Memories of Brentwood Schools
Saturday, March 21, 2020
In 1994, John Sherin sat down for a chat with retired teacher Florence Kohler. The two discussed how Mrs. Kohler got into teaching, her career, her students, and her connection to Brentwood. The interview would mark the start of the Retired Teachers of Brentwood (R.O.B.S.) history project, which would continue for the next twenty years, and capture the career memories of hundreds of Brentwood teachers in these exit interviews.
Florence Kohler
Embedded Video (Responsive).
Jack Zuckerman
Embedded Video (Responsive).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpzwvhNiEdA
The next year, a second interview was recorded Jack Zuckerman. Jack was one of the founding members of the Retired Teachers of Brentwood. Before that he was a member of the Brentwood Teachers Association and an advocate for the rights of teachers.
John Sherin
In many ways John Sherin was the perfect person to conduct the project. A dedicated Brentwood history teacher, Mr. Sherin has himself been a part of Brentwood history. He was one of the founders of the experimental Maslow-Toffler School of Futuristic Education, which lasted for a decade as part of the Brentwood School District (but which espoused some very interesting - and sometimes controversial - ideas).
In 2014, the R.O.B.S project concluded and in 2015 Mr. Sherin presented R.O.B.S’ work to archives at Hofstra University and the Brentwood Public Library at an event hosted at the library.
Retired Teachers of Brentwood Schools
http://www.robsny.org/Album%20History%20Project/HistoryProject.html
These R.O.B.s interviews cover all aspects of history. One part of putting these recordings online will be indexing them, to easily find topics across hundreds of recordings. So, if you have a thought about some topic that you think should be noted in other videos (or just a thought or opinion) please send us an email or comment.
Join us to re-live school memories, discover something about a favorite teacher, or even learn something new about Brentwood (and Long Island's) past!