
break pinatas. A "holiday" tree in the
lobby held little objects of art.
It was only when she went on to the
former Lincoln Junior High (like Best,
in the Ferndale School district) that she
experienced anti-Semitism. "I heard
the word "jewed," she said. "I was so
shocked"
Marc Shaw, now 60 and a retired
teacher, also recalls being appalled when
he started Lincoln and heard epithets
like "kike" and "n****" for the first time.
"I was never aware of anti-Semitism" at
Best, he said.
Shaw is flying in from California to
attend the Saturday, Aug. 17, All-Years
Paul Best Reunion at Farina's in Berkley.
The last reunion, five years ago, attracted
almost 130 Best grads from around the
country, plus a few parents and teachers.
Reunion organizer Jon Nachman, 50,
says he's particularly pleased that Larry
Sophiea, 92, a strict but popular Best
teacher and the school's last principal, is
attending.
"He's excited," says Nachman, who
built a model of the school he'll bring to
the reunion.
Mary Baroff, 93, a West Bloomfield
resident, will be attending with her son
Alan, also a local Best grad. "Learning
was made exciting at Best," she said, "and
kids were taught respect for different
races and religions"
Named for a former assistant superin-
tendent of Ferndale schools, Best opened
in September 1954. Its visionary prin-
cipal, WWII vet Scott Street, welcomed
the flood of college-educated, stay-at-
home moms, many of them Jewish (and
natives of Detroit) in helping to shape a
progressive, parent-involved school.
Some became so involved in cur-
riculum planning that a few received
credit from the Wayne State School of
Education.
A Progressive Bellwether
Best was the first school in the state
to require regular parent-teacher
conferences — where parents received
detailed evaluations of their children's
progress instead of letter grade. Long
before schools had mission statements,
the school's "We believe" guidelines
encouraged building self-worth in chil-
dren and respect for others.
In early 1959, Street was honored
at a banquet attended by hundreds of
parents — only to be fired two days later
by an increasingly conservative school
board. (The lack of letter grades was a
particularly sore point.) Though Street
and the parents fought back, the firing
stuck
Street went on to work with schools
Reading, Writing on page 22