[Oe List ...] Ruth Carter -- Iron Woman Gift to Minister of Education in East Timor

Wed Jul 31 07:30:41 PDT 2013

Dear Telfords,  What wonderful work you two are doing in the Blue Mountains
of East Timor.  We celebrate with you!!!

I don't know if Elise is on this list or not, so I am making sure.    The
first item that came to mind as a gift to the minister of education would be
a statue of the Iron Person, standing tall, along with this wonderful story
of Alice Baumbach's about the gifts of local people being trained to do the
jobs they care so much about, except lacking credentials. Also Lela Jahn's &
Karen Bueno's reflection yesterday about those early years. Since we only
have 24 hours, I would suggest a framed copy of the Iron Person ( Great one
on cover of 2010 Directory about the right size).  I also thought of the
current work that Elise is doing with Early Childhood Education.  Don't know
what is downloadable, but could certainly be pointed to as an ongoing
program.  There is someone at Kemper who is Elise's teammate who might have
ideas. Pam or Jean or Marge could possibly direct this to her if Elise is
out of town. 

Our best wishes for a successful and meaningful meeting with the Friendship
Committee.  Keep us posted.

With fond memories of our work down under many years ago.  (Jeremiah was 8
months old so that makes it 35 years ago. Surely not!)

Lynda  Cock

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net
[mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of the telfords
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 2:44 AM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Ruth Carter -- Iron Woman

Dear Colleagues
Although I never actually met Ruth, her name and her contribution to our
common mission is lodged in my memory.

Now, a question - was the curriculum which was developed in 5th City the
foundation for what later became known as Imaginal Education?

This coming weekend the Blue Mountains East Timor Friendship Committee,
which Elaine & I are members of, are hosting a visit by Dulce Soares, the
East Timor government's Vice-Minister for Pre-School and Basic (primary)
Education - the ET Government has recently launched a new Pre-School
initiative to establish pre-schools widely across the nation and I
understand they are at the stage of putting together a curriculum.

I was meeting with a couple of members of our organising team this morning
and we were discussing what would be an appropriate gift to give to the
Vice-Minister, and having just read about Ruth and the 5th City curriculum
before I went to the meeting, I said I could possibly come up with a gift
related to that.

Is there something I could download which at least would give her an
introduction to our approach to early learning/development?

Any suggestions you can make in the next 24 hours will be most welcome.

Grace & Peace
John

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 3:37 PM, Isobel A Bishop
<isobeljimbish at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

Dear Lela,
Thank you for this tribute to Ruth.
I remember her very well at S '68, when a bunch of Aussie children came
over.
I did not know here well either, and yet was very impressed with her style
of ease and  competence.

We appreciate what you all  have written..
In peace,
Isobel Bishop

On 31/07/2013, at 11:48 AM, Ken Fisher <hkf232 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Likewise, Ken
>
>
> On 2013-07-30, at 4:19 PM, Charles Hahn wrote:
>
> Hi Lela!  What a tribute!!!  I knew Ruth, but not that well.  Your
> comments really hold her up for the world to see.  Thanks,
> Charles
>
> On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 2:28 PM, Lela Jahn <lelajahn at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Ruth and I were tied at the hip for the 3 years in the late 60's when I
was
>> the director of the 5th City Preschool and she was my right and left
hand.
>> She and I climbed many mountains together -- attending a national
preschool
>> workshop because the curriculum received a National 1st place award from
the
>> Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), receiving teaching machines from
IBM
>> for the 4 year olds which got our picture in the newspaper because of the
>> audacity of believing machines could teach, making really cool uniforms
for
>> all the teachers, designing the new preschool building on 5th Avenue with
>> Sheldon Hill ---  the list goes on and on. Yet there were also many
valleys
>> where Ruth never flinched, never complained. She stood firm in her belief
>> that the 5th City Preschool was a demonstration to the world of the
>> importance of  providing all children from 4 months on up with a positive
>> self-image.
>>
>>
>>
>> In turn, Ruth Carter, became my mentor, my symbol,  of the Iron Woman
>> standing in the desert with arms out stretched knowing that the desert
could
>> become the promised land. And it did because she lived --- and still does
in
>> the lives of all she touched.
>>
>>
>>
>> Lela Jahn
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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