Welcome to The Roeper School, a unique coeducational school community for gifted children in preschool through grade 12 with campuses in Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham, Michigan. Simply put, “the Roeper difference” consists of an educational and social environment tailored to meet your child’s distinctive strengths and abilities. At Roeper, we care deeply for children, understand the importance of these formative years, and work hard to nurture children at every stage and grade. We believe that the core purpose of education is to empower children to become independent thinkers and compassionate citizens of an interconnected world.

Thanks to their Roeper education our talented graduates attend and thrive in the most selective colleges in the country. More important, our school community fosters attitudes, values, and strategies that prepare students for lives of leadership and service – Roeper students are encouraged to share their gifts and talents both in and out of the classroom.

We are pleased that you have taken this time to get to know our school. As you peruse our site, be sure to read about the school’s rich history, philosophy, and mission. Founded by educational pioneers George and Annemarie Roeper in 1941, The Roeper School continues to be guided by its original goals. The Roepers created a child-centered school that respects the thoughts of each child while providing a rigorous learning environment and curriculum that helps students to become internally motivated, and focused on making the world a better place.

If you think your child would enjoy a Roeper education, I encourage you to call and speak to someone in the Admissions Office to receive further information or to set up a visit for you and your child.

Sincerely,
Phil Deely
Head of School 2011-12

CHANGES

Martin Luther King Jr. understood that any great and worthy cause may take years, decades or lifetimes to achieve.

The Roeper School is fast approaching its 75th anniversary! Since its founding is 1941, there have been many changes, but it is also remarkable that many of the most important features of the Roeper School have remained unchanged. Examples of these are in our Philosophy:

• Respecting the inherent dignity of every human being
• Believing in human rights for all people
• Relying not on power, but upon justice
• Cooperation and nonviolence in relationships
• Embracing the beauty of diversity
• Positively valuing differences
• Recognizing the essential interdependence of all living things, and
• Accepting one’s obligations to make the world a better place for everyone

Much of what MLK tried to accomplish was to draw the balance between what should change and what needed to remain the same. His peaceful, but forceful approach toward civil rights for all was a change that he knew would strengthen the core principals of America without changing the fundamental guarantees in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

As MLK knew, events and people become the catalysts for change. The catalysts for some of the recent changes which have occurred at the Lower School were our good fortune. For, it was only a couple weeks ago that we celebrated the dedication of the New Children’s Library!

Other changes that we anticipate relate to the Strategic Plan, which is currently being developed as an outline for where we want the Roeper School to be in the next 3, 5 and 10 years. However, as with any plan, we must be prepared with contingency arrangements and also be able to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

As we move toward our 75th anniversary, we must be aware of those things at Roeper which are immutable and also be flexible enough to accept the changes which will occur, but were not foreseeable in our original plans, so that we can continue to build upon the dreams that George and Annemarie had for our School.

Steven F. Milbeck, Chair of the Board of Trustees

MLK Candlelight Walk 2012

In this time of recession (depression in some of our communities), huge economic inequality, political gridlock, racism (yes, there is still racism), sexism and homophobia, we might be tempted to give up, hunker down and live our individual personal lives as well as we can. But perhaps, we can learn something from another dark time and in doing so, gain the hope we need to soldier on.

In 1914, the Colorado National Guard attacked the Ludlow tent city of striking coal miners burning and machine-gunning the men, women and children living there. No one knows for sure but perhaps 50 people died.

The purpose of the attack was to teach the working class to shut up and give up.

Indeed, the psychological effect on the American Labor Movement could have been great. What if ordinary people started to ask: “How can we fight the bosses and their military stooges who are willing to kill so wantonly?” But Mother Jones, who was described by her capitalist enemies as the “most dangerous woman in America” and the “godmother of all agitators” defiantly rallied the oppressed with

“Don’t agonize; organize.”

And the miners and others did. They marched and fought harder than ever. By getting their story out to the public in a variety of ways and by working with allies appalled by the slaughter, the labor movement used the Ludlow Massacre as a spark that lead to a Congressional investigation and the passage of the 8 hour day and child labor laws.

Don’t’ agonize; organize. We have in our country and culture an unfortunate tendency to celebrate the individual savior, the lone gunslinger riding into town to save everybody. We elected to the Presidency 4 years ago a hero and thought we were done. We underestimated the struggle and now are depressed with the situation and somewhat disenchanted with our paladin. While the folks who don’t believe in social justice and the rights of the majority to have a clean environment, an open, honest political system and economic opportunity are organized and focused, we sit back and silently try to ignore the situation. They didn’t agonize; they organized. How ironic they listened to Mother Jones better than we.

Don’t agonize; organize. We have elevated Dr. King as if he was singlehandedly responsible for the civil rights movement. He got many of his ideas from Gandhi and Thoreau. He learned from his mentors Bayard Rustin and A. Phillip Randolph. He reached out to the labor movement, the religious establishment (Protestant, Catholic and Jewish) and the academics. Many people from the mighty and rich to the most lowly and the poor fought with the weapons they had. Some braved bombs while other filed legal suits. Some faced fire hoses while others lobbied the halls of Congress. Some went to jail while others sang songs. All were needed.

Dr. King knew the value of publicity and how the television cameras showing Bull Connor’s thugs beating heads on that Selma Bridge were his greatest tools in waking the comatose conscience of our nation. To say the struggle was long damns with faint praise and worse, implies it is over and won. Dr. King is dead but we are alive to carry on. Don’t worry; there is enough to do.

Don’t agonize; organize: When Harvey Milk was breaking new ground organizing gay folks in the Bay Area, he soon realized he needed friends and allies. Among others, he teamed up with the Teamsters. By helping each other, these two groups not only advanced their causes, they learned to see beyond stereotypes. Who shall Roeper work with and learn from?

Don’t agonize; organize: Roeper has had some history of going beyond our walls to link with the struggles of others. In the 1960’s George and Annemarie were active in the antiwar movement. In the 1991, teacher Nancy Webster and student Sara Talpos lead the Birmingham campus in supporting striking workers at Krogers a few blocks away. During the first Gulf War, Roeper students with teacher Dave Crawford joined others from across the nation to march on Washington.

This year, Stage III has made a partnership with Earthworks to push for urban farming and local, nutritious food for Detroit residents. This afternoon, we started an initiative to work with Pontiac High as we know that both schools have much to learn from each other and are stronger together than apart

I said that Roeper has some history of going beyond our walls to ally with others but the truth is that we could do better to live up to the Roeper’s original reason for existence –to prevent future holocausts. George and Annemarie didn’t start this school primarily to get students into top universities nor to train people to get high paying jobs nor to even encourage kids to pursue their passions; they wanted to help individuals become healthy, happy people who would work together to create a just, peaceful and more humane world.

To help myself always remember what is the most important “why” of a Roeper education, I recall the following words of a survivor of a concentration camp to the teachers of Germany:

Dear Teachers:

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness.

Gas chambers built by learned engineers.

Children poisoned by educated physicians.

Infants killed by trained nurses.

Women and babies shot and burned by High School and College graduates.

So, I am suspicious of education.

My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.

Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.

Chaim Ginott 1972

Roeper is not in danger of producing monsters but also, may we never produce those who sit by quietly while evil and injustice are done.

I will go further and say that to be human is to realize that our fates are one and that only by working for and with each other can we save ourselves.

Don’t agonize; organize.

Emery Pence
Jan. 16, 2012