  Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 496 Registered: 09-2007 |
Gaz & Ray....Madame Robinove penned a wonderfully well written article for the May, 1958 edition of The French Review; it is available through the following website: http://www.jstor.org/pss/38378 1 | ||
Birwood Member Username: Birwood Post Number: 83 Registered: 10-2007 |
Chuckjav...I read the article on Mrs Robinove. I struggled thru French I & II with her at MHS, 1965-66, I believe Sussex 9936 was in my class too She was very patient with some of us who couldn't quite grasp the program, but we managed to learn. She gave meaning to the term "Professional Educator", just a super lady. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 497 Registered: 09-2007 |
1966 was the end of a grand era at Mackenzie; Eiges, Casemore, Catherman, Robinove and Simpson bid farewell that year. Difficult to imagine but, when I was a sophomore at MHS in 1973, Mr. Carletti was still on the scene; "A-Rex" first came to Mackenzie during the early 1930s. Incredible! | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2975 Registered: 01-2005 |
As I said in the other thread, I struggled through two years of Latin instead with Rebecca Shembeck (a very nice spinster schoolmarm) and one year with Helen Kane, former nun. We called it Sister Kane's Bible Hour. Since I was considering a law career, it seemed like Latin would be helpful. Well, I guess it was, because I grasp Latin word origins yet today, and I can still recite the first paragraph of Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars in Latin. But I now feel I missed a great opportunity to have been taught by a wonderful educator by not taking French instead. The names you bring up have all gone on to their reward. I look 'em up on the Social Security Death Index. Only when they have a very common name are there too many to figure out which is which. The old fart (like me) who can look back on his High School days with warmth is lucky, indeed. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 498 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray1936....Agree with you 100%; we went to the World's Best High School - something magical about Mackenzie. (Cooley runs a very close second) | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 1882 Registered: 08-2007 |
Fascinating! I couldn't pull up the entire article, still thinking about signing up with Jstor. A lot of my searches dead end there. I got curious about Haven Hill Lodge. It was Edsel Ford's log retreat, now Highland Rec Area. The lodge burned to the ground it 1999. By then it was apparently in ruins. It was used as a conference center from 1949 to 1972, and as a Natural Resource Learning Center from 1972 to 1980. http://www.waymarking.com/waym arks/WM2FNE http://tinyurl.com/5yooaw | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2979 Registered: 01-2005 |
I didn't know any of that about the Edsel Ford family, Gaz...amazing. My old bass fishing hangout was Pettibone Lake, just southwest of there, and I thought I knew everything about the Highland Township area. Obviously, I didn't. | ||
9936sussex Member Username: 9936sussex Post Number: 98 Registered: 10-2007 |
Yuppers, Mme. Robinove was probably the best instructor I had a Mack. Learned a lot of French that year (and have forgotten most of it). But, for a while, I could really conjugate a verb! | ||
Chuckrobin Member Username: Chuckrobin Post Number: 1 Registered: 04-2008 |
Hello, everyone. I happened on this site by chance and I'm certainly glad I did. I am Charles Robinove, the son (and only child) of Madame Robinove of Mackenzie High School. She passed away in 1985 in Fairfax, Virginia, where she lived with me and my wife for her last year.I now live in Colorado. I sincerely appreciate the glowing remarks that are being made about her teaching.I would also appreciate and love to have any anecdotes about her teaching or interaction with students. Please post them on this forum or email them to me at robinove1@mindspring.com Merci a tous et bonne chance! Chuck Robinove | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 1964 Registered: 08-2007 |
Hello, Chuck! I thought your mother was a great teacher. She was really challenging for me, a fourth year student coming in from a different school system. I remember all thirty of us were reading sentences out loud together and I mispronounced Monsieur. I knew better but somehow I just read the whole word out, Mon-si-eur. Yep, she heard me! She said, "Someone said Mon-si-eur, that is not right. It is m'sieur, try it again." Well, I got it right that time. (Blushing all these years later.) I bet you didn't get away with much! I last saw Mme Robinove at a performance of Roman de Fauvel at the DIA. We both really enjoyed the play, about a donkey that has all these adventures. There was a wooden angel that came down from the rafters and on the way back up, BANG, bumped its head. I was with another former student and we both really loved seeing Mme. that evening. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 3039 Registered: 01-2005 |
Chuck, your mom is also discussed briefly and favorably under the topic "Rock and Roll High School" in this forum. Check it out. Unfortunately, I did not take French or have her for a teacher. I suspect I missed something. Maybe you could share some stories with us, also. Did she teach you French? I suspect you were raised bi-lingually. Did she make many trips to France? How did she like being assigned to Mackenzie HS? (Message edited by ray1936 on April 19, 2008) | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 510 Registered: 09-2007 |
Chuck, good to meet you; looking forward to reading more of your memories. | ||
9936sussex Member Username: 9936sussex Post Number: 110 Registered: 10-2007 |
Chuckrobin: Your mother was a wonderful teacher, a bit intimdating, but terrific. We used to sing "Le Marseille" (sp?) every morning. The year that I had her we were learning how to conjugate verbs in several different tenses, we made these booklets with 20-30 of the most common verbs with all their forms of conjugation. It was a really helpful tool, and I still have it! My daughter used it when she had French in high school! | ||
9936sussex Member Username: 9936sussex Post Number: 111 Registered: 10-2007 |
Chuckrobin: I remember that we also read "Cosette et Marius" from "Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. We did a lot of reading, reciting and memorizing from that book. At some point during the year we had to give a 5-10 minute speech (memorized) about Cosette et Marius. I worked really hard in that class, but I know that I EARNED that A! | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 1966 Registered: 08-2007 |
Oh, YES! Our book was Colomba, about a vendetta to avenge the murder of Colomba's father. Her elder brother, who has been abroad, comes home denouncing the practice of vendetta. He falls for Lydia, whom he met on shipboard, and invites her and her father to visit. Colomba is furious! ... The wrap-up: Orso does his duty, Colomba is shot but reconciles with Orso as she dies, the fair lady Lydia renegs on her threat to leave, and Orso is set on eradicating the custom of the vendetta. I cannot remember what the heck I said about the book but it had to be at least five minutes from memory. | ||
Chuckrobin Member Username: Chuckrobin Post Number: 2 Registered: 04-2008 |
Thanks for the comments. It is so good to hear from my mother's faithful students. Chuck Robinove (Cooley, 1949; Wayne Univ, 1953 | ||
Birdie Member Username: Birdie Post Number: 17 Registered: 04-2007 |
did madame robinove teach anywhere else? my grandmother has always spoken of her beloved french teacher of the same name. she went to northwestern and then took some night classes at wsu. if it is the same teacher, her classes were the highlight of my grandmother's education. | ||
Microfish7 Member Username: Microfish7 Post Number: 2 Registered: 05-2008 |
LuLu Casemore - I had her as my Biology teacher, as did my mother  Al | ||
Microfish7 Member Username: Microfish7 Post Number: 3 Registered: 05-2008 |
Does anyone remember (this would be 1962) an Irish exchange teacher who taught Latin? She would get mad at us and say: "Oh well, what can you expect from a factory town?" I think I had Madame Robinove for one day, before I switched from French to Latin - she would shake her head whenever she saw me in the hallway Al (now in Iowa) |
